Tuesday, December 9

Away in a Manger - again.

Continuing on yesterday's manger theme, today we made a handprint manger craft.

While waiting on the handprints before we could add baby Jesus, we sang Away in a Manger, adding in quite a few ASL signs and motions. 

Sweet and simple today! No pics of the actual crafting...it was pretty hands-on for me!

Monday, December 8

Away In a Manger!

We read Advent Scripture Reading Day 7 - "A Baby is Born!" and colored these sweet pictures of a manger filled with the name JESUS. Today's art supply: markers!

We were also busy organizing our pantry from yesterday's bounty...

 ...cleaning up shattered ornaments...

...and loving on this sweet baby face! 

Happy Monday! (and Happy Birthday to my Daddy!)

Weekend: December 6th and 7th

Saturday's stocking was simple and sweet:

It held our Charlie Brown Christmas DVD!

I went to a ladies' cookie exchange and luncheon at church. Yummy! The kids and I made quick work of those 6 dozen cookies I brought home! 

Sunday was a special day. Each year, local churches 'adopt' seminary families for Christmas. They find out likes, sizes, and wishes of each child and purchase gifts for them.  This Sunday evening we visited our adoptive church. 

Greg preached, and then we enjoyed a fellowship meal and brought home not only presents for all the kiddos, but also bags and bags of groceries!  

We were truly blessed by this very generous church.

(the seats in the background were still empty because they sent us through the line first)

Ooohing and aahing over the lights we could see on the way home one of the kids exclaimed, "We didn't do the surprise stocking!"

No, but we certainly had plenty of Christmas on this very blessed Sunday!

Friday, December 5

Today was all about Bethlehem!  Our surprise stocking held watercolor paints and .... the van keys!

We looked at the globe to see where in the world Bethlehem is, then painted pictures of shepherds on the way to Bethlehem. 

We also watched this video, on what the stable and manger were probably really like:

After supper we met up with friends and drove to a church in a neighboring town that was hosting a "Walk Through Bethlehem", an excellent outdoor reenactment of what the streets of Bethlehem might have been like when Jesus was born. The kids (and mama and daddy too) loved it!

And, of course...there were cookies, too.

 Lots and lots of cookies.

Thursday, Dec 4

Today's stocking held a scroll of Advent Day 5 Scripture reading: An angel visits Joseph.

We read how the angel told Joseph he was to name the baby 'Jesus' and we discussed our names - who gave them to us, and what they mean. 

Then we made Christmas trees with letters of our names as ornaments! 

(Dale's is messy because he intended to cut his tree out and I took the pic before he got to that).

December 3

Today was all about Christmas trees!

The stocking was stuffed with our felt Christmas tree and ornaments and an assortment of Christmas tree coloring pages.

I may or may not have grabbed one for myself and colored along.

Alan turned his color-by-number into a puzzle...

We also enjoyed this little youtube gem!

Over and over and over again!

December 2

Day 2 - An Angel Visits Mary

Today our stocking held a rolled up scroll (Advent Day 1 Scripture Reading) and some craft items.

We read the story of Gabriel visiting Mary, and then we made paper plate angels. 

Except I didn't want angels that big so we traced circles from saucers onto construction paper. 

And everything is always better with glitter. :)

Christmas Countdown Time! December 1

We've done various Christmas activity countdowns over the years, and this year we are back to an old favorite: the surprise stocking. 

Every evening I place an item (or two or three) related to the next day's activity into our countdown stocking. The kids take turns emptying it so everyone can see - or try to guess - what Christmas activity we are doing that day.

Day 1 was filled with paper strips for paper chains. 

The two older boys each made their own 24 link chain to countdown to Christmas.

Tyler and Brooklyn and I worked together to make a chain as long as we could to decorate the kids' tree. 

We also made the Names of Jesus chain. The kids requested we hang it in the shape of a 'J' (for Jesus) and we decided not to tear these off each day, but leave the J. 

Every morning at breakfast we read the scripture passage and a short devotional about that day's name. We haven't done the corresponding activities from that site, but there are years ahead of us. I can definitely picture us doing the names again and including the activities.

Let the countdown(s) begin!