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!)

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!

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!

December 12

Today seemed like a really busy day! Not sure what filled it up, but I don't think I slowed down much. And that's a good thing.

Breakfast this morning was homemade biscuits and fried eggs. I don't like fried eggs. But I like frying them, and everyone else likes eating them, so we still have them. 

Our One Wintry Night reading was about how God prepared the world and chose the exact time for Jesus to be born. The Roman rule of so much of the world, including Israel, made so many elements just right for he birth of the Messiah. We also read about Mary's gentle obedience to God's will for her, her trust in His angel messenger, and her song of praise.

Today's big event was our local Christmas parade! It had to be rescheduled twice because of weather, but I guess the third time was the charm! 

Random parade float. I loved the smoking fireplace/chimney!

The weather tonight was clear and cold, but not too cold. Just cold enough that everyone was ready for a cup of hot chocolate when we got home!

During our Bible reading time (Mary's song again - I love it when things work out like that!) I showed Brooklyn the magic of laying under a Christmas tree. Tyler couldn't resist joining in. :)

December 10

This morning I loaded up our crew of 5 and we went for our first visit to our new dentist since moving. Dale was the only one with an appointment today, and so far we really like everything and everyone about their office! The others behaved themselves very nicely in the waiting room while Dale had his checkup and cleaning.

Slim pickin's on pictures today, so you get one of me trying to figure out
 how to wear my scarf before heading out to the dentist's office. :)

This afternoon I should have been doing any number of productive things, but instead I enjoyed myself very much 1 - cuddling with my husband before he went to work after lunch, 2 - visiting with our new pastor and his wife when they dropped by, 3 - chatting with my sister on the phone. (Hey - at least I was putting away clean laundry for that last one!)

As much as I enjoyed the phone call, I did hang up from it in almost panic mode that ohmygoodness-it'sonlytwoweeks tillChristmas!!!!

So when Daddy got home from work I insisted we all go shopping together. The two main items I wanted to find were not available, but we did get some other things checked off our list, both holiday-ish (like trade gifts for an upcoming party and supplies for the kids to make gifts for their friends) and everyday-ish (like bananas and diapers). :)

We had a late supper, got the kitchen clean and the groceries put away and spent some time reading from Matthew 1 about Joseph being a just man and not making an example of Mary. We sang a few Christmas carols, said prayers and sent the kiddos off to bed.

Then, I was able to get a big chunk of Christmas shopping done online! Those items I couldn't get in person today are now paid for and hopefully on their way tomorrow! Which reminds me: Mom, Dad... that package from Amazon with my name on it you'll get in the mail one day next week? Don't open it!! :)

Dec 9

- Read from "One Wintry Night" from God's calling of Abraham to the Exodus from Egypt and settling in to the promised land.

- Sang Christmas carols 'round the piano.

- Painted on our candy-cane striped J's, a project still in-process:

- Had a little preschool time, with some Christmas finger-plays/"action rhymes", then read The Night Before Christmas

- Finished Farmer Boy! Yay!

- Put together a little Pinterest project...

...which was a great hit with the nappers when they woke up!

- After a supper of frito pie, we ended this cold dreary day with a few fun rounds of Jenga, before our nightly Bible reading and a few more Christmas carols.

I love Alan's face in this pic! He was ready for it to fall any second! (It didn't.)

December 7

Today. Oh today was full.

It started at bedtime last night when I agreed to let Alan (and Dale) make pancakes for breakfast this morning. Alan has a Paula Deen kid's cookbook checked out from the library and wanted to use the pancake recipe from it. The problem with most recipes is they do not feed our large family. I have no problems increasing them, but that complicates things for a 7 year old. 

So, before I went to bed I hastily re-wrote the ingredients list to increase the recipe by a half.

This morning I awoke to the sounds of Alan and Dale clinking, working, and arguing in the kitchen.
Soon, Dale came and put my handwritten ingredient list under my nose and asked if I really meant 1 1/2 CUPS of baking powder. Goodness, no! I squinted my sleep bleary eyes at the list and complimented him on catching that mistake. 

It didn't take long for things to disentegrate in the kitchen, so I peeled myself from the bed to go set things right again. The pancake batter looked fine, but was not holding together well at all. Those boys had a fine mess. I began tweaking and working and trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

This is when I learned my second mistake. When Dale came to ask me about my mis-written recipe, he asked if I had SWITCHED cups and teaspoons with the ingredient below baking powder. In my sleepy state I answered "yes". This is how it was written:

1 1/2 c baking powder
1 1/2 tsp sugar

The sugar amount was RIGHT, but he thought I switched them and I said 'yes', so those boys put one and  half CUPS of SUGAR in those pancakes. 

They were truly CAKES and didn't need syrup at all!

In the end, everything was edible so it all worked out.

Greg spent a lot of the day rearranging furniture. We decided our original room arrangement needed a little tweaking since moving in, so we've been working on that as we can.

I went shopping with a friend this afternoon. Thrift-store / antique store shopping. It was really nice to get out and look at pretty things and have woman-friend conversation with no kids around. 

After I got home I started some split pea soup and worked on putting out some more Christmas decorations.

After our soup we all settled in for more hot chocolate and another movie. Charlie Brown Christmas this time. This is the one Christmas movie we own, and Daddy found it today it the furniture rearranging. Yay!

And, mark today down as a red-letter day, Miss Brooklyn is in a big girl bed! This is an essential next-step in the potty training process. A girl can't very well get to the potty when she's stuck in a crib, now can she?

As predicted by her mama, daddy, and three big brothers, she is enjoying her new freedom. Not long after tucking everyone in, we could hear little feet thump-thump-thumping and a sweet 2 yr old voice chanting "kangaroo! kangaroo! kangaroo!"

This could be a long evening.....

Dec 5

First of all, somebody was super proud of himself for getting a pencil to stand up in a lego block. He did it over and over again!

In the morning we continued reading through "One Wintry Night". Today's chapters covered the fall of Adam and Eve.

Before lunch we all sat down together at the table with our paper and pencils. Following the directions from Art Projects for Kids, we each drew and then colored or own Santas. Here is Alan's:

And I am so disappointed that Dale's seems to have completely disappeared! He put so much into his background and scene setting. It is so very 'Dale'. :)

While we were cleaning up lunch I had the idea to have a spelling bee with Dale and Alan. I left them finishing the cleanup and put together a list of 30 words each for them. I gave them about 10 minutes to study their words, and then we got out our Bible Baseball gameboard. Instead of a bee, we played spelling baseball! Dale and I loved it (for different reasons, lol). Alan - not-so-much. But that may have been because too many of his words were too challenging. We'll definitely be doing this again soon!

Finally, with 33 degree rain closing in, we had an early supper and got into pjs to watch The Polar Express on tv. Complete with hot chocolate - although it was not served with backflips and singing. ;)

December 4

So many have been so generous to us for Christmas this year that today, we were able to do the following for our children. They don't ask for much at Christmas-time, but my how they love to decorate!

We thank you all very much -  you made their day, and that makes ours. :)

(These boys have been wishing for a "blowup" for years!)

(Only one thing missing: a little white-lit tree in the darkened window on the left!)
(Well, and maybe my white-lit garland around the door.) ;)

December 3

Today we began our traditional reading of:

I think we will use this during our daily school Bible time. The book tells the story of the coming Savior from creation through the Resurrection. I'm thinking we may even do ornaments or other projects for each Bible story.

The book, a gift for the boys from Mimi the Christmas before Tyler was born, has beautiful pictures and Dale and Alan love reading from it every year.

After our reading we got busy with tree ornaments. Our second tree is in the playroom. In previous years it has been in the boys' bedroom. Since it is in a more accessilbe, common room of the house, we decided to put (almost) all of our special, yearly family ornaments on this one. (When it was in the bedroom we just used generic, and sparingly at that!)

For once I kept my perfectionist hands off, and I love how it turned out, in all its clumpy, gapped, random glory! Each ornament is so special, and the tree is so colorful, just like this family of ours!

It really bothered Tyler that Daniel had NO ornaments on the tree (his baby's first Christmas is a frame and I left it off to get a baby pic of him in it, and we haven't gotten this year's ornament yet). So Tyler got a piece of paper and whipped something out right quick, just for Daniel!

When Daddy got home for lunch everyone couldn't wait to give him the 'tour' of our newly decorated tree!

After lunch we got to work on our living room tree. I am trying a color theme, and it is still a work in progress.

We did manage to get some school done among all the hall-decking.
We are almost done with Farmer Boy, and read two chapters today. Tyler watched Alan practicing his handwriting and he wanted to do it, too! So we did. Dale, bless his heart, worked on long division. :)

Thank you for all of your prayers for Alan and the rest of the family. We feel he is on the road to recovery. We are enjoying a few very mild days before a temperature drop this weekend!