The Christmas Eve activities

The kids have asked for a couple of years now to make a ginger bread house...well I've never made one and have no idea how you make the base, so ...........I bought a kit :) The kids have been waiting a several days as we'd opened the box then a few got sick and we didn't want to do it without them. So it sat on the counter and they waited, relatively patiently ;) Well today we finally  jumped in and got started on the house :)






And the finished product!




Now it was time to start baking the sugar cookies and peanut butter cookies :)



Baking isn't fun unless you get to taste some batter at some point right?!?



All in all we had a great day. The kids got to do fome fun craft/cooking projects and at naptime I got almost all the presents wrapped! So the kids of course are all excited about Christmas getting here tomarrow :) And to top it all of the kid got to track santa at www.noradsanta.org which they thought was neat. Merry Christmas all!!

Bask in the Son!

A friend invited me to a ladies meeting the other night with the theme of basking in the Son. Sometimes it can get so busy that we forget to take time out and spend with the Lord. This was a wonderful reminder of that with a great "warm" theme in the midst of all our cold weather!

My little man is growing up...

Micah had an accident the other day in the tub so I had to clean him up and make sure none of the funk stayed on him.........so I suggest a shower. Now he's taken them before but never alone. He was THRILLED to be taking a shower alone and threw a fit when he had to get out! LOL


 

13th and 14th.......

So Sat the 13th I spent pretty much all day Christmas shopping, of which I hadn't even started. And I got just about all of it done :) Then Sat evening we had a couples Christmas party at church.

Sunday the 14th was the long awaited Christmas program at church. Brianna, Ethan, and I were all in it. The kids were a part of the childrens choir with Brianna having a small speaking part and I was a part of the adult choir. 



BTW, our church is in the process of adding on so we have some lovely scaffolding in the background :)

So now you're up to speed on the month of December :)

Dec 12th

Christmas just isn't complete in our house withouth seeing the Rhema lights! So here are just a few picks from our visit out there on Friday night. 

Dec 11th.........the big day!

Well it's here, my oldest baby is .............drumroll...........10!!! Where has the time gone?? So now for the party :)

So here's the table all set. 
And Brianna with one of her guests.
Here we were talking about the different foods on the table and giving a mini history lesson :)
This was the first game, frog in the middle. One person has to sit on a stool in the center and the others dance around her and "chant" frog in the middle you can't catch me, while the "frog" tries to tag someone. 
Next up was blind mans buff. In this game the person in the middle roams around the circle (the girls have all moved spots once she closes her eyes) and then touches a persons face/hair/clothes etc to try and guess who they've picked!

I can't remember the name of this, but they use two craft sticks (dowl rods in our case) to toss a craft hoop, wrapped in ribbon, from one person to the next.....this was funny to watch :) ........btw, notice her dress. Not to bad huh?!?

They also played hide the thimble and pass the ring. These were all games from colonial times but these modern day girls had so much fun!! I was really nervous about this party as it was my first time to host one in my home but I think it was an all around hit!!

Dec 5th through 10th

So the 5th was David's Christmas party for work.......spent the day getting prepared for that since I had just found out the day before that it was dressy! :)

The 6th I had a ladies tea at my church from 11a.m - 2pm then it was home to listen to the game with David and work away on the dress ...........finally put it up around 10pm ;) 

7th..... church, lunch and naps, church again :)

8th..... mom came over to help with some trouble spots on the dress. Suprisingly it's coming along pretty well!

9th Therapy for Micah all morning.

10th Voice and piano lessons then baking for the party along with finishing touches on the dress :)

This is the mess we had to make on the counter to do the dough for new years cookies (recipe from colonial times) and the rose cakes (also a cookie from colonial times)
Finished products :)


The start of the batter for the queen cakes. 
And the ginger cakes :)

Can you see a pattern here as to why it's been awhile since I've posted???

And Dec 4th....

Brianna and I attended our monthy keepers meeting. This month we did an outreach to a local nursing home where the girls each performed a talent for the elderly. They ranged in talent from singing, dancing, playing an instrument, to homeade crafts made for the residents. The finalle was the song "The 12 days of Christmas" where the girls each acted out a "days" part. It was neat to learn about some of the meaning behind this song.

12 Days of Christmas - The Real Meaning

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled us. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? Well we found out. From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

1) The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
2) Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
3) Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
4) The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
5) The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
6) The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
7) Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
8) The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
9) Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
10) The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
11) The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
12) The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

This knowledge was shared with us and we found it interesting and enlightening and now we know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.

From there we headed to another mom's home to share our scrapbooks (the girls previous months skill), get pinned, play some games, and decorate cookies! The night was so much fun but ended up being VERY late as most of the group got help up by a train issue from the  nursing home to the other mom's house ............so we got home about midnight!! It really was worth it though. 

Brianna showing the girls her pages. 

Getting pinned. 
Beginning to decorate cookies. 
One down, 2 to go!

And Dec 3rd.......

So one Wed Dec 3rd while my mom and Brianna were at piano lessons the boys and I headed to the craft store to get some supplies for Brianna's colonial themed birthday party the next week. Well, brilliant me got so inspired by it all and knew my daughter would LOVE a colonial dress.........so I bought a pattern :) Logical right........well not when you've never sewn!! LOL So we headed over to my mom's after naptime so she could show me how to cut out the pattern and get started :)

After inquiring with several people I found out I got myselft into something that was DEFINATELY not a beginners project! LOL ...........how will it turn out???

Dec 2nd ......an attempt at some christmas pics :)

This was the best shot.....doctored with photoshop because the filing cabinet was in the background and it looked bad ;)
And of course gotta love that brotherly love :)
I thought these turned out pretty cute too!!

He was supposed to be surprised that there were no presents.......instead he thought he should be a monster. LOL 


Here are the kids attempting to sing jingle bells together :)


And in my opinion the funnest one of all......

And one more of Brianna alone.....