Christmas Advent 2012

I know this is an old picture, but I just thought it was funny.  My kids are growing up too fast!

Several years ago my husband bought me an advent calendar from Pottery Barn Kids for my birthday.  It was a great gift!  We have loved it.  My friend Christina always put activities in her advent calendar instead of candy, and we started doing that too.

This year in addition to an activity, I am putting in a scripture to read or a song to sing.  The plan is to print out the scriptures and put them up in the kitchen so we can review them during mealtimes.  I also plan to print out the songs and put them in folders so the kids will have their own songbook by the end of the month. I guess we'll see if that actually happens.

The scriptures are taken from two sources - the King James version of the Bible, and the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ.  We believe the Book of Mormon to be additional scripture, written by prophets long ago and translated for us by a prophet in the latter days.  It is an additional witness to the divinity of the Savior and supports the Bible's claims.  Sound strange? Maybe, but it makes sense to me that God talked to many believers through the years and they wrote down their testimonies of what they had seen. If you're interested in having a free copy of the Book of Mormon, click here.

Also I have a list of the activities we will be doing each day.  A lot of them are parties or concerts we already had scheduled.  I also tried to throw in some service projects so the kids won't always be concentrating on getting things this season.

December Songs and Scriptures

1.  “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

2.  What Child is This

3. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

4. Joy to the World

5. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isaiah 40:11

6. O Come All Ye Faithful

7.  “But thou Bethlehem, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2

8.  O Little Town of Bethlehem

9.  “Behold I say unto you that none of the prophets have written, nor prophesied, save they have spoken concerning this Christ.  And it also has been made manifest unto me by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, I know if there should be no atonement made, all mankind must be lost.”  Jacob 7:11-12

10. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

11. “And I beheld the city of Nazareth: and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white.  and he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of god, after the manner of the flesh. . . 

And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.  The angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of god, yea even the Son of the Eternal Father! And I looked and I beheld the son of God going forth among the children of men: and I saw many fall down at His feet and worship Him.”  1 Nephi 11:13, 18, 20-24

12. Away in a Manger

13. “And I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the world . . and I also beheld the prophet who should prepare the way before Him.  and the Lamb of god went forth and was baptized of Him: and I beheld the heavens open, and the Holy Ghost came down out of heaven and abide upon Him in the form of a dove.” 1 Nephi 11:27

14.  The First Noel

15.  “And behold, this will Io give unto you for a sign at the time of His coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before He cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day. . . .And behold, there shall be a new star arise, such as one ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you.  And behold this is not all, there shall be many signs and wonders in heaven.” Helaman 14: 3, 5-6

16.  With Wondering Awe

17.  “And the angel said unto her “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in they womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.” Luke 1: 30-31

18.  Silent Night

19.  “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, our of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.  And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”

Luke 2:4-7

20.  Once Within a Lowly Stable

21.  ""And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savor, which is Christ the Lord."  Luke 2: 8-11

22.  Far Far Away on Judea's Plains

23.  "And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."  Luke 2: 12-14 

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Angels We have Heard on High

December Activities

1. Write Letters To Santa, drop them off at the mall, pick up a child’s name off the angel tree there, buy toy for child
2. Choir Christmas Party
3. Find a new Christmas book at the store/ go home and read christmas books!
4. Service - drop coins in salvation army buckets
5. Make and decorate gingerbread cookies
6. Joshua’s Birthday/ Christmas Movie Day!!
7. Church Christmas Party
8. 2nd Annual Reverse Caroling Party
9. Christmas Piano Recital, Nativity Festival and Concert
10. School Violin Christmas performance
11. Make Blankets to donate to the Linus Project
12. Cut snowflakes and decorate the house with them
13. Daddy’s Birthday, Record the kids playing/singing Christmas songs they’ve worked on this year
14. Christmas Craft of some sort
15. Nutcracker in the afternoon, Handel’s Messiah in the night
16. Make Graham Cracker houses
17. Fancy Christmas Restaurant
18. School Holiday Concert
19. Go grocery shopping to donate the food to a food drive
20. Make Ornaments
21. Grandma Liz and Grandpa Marty Come! so everyone gets to clean the house (sounds fun, eh?)
22. Make Sugar Cookies
23. Watch home videos from past christmases
24. Santa Pancakes for breakfast, Go bowling mid-morning, nice ham dinner, open presents from siblings, Christmas eve program at home

This is going to be a busy month!

Christmas Project - Sing LOUD!!!

The other day as my husband and I were going through some things left unorganized from the move, he pulled out from the pile a large blank canvas and asked "how many times have we moved this now?"  Because you see, many, many years ago, while I was a senior at college and before I was married or even dating my husband, I took a beginner's oil painting class just for fun.  While buying supplies, I had found this canvas on clearance for a great price and thought "Hey, I should paint something big someday." So it was a fair question.  We have moved that canvas many many times and stuck it back in a storage spot many many times.

But not this time! No, I was determined to put it to good use and justify the trouble of moving it across the country. It was a great deal after all.

We love the movie Elf around here, and last Christmas when I had seen in an etsy shop a print of one of our favorite lines, I knew I had to have that quote hanging above my piano at Christmas time.  I was surprised I had never thought of it before.  I didn't want to pay money for a print and then have the trouble and cost of getting it framed though, so it didn't happen last year.  Now I had the perfect thing to paint on my giant blank canvas.

And Voila!! Quote.

And a close up

Obviously it's not perfect.  For example, I am all too aware of the huge gap between the first and second lines, but unfortunately I can't fix it.  Some might suggest that I should have sketched it out before I started painting so such a thing would not have happened.  What an odd concept.  Some of us prefer to wing it and live with the consequences.  I've thought about adding some holly or something in that space but I'm afraid if I keep adding things it will just end up ruining it.  Opinions?  I guess I could redo it on a different canvas, but it'd be hard to beat the price of the first one.

mostly fall pictures

Before we get all the way into winter and holiday stuff, I wanted to put up some of our pictures from the fall.

We had a great thanksgiving up at grandma's (and grandpa's) house with some of the family. Grandma and Grandpa helped the grandkids do some turkey crafts.

Maren turned 10 on tuesday (I'm still in denial).  She had a busy day but we did have time for a special birthday dinner and to open some presents.  Her brothers got her some Matchbox cars so when they were playing she wouldn't have to complain about them not sharing theirs.  We got her a medium sized Lego Friends set.  She loved it and set it up with Joshua's help last night.  She told me later "Mom, this present is great in two ways.  First, it's really fun.  And second, it's brought me and Joshua closer together."  I thought that was cute of her to say.  She loves her brothers.

I was so glad we had a nice fall day last weekend for the kids to play outside and jump in leaves.  One good leaf jumping day each fall is a childhood necessity.  Jason was paying the kids $3 for each bag of leaves they raked up.  Maren and Christopher have earned about $6 each.  Joshua has earned $30.  He's a leaf raking machine.

Nathan didn't really want to jump in them, but he kicked them around a little bit. 

And finally, we put up the tree last saturday. It was really early, and I'm not sure it will last the month until Christmas, but when we looked at our calendars there was not a single other saturday available to go pick one out.  It's going to be a busy holiday month.

Nathan is wearing his policeman coat.  Funny boy. 

Surprise Themed Surprise Party

My daughter is turning 10 in just a week (I can't believe it!) and as we were planning her party, she said those awful words which I had been dreading but knew I would hear one day: "Mom, can't I just have a normal birthday party?"

WHAT?????  NOOOOOO!!!!!

If you look around my blog, you will see that I love throwing themed birthday parties.  It's a fun creative outlet for me. It made me sad to think my little girl was too grown up for such things.

So naturally, I decided to deny she ever said such a thing and do my best to convince her to have a fun themed party.  In fact, it was my mission to convince her to let me throw her a foot party.  Here was my case:

You are turning 10 - you have 10 toes on your feet!
We could do pedicures!
We could play fun foot games like picking things up with your toes or leg wrestling!
We could make socks! Or decorate socks! Or hand out cute socks as party favors!
We could have a foot beauty contest!
We could say cheesy things on the invitation like "Hoof it on over" and "we'll foot the bill!"

Yeah, she wasn't buying it.  I even tried giving her choices: "You can have a Barney party, a sesame street party, or a foot party.  What do you want?"

I don't know why I was so insistent. I guess I was just being funny.  I was talking with Jason about my inability to convince Maren that a foot party would be hilariously awesome and he said "You're in charge.  Just throw her one.  She doesn't have a choice.  In fact, you should just throw her a surprise party and have it be a foot party."  My husband is a genius.

But in the end, I couldn't bring myself to do it.  I could just imagine her delight at a surprise party turn into tears as she realized it was a surprise foot party.  But I had to have some sort of theme, so it turned into a Surprise themed Surprise party.

I sent out emails to the parents informing them of the date and time and asking them to not tell their girls until the night before so Maren wouldn't find out about it.  This was fun for the girls who were invited too, because what a happy surprise to find out that you're going to a party and you don't have to wait a long time to go!  Unfortunately, some parents didn't wait for whatever reason, and Maren found out about it on FRIDAY.  We were so close!  Apparently a girl let it slip that she could come to Maren's party, and Maren assumed she meant the party we were talking about throwing in December, so she asked another girl who was on the invite list if she had received an email from her mom also.  That girl said "How did you know? It's supposed to be a surprise party!" Maren was pretty upset when she got back in the car after school that day, and I tried to tell her I wasn't mad at her for finding out about it.  She even knew the time when it was supposed to happen.  *sigh*  Even the best laid plans . . .

So, being the sneaky mother that I am, that night I told Maren that I called all of her friends and changed the time so that she still would be surprised.  Of course I didn't really because that would be too much work, but she believed me.  Her grandparents came down that morning to take her on a birthday breakfast date.  She knew that the original plan was for her to be surprised when she got home from that event.  When she left, Jason told her that she was going to have to hurry and do her practicing and chores as soon as she got home so she would be ready for anything that might happen that afternoon or evening, wink wink.

When Maren got home, we had all the girls hiding up in her room.  Her brothers were downstairs playing the wii, I hadn't put out any decorations, and her grandparents hugged her goodbye and told her they would see her again later in the day.  Maren lingered downstairs and Jason kept bugging her to go to her room and practice.  She finally came up and when she opened the door, the girls blew horns and yelled "surprise" at her.

Yeah, she was surprised.

We then proceeded to have a fun surprise surprise party.  For the party, I made a "Wheel of Surprises" out of a cardboard circle, golf tees, large box, colored paper, and dowel.  I added a piece cut plastic milk jug to be the pointer.

I split the kids into two teams.  I told them that since this was a surprise party, it was going to be a surprise what party games we played.  I had pictures representing the games as well as bonus points so lots of people would get a chance to spin the wheel.  They came up with their team names and we spun.  The winners of the games got points for their team.

We played charades.

Maren being an opera singer

We did a relay race with beanie babies on our heads.

We moved the couches to be forts and had a sock war (which ended in a tie, because it's really hard to have a winner at sock war).  The girls really liked this game (which also would've been a great game at a foot party).

ready to fire

watch out for flying sock balls!!

I also put a foot on the wheel, just to tease Maren.  When we landed on that space, I threw socks around the room and the teams raced to pick them up with their toes and put them in their team's basket.  The team with the most socks won.  Maren laughed and thought I was a ridiculous mother.  I told her that wasn't respectful, but probably accurate.

hurry and get those socks!

After games, we had a small lunch, since it was around that time of day.

Then we opened presents.

Then we ate cake (I had hidden it in a cupboard).

Finally, the girls got to have a surprise party favor.  I had put small trinkets in colored balloons which matched the colors on the wheel.  They spun and then popped whichever color balloon the wheel landed on.  Each girl spun twice. I don't have a picture.  Also for party favors we handed out lollipops, tattoos, stickers, and candy necklaces.

When the girls had arrived in the morning, they came in and drew on a huge "Happy Birthday Maren" sign we had put up on the wall.  They continued to draw on it after the party while we were waiting for parents.  Maren was delighted with it as her friends wrote down nice things and it's a fun reminder of her birthday.  

I'm going to go ahead and count it as a successful surprise party. Christopher says he wants a surprise party for his next birthday.  I say "How about a foot party?"

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we are getting ready to make our favorite things, one of which is this delicious pie.  It's pumpkiny and spicy but not dense like most pumpkin pies.  

First you will need a baked pie crust. This is the recipe I use - it's nothing fancy but it works.  

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup shortening

6 to 7 tbls. cold water

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon (completely optional, but I just like cinnamon in the crust sometimes)

Stir together flour and salt.  Cut in shortening until pieces are small peas.  Sprinkle 1 tbls. of water over part of the mixture; gently toss with fork and push to side of the bowl.  Repeat until all is moistened. Form into a ball and roll out on a lightly floured surface.  Transfer to pie dish and ease it in.  Trim pastry and do whatever decorative thing you like to the edges.  Prick sides and bottom of pastry generously with the tines of a fork.  Prick where bottom and sides meet all around the pie shell.  Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.  Cool on a wire rack.  

I opted for the natural look around the edges.
(fine, I was just too lazy to do anything fancy) 

For the filling, follow this recipe:

Combine the following in a saucepan and cook over medium heat:

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1 1/4 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup milk

3 egg yolks (make sure you keep the 2 of the egg whites in a separate bowl!)

Stir constantly until it boils and the gelatin is all dissolved. Let cool.

Whip 2 egg whites until peaks form.  Add 1/2 cup sugar towards the end to make the meringue.  

Whip 1/2 cup cream.  

Fold meringue and whipped cream in to the pumpkin mixture.  Pour into already baked pie crust and put in the fridge to chill.

Serve with whipped cream.  

mmmmm, pie

Hi Ho Turkey-O

Here's a fun math game for preschoolers and early elementary students to play around Thanksgiving time. (aka turkey time)

    

*this post contains affiliate links

My kids have always loved playing Hi Ho Cherry-O, and this Fall we decided to play a version of it with a play-dough turkey we called Hi Ho Turkey-O! We practiced our addition and subtraction facts as well as writing numbers and equations with this game.

To play you will need:

Feathers

Brown, orange, and red Play-Doh

Dice

a piece of paper and a pencil

First, make 2 Play-doh turkeys, one for each of you (or more if more than 2 people are playing).
We were starting with addition, so we left our turkeys featherless.

I got a die and put a star sticker over both the 5 and 6.  Christopher rolled and then got to add that many feathers to his turkey.  He then wrote down the equation on a piece of paper.  If he rolled a star, he had to take 2 feathers off of his turkey, and write down the equation.

We played until someone got 10 or more feathers in their turkey.

Then we played again, this time plucking the feathers off of our turkey (I think he enjoyed this way more.)  We made sure we both started with 10 feathers in our turkeys, and rolled the die to see how many feathers we got to pluck off.  If a star was rolled in this version, he had to put 2 feathers back on.

While we played, we talked about math.  How many more do you need to reach 10?  Who has more feathers?  How many more do you have than I have?

Of course, Nathan and  Joshua wanted to play too.

With Nathan I talked about less and more.  Do you have more feathers than mommy?  And he was very good at counting the dots on the die and adding them to his turkey.  He was not as good at the subtraction version because he just enjoyed pulling all the feathers off at once too much to just do a few at a time.

Joshua wanted to play until we reached 20.  It made for a very full feathered turkey.

You could also play this in a school setting as a center station or splitting up into small groups.

This was a fun and easy way to make math more engaging this morning.  Sometimes it's the little things that make school time more fun, like plucking feathers off a turkey.

Full of Thanks

I love the month of November.  I love focusing on things we are thankful for and helping my kids remember how blessed we are as a family.

Back at our old house, we had always written the things we were thankful for each day on the kitchen windows.  The kitchen windows in our new house are not compatible with that plan, so this year we are doing a thankful tree, which is a bit more work, but also makes a nice fall decoration.

It's easy for me to see the blessings in the good things in my life, but honestly, I'm a complainer about a lot of things.  Here's my attempt to see the positive in the things that I often grumble about.

I am thankful for dirty dishes, because they remind me that we have enough food to feed our family.

I am thankful for piles of laundry, because it's certain that our kids have enough clothing.

I am thankful for loud kids and messy rooms left behind from their creativity, because I know they are building friendships with each other and making our family stronger.

I am thankful for unorganized spaces and boxes still not unpacked from our move which was months ago, because we like to spend what free time we have together.  (I know organized homes are good, but sometimes something's gotta give, right? Don't worry, it will get organized someday.)


I am thankful I have good health and the ability to take care of the housekeeping responsibilities for my family. Some look down on mothers who choose to stay home and do such drudge work, but I am grateful I can stay home and make this place a happy place for my children, where they feel secure and loved.

I am thankful to have a husband with a busy work and church schedule.  He has a job, is working hard to support our family, and is able to serve in our church.  I am grateful he loves God, and has a desire to help others, even if it means that we see him a little less.

Yes, life is not perfect, but there is so much that is good in life, and I am truly, truly thankful.

Halloween Math 2012

There are many things I love about November 1st.  One of them is that I can start listening to Christmas music without being labeled "crazy christmas lady".  (Well, to be honest, I have been listening to it in the car for about a week now, but at least the lights aren't up yet.)

Another thing I love is that the kids never complain about being hungry or ask when the next meal is.  Hee hee hee.

AND another thing I love is doing our homeschool math lesson with all that fun candy!!!

Today I wrote Joshua a math sheet really fast.  I meant to type it out, but it just didn't happen.

We estimated.

We graphed.

We weighed.

We multiplied.

We ate.  Mmmmm.

The favorite activity is definitely using our scale with our candy.  We find out things like:

How much does one Snickers weigh?  How about 2?

Which is heavier - a Kit Kat or a pack of Starburst?  What's your guess?  Let's find out!

How many grams do you need to add to make them weigh the same?

Joshua came up with questions on his own and used the scale to answer them.  Playing with the scale is always so much fun.

And here are pictures of Joshua's math worksheet, just in case you wanted to see.