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.