Post re-run ... Plans for Advent

This post was originally published on November 28, 2012. I pray that these ideas bless your family in some way. Most of these ideas have already begun in our home this year as well.

Enjoy ...

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I don't know about you, but I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation.

We had an AMAZING Thanksgiving holiday.

Truly.

I could not have asked for ANYTHING more (other than for my Daddy and brother to have been with us in more than just spirit).

The family and friends were perfect.
  The food was delicious.
    The laughter was beautiful.
      The joy was contagious.
        The traffic was bearable.
          Everyone made it home safely.

But, now it is back to reality.

Of course, this new reality is an Advent reality, which is SO much better than the usual reality you come back to after a vacation!

Yes, there is laundry to do and there are suitcases to unpack and groceries to buy.

    But, there is also CHRISTMAS to get ready for.

That makes everything better.

I thought I'd share some of our plans for this Advent season in case you need inspiration for your own home. We've already begun to celebrate a few of these around here and the rest will be in full swing come this weekend when we can get all of our decorations out. This list is all that we have planned this month with ideas for how you can do it, too. Read it, enjoy it, make it your own. Whatever you do, do not get stressed out by the list. Just do what YOUR family enjoys doing. This is what WE have going on ...

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The first thing you should do is begin (if you don't already do this) lighting a seasonal smelly candle each morning and as you enter each room. I have candles in "mulled cider" and "gingerbread cookies" and "baking spices" and "pumpkin spice" and things of that nature. As soon as I get my tea in the morning, I light the one closest to me for my quiet time. When I leave that room and enter the kitchen, I blow that one out and light the one in the kitchen. It keeps the home smelling lovely and makes it cozy, warm and inviting. And, whenever you notice the flicker, say a small prayer for PEACE ... peace in your home, peace in your heart and peace in the world.

Next, go ahead and get that Christmas music playing in your home and car. Will it make you crazy after an entire month of it? Maybe. But, your kids will love it and it will get you in the right spirit, even if it IS 75 degrees and sunny where you live. If you don't have any Christmas CDs, borrow some from the library or play one of the Christmas stations on Pandora or the like.

We have already started reading from our massive list of Christmas books (I will do my best to share some of our favorites later in the season, but you can look in the archives for what we read last year). We have not yet gotten out our Christmas boxes (where all the books we OWN are), but I made sure to request about 20 of our favorites from the library before we went out of town for Thanksgiving, so they were waiting on us when we returned. Then, when we got back, I requested about 20 more that are slowly trickling in at the library. Simply place them in a basket in the living room and GET TO READING ALOUD to your children. Morning couch time is perfect for this. Sleep still in the children's eyes, bedhead and pjs make for good listeners. Get them to cuddle up on the couch under a blanket right away (with that seasonal candle burning on the table next to you) and read a few books to them before chores and breakfast. Then, even if the day gets away from you, you've done this one special thing already. Read about the Nativity story, read inspiring stories about love and generosity and peace. Stick to the GOOD stuff and keep your eyes on the "reason for the season" here.

Listen to some Christmas stories on audio at places like www.thestoryhome.com. We've already been listening to them.

Devote your morning Quiet time to Jesus. I mean, that's basically what you do anyway, but I mean REALLY put your focus on Him and His message this season.

Have a meeting with your children to figure out exactly what all you plan to make for gifts for family and make a list of supplies needed. Then, get to the craft store and GET TO MAKING those gifts! The time to ship them is right around the corner! I don't know about your homeschool, but making gifts and reading Christmas books and baking Christmas goodies and listening to Christmas music and doing all the things of the season is our "school" during this time. So, during that block of time you would normally be doing school, MAKE GIFTS.

Get four candles, some greenery and a larger pillar candle for the Christ candle and set up an Advent wreath or similar for your kitchen/dining room table. Make this with your children (if they are old enough and able) and begin to light the candle(s) at dinner each night. Light one candle this week, two candles next week, three the week after and four candles the final week. Save the center candle for Christmas, in honor of Christ.

Get a special stocking and some scrap pieces of paper and pens. Hang this "Jesus stocking" on the mantle (or whatever you have in your home) all alone so that it is special (save the other family stockings for Christmas eve). Each day, write something you are thankful for and place it in the stocking. Then, on Christmas eve or Christmas day, take the stocking down and read what all the family members placed inside all month.

Get to baking. Bake Christmas cookies and yummy bread and other sweet treats and give them to your elderly (or not) neighbors. The children will love the baking itself and the neighbors will feel loved when your children's smiling faces bring them goodies!

Get your tree and your decorations and get to decorating. Play that Christmas music as you and your children bring life to the home. Drink eggnog with freshly grated nutmeg while you decorate. Drink hot cocoa (add some Bailey's for the grown ups if you're into that sort of thing). Go ahead and bake some goodies just for the family.

Don't forget to do your oranges with cloves! The activity is fun for the family and the results are beautiful and smell amazing.

Read books about the real Saint Nicholas. Have your children set their shoes out on the eve of St. Nicholas Day (December 6th, so set them out on the night of the 5th) and then fill their shoes with treats while they sleep.

Get your hands on a catalog from Samaritan's Purse or something similar. Give your children a "budget" and allow them to pick out a gift (or more if you are financially able) for a family or child around the world. If they want to, they can pool their money together to get something "bigger" for someone, or they can use their own amounts to get smaller gifts. Either way, they are learning that Christmas is about GIVING, not about receiving. And, they are learning to appreciate all that they have ~ they can ask for the latest gadget for Christmas instead of a mosquito net to protect them from malaria or for a pair of shoes because they don't have any.

Find a production of The Nutcracker Ballet in your area and go. We are going to see the Nutcracker ballet with our homeschool group for the second year in a row and we are super excited about it. While you're at it, make Tchaikovsky your "composer" this month and listen to him and the Nutcracker at home. The ballet is much more enjoyable for little ones when they recognize all of the songs.

Find out when your town's Christmas Tree Lighting celebration is and go. Ours includes a bike parade, music and dance performances, hayrides, train rides, face painting, craft tables and more. Unfortunately, Daddy has to work that day, but we will hopefully make it over in time for Santa and Mrs. Claus to arrive via sleigh and watch as the community tree is lit. We went to the entire celebration last year and it was lots of fun. We'll be heading out to get our own tree after Santa's arrival and the community tree lighting this year.

Find a live Nativity or a live walk through Bethlehem in your area and go. We have the coolest live Bethlehem nearby that we went to last year and look forward to going to again this year. We get to go to an 8,000 square foot village with merchants, townspeople, artisans, beggars and live animals. There are over 200 costumed cast members that re-create the city of Bethlehem as it might have been on the night of Jesus' birth. There are authentic sights, sounds and smells and we get to walk through and make our way to the manger to see the Christ Child. Seriously awesome! We can't wait.

We will also be attending an Advent Spiral with friends. In this busy season, the Advent spiral is a time to slow down and reconnect with our souls and our inner selves. We will be sharing a meal with friends and the children will be lighting candles around the spiral, reminding us to be a light in the world. The oldest girl will get to be St. Lucia. It is a fun evening, full of both laughter and a quiet reverence. We really enjoyed it last year and look forward to it again.

Don't forget to take a night and go out and enjoy all of the Christmas lights! We love driving around and seeing what all people have done to make their homes beautiful during this time of year.

The last few years we have baked cookies and went out on Christmas eve searching for homeless people to bless. Two years ago we brought along several warm blankets and sweatshirts and socks and delivered all kinds of warmth (of the physical kind as well as the spiritual) to those in need. Last year, we did not have any blankets or clothes, but we still baked the cookies and took them out and delivered them wherever we could find people in need. I cannot tell you the joy on these people's faces to know that someone thought of them during this busy season. And, sharing this with our children is priceless. We will be doing this again this year, but we may get some more blankets and sweatshirts at the thrift store before we head out. We love this tradition.

Bake a birthday cake for Jesus and let your children make Him birthday cards to set out on Christmas eve. The card idea comes from the Princess. She wants to make Jesus a card and leave it out for the Angels to take it to Him (her words).

Of course, in OUR family, these celebrations also include a day devoted to the Hippie. Her birthday is two days before Christmas, so we'll be honoring her as well this season. Decorations will greet her when she wakes up, gifts, family breakfast, a family outing (whatever she wants to do) and a family dinner out.

And, finally .... Christmas morning.

Until next time,

~ Irie Momma

Going off-line for Advent

Advent

The holiness of the season begins tomorrow.

Tomorrow we begin our joyful anticipation. Our longing. Our waiting for that precious baby, born on Christmas morning.

Tomorrow we begin a month of turning inward. A month of traditions. A month of focusing on our family.

Tomorrow we begin the countdown. The countdown to the arrival of the King.

We begin our celebration of what is to come. We begin our baking and our crafting and our singing.

We read glorious picture books about Christmas and giving and wonder.

We revel in each other and our home.

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I don't know about you, but I have a very hard time reveling in all the wonder that is right in front of me if I am being pulled in the direction of the computer and all that the internet has to offer.

So, I've decided to go off-line for Advent this year.

I will not be blogging. I will not be on Facebook. I will not be on e-mail.

I will be here, at home. I will be reading and cooking and baking and singing and making gifts and wrapping gifts and taking walks.

I will be studying the Bible and writing in my journal and praying.

I will be out in the community, going to the tree-lighting and to Bethlehem and to The Nutcracker and the Holiday Symphony.

I will be trying to soak up as much of this season and my family as I can possibly fit inside my soul, to warm it and soothe it.

So, this is me, signing off for December. I have scheduled several re-runs of posts from past holiday seasons to fill up your reading time this month. I've even scheduled a funny post re-run or two. So, please check back often. Better yet, subscribe to receive the posts via e-mail as soon as they are published. That way you never have to worry about missing another post. Speaking of which, have you read all of the recent posts? There's been lots to see and read in November this year.

May your family have the most blessed Advent season. May you succeed in making your home a cozy and wonderful place to be. May you enjoy every moment you can with your children. May you find peace and contentment with your life this December.

May you live in His light, now and always.

Until next time,

~ Irie Momma 

Weeks Nine & Ten Wrapped Up

So, I typed up a long post last Saturday, describing the week prior. But, I had so many pictures to add to it and I ran out of time. Here we are at Saturday again and I never did add those pictures or publish that post.

Oops.

I guess I'll go ahead and add a few from this week and publish it as two weeks. But, from here on out, I'm not sure about the weekly wrap ups. I may just post specific events we take part in or maybe try to do a monthly wrap up. We'll see. What I do know is that we are about to be full swing into the holiday season and things will certainly get a little harder to keep up with. Don't get me wrong. This is my favorite time of year. But, generally there is so much living that there is not as much time for the recording. 

Alrighty then. Here is the post from last week ... so, here's what we did the last week of October.

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Okay, so this is a post I should have been doing all across the week, breaking it up into three or four posts. This was the week of pictures. Between the fall family fun on Sunday (baking pumpkin muffins, going to pick out pumpkins and carving the pumpkins) and the field trip to the corn maze/pumpkin patch and Halloween, I have a lot of pictures. I think this may just be a week in pictures! Let me give you the highlights of our week.

Making a fairy

We started the week by playing Horse-opoly. We started Saturday night, played for a few more hours on Sunday, played some more Monday night after dinner, more on Tuesday night after dinner and somewhere along the way, the Hippie and I finally lost. Daddy and the Princess are still set up ... in the middle of our kitchen table. But, they haven't finished their game yet. This was the girls' first encounter with Monopoly (Horse-opoly is played the same way), but they did excellent. And, what great math practice this game is! Constant multiplication and money counting and making change. Good stuff. And, loads of fun, too!

Sunday was our annual pumpkin day. We started the morning with a Family Morning Tea Time outside (God was nice enough to give us a coolish morning). Then, we came inside and baked pumpkin muffins (yum-O) and then headed over to a local church to pick out pumpkins. The girls each picked out the one they wanted to carve and then we headed home. Now, we've been doing this every year since they were babies. Even as babies, we'd let them draw (scribble) faces on the pumpkins with a sharpie and then Daddy would carefully carve out exactly what they drew. Over time, the pumpkins began to actually look like faces, but in the beginning Daddy was carving out all kinds of craziness! What a wonderful tradition. Anyway, this year we decided that the girls were old enough to carve their own pumpkins. So, they drew their faces and Daddy cut out the tops. The girls each dug out their own seeds (with lovely disgusted faces) and then carved their own pumpkins ... for the first time. All of this was while watching football (of course) and was followed by three hours of Horse-opoly. Momma made chili and Daddy and the girls played football in the front yard. Truly, a wonderful day!

Daddy ... making pumpkin muffins

Momma ... making chili

Princess Sweet Pea

Time for football ...

Drawing their pumpkins' faces

Ready for carving

Love the face!

Love this face, too!

All done

The Princess's pumpkin

The Hippie's pumpkin

We did a bit of "school" on Monday, but keep in mind that we are in our "summer" break. This time of year is our light time and we will start our "new year" in full force in January. Anyway, we listened to A Feather on the Breath of God, wrote in our Gratitude Journals, read Proverbs 28, prayed and sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (without the help of music ... we've got this down!). We followed that up by singing O Come All Ye Faithful ... we're ready for Christmas. :) We read another chapter of Narnia (have you read these books? If not, *read them*! I do love how closely they resemble the story of the Bible) and the Princess looked up "brandished" in the dictionary as we didn't know what it meant. The girls each practiced their cursive while Momma worked on her book study and then we headed out to get our bikes. We rode to the beach and took a beach walk. There was a lot of life out there! The Hippie found a huge horseshoe crab ... that turned out to still be alive! There were also a *lot* of really large moon jellyfish washed up on shore ... and a few in the shallow water. When we got home, each of the girls read a chapter in their respective Vikings books and narrated to me. The Hippie and I did three chapters of Life of Fred math and the Princess and I did one chapter. The Hippie also practiced her math facts using Xtramath. The Princess listened to Geography Songs while drawing and sewing a pillow during her quiet time and the Hippie listened (for the millionth time) to some Your Story Hour cds about American History while sewing a doll. We finished out the afternoon with my reading aloud Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife by Robert Byrd ... and more Horse-opoly in the evening. :=)

We took it pretty easy on Tuesday. The girls each did some reading ... the Princess is still working on Charlotte's Web and she also read Finn MacCoul. The Hippie read Finn MacCoul, The First Starry Night and finished reading Thimble Summer. They both did some writing ... started writing their Christmas lists. The Princess worked some more on sewing her pillow and drawing horses and we had our afternoon Tea Time ... with Narnia this time. The Hippie did a sample lesson of Teaching Textbooks math online. And, of course ... more Horse-opoly.

Wednesday was our annual field trip to the corn maze/pumpkin patch. We've been every year since 2010 and the girls love it. Before we left, they each did some reading ~ the Princess still working on Charlotte's Web and the Hippie started The Story of the Treasure Seekers. As far as the field trip ~ there was jumping on the corn popper, playing on the playgrounds, taking the hay ride, visiting all of the farm animals (including some tiny piglets ... ADORABLE!) and of course, the corn maze itself. By the time we got home, the girls were plum worn out! The Princess had to veg out to some Moody Science videos. Works for me. :)

Hay ride

The cutest piglets ever ... if they didn't grow up to look like their Momma, I'd have wanted one. :)

My lovely sunflowers

Completely worn out from the day ... time for some Moody Science videos.

Thursday, of course, was Halloween. Daddy was off, so we did something we never do. We purposely went and payed money for sugar. LOL If you know my family, you know we're not the ones to eat like that often. But, it was a special occasion. So, we headed over and got some hot, fresh pumpkin donuts. YUM. Then, we stopped off for some last minute face paint and headed home. We spent the day wrapping and braiding the Hippie's hair so that she could be a pirate and then dressed up the girls and headed out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. When we came home at 9:00, we had collected pounds-upon-pounds of candy. Ridiculous, really. We separated out the chocolate and left all of the other yuckiness out for the Sugar Plum Fairy (she comes each year and takes all of that candy to supply the fairies with electricity ... and, she always leaves a small gift in place of the candy ... the guys that Daddy works with *love* the Sugar Plum Fairy ... they tend to have all of that candy gone by the end of the day ... crazy!).

Pumpkin doughnuts

The whole family worked together ... Momma and the Princess braided; Daddy wrapped one section with embroidery floss.

The most beautiful pirate ever

Such  a goofball!

Arrrrggghhhh

And the cutest puppy ever

"Show me your belly."

The loot ...

More loot ...

Still more loot ... most of which went with the Sugar Plum Fairy

Friday ... I'm sure you guessed ... was pretty relaxing. We wrote in our gratitude journals (decided to start the November Joy Dare) and the Princess and I played some word games with one of the gifts the Sugar Plum Fairy left. The rest of the day was spent generally playing and cleaning and crafting. We played a long game of hide-and-seek ... Momma's idea. They were so happy and thankful that *Momma* came to them and said, "Hey, let's play hide and seek." Other than that, we were pretty relaxed. The Princess and I looked at all of the pictures on the deck of cards Nanu sent us from Germany. She picked out her favorites and then we goolge-mapped them to see where they were all located. The Hippie broke out her guitar and started trying to play a few notes and chords. That's about it.

Still working around that dang Horse-opoly board

Gifts from the Sugar Plum Fairy

Today, it's off to Whole Foods for our monthly stock-up and Joanne's for some more craft supplies. There's a Halloween party on our street this evening and football tomorrow. Next week we'll be meeting my grandparents in St. Augustine at Fort Matanzas National Monument one day, spending time with Daddy another day and heading to a Big Cat Rescue another day. Busy busy ... and, we need to start thinking about gift making.

Although this is our "time off", I'd still like to read some of our favorite Thanksgiving books this month, keep up with Bible Time and Narnia, keep up with math and writing and have the girls keep up with reading their books. If we can just slow down enough to do it all. We shall see.

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And, now for what we did the first week of November ...

This was a fairly light week. We are settling into our holiday break. This week was filled with things like a family movie night, going to the Catty Shack Ranch, meeting my grandparents in Saint Augustine for lunch and a tour of Fort Matanzas, a day off for Daddy and the usual cooking, playing and cleaning. Here are a few highlights:

The Princess and Daddy finally finished the marathon game of Horse-opoly! Woo-hoo ... we can have our kitchen table back! :)

We've continued to write in our gratitude journals and the girls are each currently reading a couple of books. They are still working on their Viking books here and there (honestly, I wish we'd finished those before the holiday season!) and the Princess is still working on Charlotte's Web. The Hippie started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and loves that!

Momma's getting pretty good at our "daily bread"!

We've continued to read Narnia and the girls both did some art and writing this week by making cards for a family member. We also read aloud Pilgrim Cat (an excellent living book that initiated some discussion about religious freedom and the history of Thanksgiving).


We only enjoyed one morning walk, but hey, one is better than zero. :)

We took a little trip to St. Augustine on Tuesday. We met my grandparents for lunch (Did I mention they are about to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary? Such an inspiration, these two!) and then we headed over to Fort Matanzas for a quick ferry ride and a tour.

Eighty years old and still picking up children.

We went to the Catty Shack Ranch with our Home School Group on Thursday. We've been there before, but the girls love it. They are a very special local rescue for big cats. They take in tigers, lions, leopards and other wild animals that need a home.

"Kittens" on their kitty hammock

 
We also hit up the library this week. I broke out all of the books that we own on Thanksgiving and/or the Pilgrims and then I grabbed a couple more from the library to set up a book basket for November.

 
The girls and I played Hopscotch together yesterday. Let me tell you, that is not as easy when you are old, lol. I'm actually kind of sore today. Is that possible? Goodness, I must be out of shape.

Let's see, what else. Oh, the girls have brought their paper dolls back out and started making more. The Hippie made a baby for her couple and the Princess made a wife for her man. And, they've both made some more clothes for them, including some full zip-up pajamas for the man. Very cute!

Oh yeah. Call me crazy, but I started listening to Celtic Christmas music this week. I'm ready to get my head and heart in the right place and music and yummy candles help to do the trick. I told the girls no Christmas music with words until the day after Thanksgiving (I don't want to be tired of it by Christmas), but the instrumental hymns are nice!

I think that's about it.

Until next time, 
~ Irie Momma