Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
The Clan's Christmas...
The Clan's Christmas was somewhat unexpected this year.
After spending two and a half days building this incredible hutch for some Christmas rabbits...
....Braveheart suffered through some awful fevers late Christmas Eve, which then birthed a case of severe tonsillitis a day later. Sadly, Braveheart spent Christmas Day in bed, and most of the last week - all this for a man that does not usually get ill! And this is the second year running :(
We feel robbed of this family time that is so precious to us. It's meant an adjustment for the kids, who were counting down the days till their dad went on leave. It's not lost on me how blessed we are as a family that Braveheart esteems family time - how wonderful for my children that they have a father who is so hands on and available that the best part of their holiday is spending time with him!
Needless to say I had to adjust my expectations quite radically as well, and have tried to make the most of my time as well. I banned myself from the computer for a few days and turned the house upside down (amazing how much time I gained!). I have sorted cupboards (almost every one!), gone through art/craft/drawing cupboards, rearranged the study, ordered 2012's school year, gone through packets of hand-me-down's for the kids, and now we are more than ready to welcome in the New Year!
And over the last few days I have had a lot of time to think in the evenings, once the kids are down as Braveheart has been resting, and I am tangibly excited about this year, about what it holds, about the big bold steps I will be taking as I cast off the fear that so easily entangles and move into what He has called me to! You'll have to come back to find out what that is in a few days!
I do hope that your Christmas was a wonderful time as a family and that this holiday time finds you refreshed and renewed!
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| Cousins having fun at Granny's house... |
Tag :
Christmas,
Merry Christmas!
From all of us,
to all of you.
May your homes be filled with love!
to all of you.
May your homes be filled with love!
Tag :
Christmas,
Christmas Craft Club..
I'm in holiday mood full tilt, so blogging has taken a bit of a back seat! We're relishing our time as a family, and the boys are so chuffed to have open ended summer days with their dad - as is Belle I might add!
This year I hosted a Christmas craft club for eight little kiddies in my neighborhood, and we had a blast. I'd love to be able to show you all the photos of the morning, but I was busy, busy, busy, and if I'm honest I just clean forgot!
Again, inspired by Pinterest, we made this Christmas card using their hand prints after reading the story of the real, original Santa Claus:
We made some Christmas trees, which we're intending to put a photograph inside...
After playing and eating, we then made Christmas trees by painting our feet....
Sadly ours didn't look a bit like this! I think this is an artists representation of what it could look like, but the children I did this with all had feet with much higher arches, so this really only works well with very small people - toddlers! Still, the tickles and laughter when we did this was worth it!
All in all, a fun filled morning for my three, and a great way of spreading the joy and love this season!
This year I hosted a Christmas craft club for eight little kiddies in my neighborhood, and we had a blast. I'd love to be able to show you all the photos of the morning, but I was busy, busy, busy, and if I'm honest I just clean forgot!
Again, inspired by Pinterest, we made this Christmas card using their hand prints after reading the story of the real, original Santa Claus:
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| listening to the Elves and the Shoemaker, courtesy of Storynory... |
After playing and eating, we then made Christmas trees by painting our feet....
Sadly ours didn't look a bit like this! I think this is an artists representation of what it could look like, but the children I did this with all had feet with much higher arches, so this really only works well with very small people - toddlers! Still, the tickles and laughter when we did this was worth it!
All in all, a fun filled morning for my three, and a great way of spreading the joy and love this season!
Tag :
art and craft,
Christmas,
Holiday Fun
Often as one hits this particular holiday season things can get a little 'crazy' for want of a better word - family, socializing, shopping, Christmas - all that the trimmings this simple season brings (isn't is just about celebrating the Love Child? The Gift our father chose to give us?).
This year, I wanted to make sure that we made the most of Braveheart's two weeks off work, and to make sure that we didn't lose out on the important in the face of the urgent this season. (Too often we feel we must rush madly around trying to 'do' things instead of just 'being' and building relationships within our family and those around us).
To help us, on the first morning of Braveheart's holiday we set out to make our holiday tree (I'm really into trees this year aren't I?!)
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we traced around an egg cup... and then all cut out some circles from coloured card and even Belle managed - I was impressed! |
Then Braveheart drew a tree template for me, and we cut that out...
Then we sat around the dining room table and made a wish list for the holiday - all the things we'd like to do together as a d family or with other people. Braveheart and I scribed for the littlies, and King Arthur did well writing his own! And this is what we made -
Here's hoping you too will have much fun this holiday season!
This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers
where South African home schoolers share experiences,ideas,philosophies
and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up
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Carnival #14 –Holiday Fun for this week’s carnival. We hope you
enjoy the carnival as much as we have!Our Clan's Calendars for Advent...
I am loving all the Advent calendar ideas I'm seeing.... and we've incorporated some into our daily holiday routine. I love how much the kids look forward to these little traditions....
After we've done breakfast and tidied the house, we take a peek at this online advent calendar, which gets us going for the day...(and if it's a stunning wind free day, we do this as down time in the afternoon!)
Then we go over here, and look at how somewhere else in the world celebrates Christmas, and stick a sticker on the world map.
And I'm storing these ideas for next year!
- Like A Pretty Petunia has this lovely service orientated calendar (download for free!)
- Christmas Your Way has this lovely printable advent chain, and what I love about this idea is incorporating all the fun into activities to do!
- And as always, Se7en has a plethora of advent ideas, my favorite of which is scheduling in time for board games and things to do as a family...
- I love this idea of using books as an advent calendar - a Christmas story a day...and why not use books from the library to do this (unless you do want to own 24 Christmas themed books!) On second thoughts, buy just one to own a year...hmmm...I'm onto something!
- Kirsty Wiseman shares this advent calendar made from clothes pegs -
- And this lovely one (we're not hugely into Santa as a clan, but these just looked cute!)
- And this Santa one comes with this cute rhyme -
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| Santa's beard is very bare On his chin there is no hair! So each day add a puff of white When they're all on, he'll come that night! :) |
And Aragorn made this lovely one at school :
Happy advent!
Celebrating the Christmas Season
Well, now that the holidays are here, we're turning our eyes and hearts towards celebrating Christmas!
As I mentioned yesterday, sometimes I don't manage to fit in all the ideas I see and love into one season, so I roll them over to the next year. Last year a friend showed photos of her Jesse tree on her blog, and after reading a bit more about it, I fell in love with the idea and was hooked!
So, this year, we began!
And I am thrilled with the rapt attention all three of my children are paying each evening, after dinner when we read the Scriptures, talk about them and hang the little memento on the tree. Each evening we recap what has gone before, and there really is something to be said for the strength of oral traditions and storytelling - a lost art in our culture. Even Belle can tell us what each decoration represents.
Our printed cards come from Ann Voskamp's lovely Jesse tree( if you subscribe to her blog you can receive the link), but for my young children her devotions are too philospohical for my children (although I break down some of the nuggets for them). So this year I'm using a gathering from these sites:
My heart is really for Christmas to be significant in my children's lives beyond the commercialism of this holiday. Here are two other family devotions I've stumbled across recently:
My prayer for you is that you too find a way to make this season significant - may Christ be revealed to you and your family...
As I mentioned yesterday, sometimes I don't manage to fit in all the ideas I see and love into one season, so I roll them over to the next year. Last year a friend showed photos of her Jesse tree on her blog, and after reading a bit more about it, I fell in love with the idea and was hooked!
So, this year, we began!
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| some gold spray painted branches in a marble sturdied tin! |
And I am thrilled with the rapt attention all three of my children are paying each evening, after dinner when we read the Scriptures, talk about them and hang the little memento on the tree. Each evening we recap what has gone before, and there really is something to be said for the strength of oral traditions and storytelling - a lost art in our culture. Even Belle can tell us what each decoration represents.
Our printed cards come from Ann Voskamp's lovely Jesse tree( if you subscribe to her blog you can receive the link), but for my young children her devotions are too philospohical for my children (although I break down some of the nuggets for them). So this year I'm using a gathering from these sites:
- This site has a whole list of the symbols and readings which can come in handy
- Feels Like Home has written a guide to the Jesse tree for younger children, and my kids are always asking me as soon as we settle what song we'll be singing! We love her short choruses for the kids
- And finally Christmas your Way has a printable blank ornaments for you to color in.
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| This is The Happy Hunter's tree from last year |
My heart is really for Christmas to be significant in my children's lives beyond the commercialism of this holiday. Here are two other family devotions I've stumbled across recently:
- The Reason for the Season - a lovely look at why we do everything...all pointing towards Christ
- The Truth in the Tinsel - a dear friend just gave this to me today, and although I have only managed to skim through it as I write this it looks lovely - a craft a day along with truth, life and Christ!
My prayer for you is that you too find a way to make this season significant - may Christ be revealed to you and your family...
Christmas Crafts with our Clan
I don't know about you, but every year as the month of December progresses (and especially within the homeschooling circles we're involved in) I see so many crafts and traditions that I'd love to tie into our clan. Now, it just gets plain stressful trying to do this all in one year, so each year I collect the ideas I'd like to try, and schedule them for the following year! (and hope I remember!)
This year I'm aiming (note that word!) to run a Christmas Craft day where the kids can invite their friends and get crafting! So here's a selection of things we've done so far, or that are on our "to do" list this Christmas:
These we refer to as the onion bulb ones!
Using a blown up balloon and some coloured wool, you can make these wonderful balls of thread. We've made some, of varying sizes, and we're using the tiny ones (water balloons) for table decorations and on the tree, and the larger ones, ahem, well theoretically we'll hang them from the ceiling or something (haven't quite figured out that one yet!! Ours, (sadly no photos) are in traditional green and red, and some have been spray painted gold. They're pretty straight forward to make, albeit messy - you'll need glue (which you water down), vaseline (to smother the balloons with), balloons and wool. Made nicely, these will rival upmarket department store balls!
This lovely angel can be made by following this tutorial
And finally, another gift idea for kiddies from Martha Stewart:
Happy Christmas Crafting!
This year I'm aiming (note that word!) to run a Christmas Craft day where the kids can invite their friends and get crafting! So here's a selection of things we've done so far, or that are on our "to do" list this Christmas:
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| We've made these beautiful hearts from old magazines...the possibilities are endless with different paper and sizes....and O so easy! |
These we refer to as the onion bulb ones!
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| Simple tutorial is here |
Using a blown up balloon and some coloured wool, you can make these wonderful balls of thread. We've made some, of varying sizes, and we're using the tiny ones (water balloons) for table decorations and on the tree, and the larger ones, ahem, well theoretically we'll hang them from the ceiling or something (haven't quite figured out that one yet!! Ours, (sadly no photos) are in traditional green and red, and some have been spray painted gold. They're pretty straight forward to make, albeit messy - you'll need glue (which you water down), vaseline (to smother the balloons with), balloons and wool. Made nicely, these will rival upmarket department store balls!
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| Find tutorials over at The Twinery and Juicy Bits respecively |
And here are some lovely ideas for you to go away with (oh yes, these are in my "to do" basket for next year!):
And I'm loving these sweet little trees one could make too
And these snowflakes from earbuds (I know it's culturally inappropriate but still!):
And lastly, aren't these candles so inspirational? I think they're going to end up in my home made gifts this year!
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| glitter bands with double sided tape |
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| this one's been covered in tissue paper |
Happy Christmas Crafting!
This is the 13th SACHS Blog carnival under the theme Christmas Ideas/Crafts/Decorations which is part of the South African Carnival of Homeschool Blogs. To join the carnival or visit past carnivals visit the SACHS Blogs page. We hope you enjoy browsing!
Christmas is Coming...
This year my heart is to make Christmas gifts and decorations...and I just had to share this lovely Christmas craft I was inspired by Pinterest to do (yes, I too have succumbed!). It's easy and will make wonderful decorations, and even as embellishments on presents (I'm going to tie them on to our cookie jar gifts etc).
All you'll need is felt (I made quilted Christmas stockings last year so I had some left over), embroidery thread, glue, buttons, sequins etc, and something to stuff them with (again we used left over pillow stuffing, but I think cotton wool would work just as well).
I used cookie cutters to make the shapes I wanted....
Then we designed them...
Aragorn has designed some wonderful ones, and the variations are endless.
Then we sew and stuff them...
We've loved the family time it gives us, and I have loved being creative with my hands - it's been a while!
And sweet Belle spent a lot of time picking up sequins! She couldn't stop looking at them, which caused them to fall on the floor...great fine motor skills I'm thinking!
Enjoy!
All you'll need is felt (I made quilted Christmas stockings last year so I had some left over), embroidery thread, glue, buttons, sequins etc, and something to stuff them with (again we used left over pillow stuffing, but I think cotton wool would work just as well).
I used cookie cutters to make the shapes I wanted....
Then we designed them...
Then we sew and stuff them...
We've loved the family time it gives us, and I have loved being creative with my hands - it's been a while!
And sweet Belle spent a lot of time picking up sequins! She couldn't stop looking at them, which caused them to fall on the floor...great fine motor skills I'm thinking!
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| The first batch of completed decorations! |
