Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’

Real Christmas Carols

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

real-christmas-carols

The other night, while waiting for a horse and carriage ride, I heard a group of carolers singing “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” The harmonizing was beautiful. Like the Pied Piper, these carolers attracted my children up the stairs to see who could be singing with such angelic voices. It was a group of young people dressed up like the Dickens characters. My kids turned to look at me with wide eyes. We enjoyed their singing until my husband let us know that the free horse and carriage ride had arrived at the building where we were huddled to keep warm.

I’ve always loved harmonizing to real Christmas carols. My best friend would sing the melody, and I would sing the harmony. We wanted to sing every carol in the book. I have such sweet memories of singing with her.

When I was a Cub Scout leader, I led the Christmas caroling at the nursing home for two years in a row. I looked at all the dear elderly people smiling sweetly at the group of children singing with gusto, off key. We ministered to the people there, and it was so easy to cheer them up. I hugged the elderly people before we left each room.

One year our church went door to door, knocking on each door and singing a Christmas carol. We did it for no reason. I don’t remember presenting the gospel or anything. We just sang the songs of the nativity, and the songs themselves told the story…

Journey to Bethlehem: Living Nativity

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

living-nativityMy family filmed a local living nativity for Christmastime this year. It was called “Journey to Bethlehem,” and it included a road with scenes along the sides. “We need a place to stay tonight,” said our guide to a Roman soldier who guarded the gate of Bethlehem. The soldier didn’t care and was gruff with us. We were told to move quickly. The town of Bethlehem had an open marketplace where a variety of foods, pottery, cloth, and animals were sold. The sets were beautiful, and the ambient noise was realistic.

Apparently we represented a group of Jews, because the Roman soldiers called us dogs. They told us why the Roman empire was so great, protecting people with their armies and building roads.

living-nativity2Suddenly while we were looking at some smelly sheep, a company of (somewhat cheesy) angels flapped their wings with music, and the angel on the top riser said, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

A shepherd yelled, “Let us go and find this child!” We followed him to a stable where we found Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. When I reached this point in the tour, for some reason I felt choked up, almost as if I was a shepherd on that first Christmas night long ago, finding the King of Kings had been born in a manger.

Here is our family’s tour of the living nativity:

Susan’s Wacky Gingerbread House Tips

Friday, December 9th, 2011

gingerbread-house-tips

  • Don’t believe the instructions that say that gingerbread houses are easy to assemble. Any sensible parent knows otherwise.
  • Don’t bother using the toothpaste glue that tries to pass itself off as icing, but is more like quick-hardening cement.
  • Hot glue the gingerbread house pieces together. I came up with this brilliant scheme this morning, and it worked beautifully. Of course, my children shouted in dismay, “But then we can’t eat it!” “We don’t eat it anyway,” I reasoned. “Yes, we do. We ate it last year.” “You did?” “Yes.” “Okay, well, I’ll make cookies, and you can eat cookies till you puke. How about that?” My children just shrugged their shoulders. They know better than to argue with their mother.
  • If you use icing from a can (that you normally would put on a cake), the icing spreads a lot more easily. The only drawback is that it doesn’t harden. But why does it have to harden anyway? Who makes these rules?
  • Make sure there is plenty of candy, so that one of your sons isn’t hogging all the candy on his side of the roof, while your daughter starts crying that all the candy is gone, and only half of her rooftop is decorated.
  • If you run out of candy, you can use chocolate chips in a pinch, but be forewarned that they look like giant black thumbtacks.
  • If you use the real self-hardening cement icing, make sure to clean it up immediately. Otherwise it turns as hard as stone and is impossible to clean up. You’ll have to scrape it off with a paint scraper.

I hope you enjoyed my gingerbread house tips!

 

Fun Winter Activities for Homeschoolers

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

fun-winter-activities

Looking for something to do with the kids when it’s cold outside? Here are dozens of ideas for fun winter activities for homeschoolers:

Arts and Crafts
Snowflake Card
Fill Your Own Ornament
Decorating with Snowflakes
Embossed Christmas Ornaments
Decorated Ornaments
Jesse Tree
Homemade Nativity Scene
25 Gifts for Children to Make

Baking and Food
Snowflake Funnel Cake
Marble Fudge
Snowflake Cookies
Transformer Cookies
What to Eat with Tomato Soup
Susan’s Wacky Gingerbread House Tips
Deluxe Gingerbread Houses

Winter Exercise
How to Build a Snow Cave
Winter Scavenger Hunt (Free PDF)

Field Trips
Horse and Carriage Ride
The Nutcracker
Living Nativity

Games and Toys
Best Open-Ended Toys Ever
#1 Costumes
#2 K’nex
#3 Legos
#4 Doll House
#5 Baby Doll
#6 Magic Trick Set
#7 Blocks
#8 Tinker Toys
#9 Gears
#10 Electronics Kit
Nerf Guns

Christmas
Christmas Tea Party
“Mug Mania” Christmas Party
Fun Stocking Stuffers for Boys
Fun Stocking Stuffers for Girls
Stockings to Fit Individuals
World’s Worst Stocking Stuffers
Santa Doesn’t Exist
Is Christmas Pagan?
Cookie Nativity Scene Fiasco
Shining the Joy of Jesus
Real Christmas Carols
The Star of Bethlehem