Some of Our Favorite Holiday Traditions

I thought this might be a good time to post some of our favorite holiday traditions for all to enjoy. So, here goes...

We always have the grammies and our auntie come over for homemade pizza on Friday after Thanksgiving to put up our tree. After dinner, we put up the tree, watch White Christmas (singing loudly on "Sisters"), and enjoy hot chocolate and cookies.

We love to have the children choose a new ornament each year. We usually go out for lunch or dinner and then head to a local Hallmark store. We love these ornaments, because there is a good selection, they are collectible, and they are well-packaged for use from year to year. I say that I will send them off to their own homes with this collection of ornaments, but how will I part with them?! ;)

Okay, this isn't a tradition, as we just started it this year, but we have been working on a beautiful advent puzzle as a family this year. This was the perfect year to begin with hubby being home-bound due to injury and the children being older.

I always make gingerbread playdough for the children to play with and pretend to bake gingerbread men/women complete with button eyes and rickrack icing. The smell is so yummy, so I have to remind the children not to taste it!

We have a huge collection of Christmas books that we get out each year. I don't pressure myself to read them all every single year, but we do try to get to each of the favorites and a few new ones. Some faves include "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever", "Who's Coming to Our House?", "The First Christmas" (Pop-Up), "The Gingerbread Baby", and "The Legend of the Poinsetta".

We do "Jesus stockings" where the children choose an item from the World Vision or Samaritan's Purse catalog and then do chores to earn the money to keep in their stocking until Christmas. They take the money they have earned to purchase the gift to "do to the least of these" as our Christmas offering to Him.

We have a sweet advent calendar that I purchased one year from CBD. It was pricey, but I love it and so do the children. This year, our aunt also bought us the chocolate filled calendars and the children have really been enjoying these.

Hubby and I light the fireplace, turn off all but the Christmas lights, and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" at least once during December.

Hubby takes a Christmas shopping night with some of his buddies from his former job. They always make short work of the shopping and long work of the steak dinner they reward themselves with at the end!

A red velvet cake has always been a tradition in my extended family on Christmas day. When I was younger, it was for my uncle, who has a Christmas Eve birthday. But now, in our immediate family, we call it the Jesus Birthday Cake and remind ourselves of the blood He shed to cleanse us from our sin.

I have lots of child-friendly nativity sets - the playmobil one, the fisher-price one, and another one that I got from the Hallmark store years ago. I also have a fabric one that I opted not to get out this year. My children love playing with these and they are considered so special because they only come out once a year, that they are the most popular items to play with in December around here. My favorite nativity set though, is one that my mom got me a few years ago - made by Jim Shore. LOVE it! No children allowed to play with that one, though!

These are some of the things that have brought special meaning to our family in December. Maybe next I should write the post about the traditions that I never started, but wanted to, or the traditions that we have scrapped! Can you say gingerbread house?

Sometimes Their Prayers Put Me to Shame

During our circle time today, we were praying for some church friends who are in Guatamala for the summer and we got to our "thanksgiving" portion of the prayer time. My two oldest blew me away by what they shared. One said, "Thank you God for our home and our family and for music and for books." The other said, "Thank you God for your Bible and your words that Jesus brought to us." I was astounded that the once simple prayers of thanks for home and family (which are very valid in their own right) had turned into thanksgiving for his good gifts of books and music and His wonderful Word. I am humbled to be praying with my little people. Through these simple every day experiences, sometimes God gives me a glimpse into the Kingdom people that He is growing them to be and I think about them in the future and I am excited and blown away and scared all at the same time. I am so thankful that as a mom I get to see these little pieces of their hearts during our prayer time.

Me, Lately

Watching Dancing With the Stars, American Idol, and Jon and Kate Plus 8

Reading Seasons of a Mother's Heart by Sally Clarkson, 1 Corinthians

Meditating On Matthew 6:25-34

Praying for My brother's family (my sister in law is in treatment for cancer) and hubby's job, my friends (various needs)

Cleaning out my garage and my bedroom closet (ugh!)

Looking forward to golfing with my husband this summer (didn't get to while in England)

Missing the English parks with their lovely spring blooms

Can't wait to plant my flowers

Listening to Michael Buble

Working on less worrying

Cooking lots of muffins lately

Most recent purchase shoes at Payless (it's BOGO, you know!)

Trying to figure out a good way to do family devotions with Dad

Healthy Habits of a Happy Homeschool

I'm not much of a "meme" girl, but this one from Heart of the Matter seemed to be something I could relate to.

One habit that we have with our homeschool philosophy is to attach important things to things you already do. For example, our Bible time always happens during a meal (either breakfast or dinner) and our art study/manners time always occurs during our tea time on Tuesdays. This way, it becomes a habit and we are more likely to do it if it is hooked to something else in our routine.

Tuesday teatime is another habit we've established this year. Please do not read this to be some perfect family time where I make homemade little finger sandwiches while we read classic literature. While that seems wonderful, it is a bit unrealistic for our family at this stage. Still, I wanted to establish the habit of a special relationship building time each week into our routine. And, as mentioned above, I decided to use this time to do our art study and manners instruction, as it was conducive to this type of occasion. The children LOVE this time and are so sad when it is over. Plus, I no longer feel guilty about the desire to do more with art and manners because it is done in such a fun, natural, and regular manner.

Another routine, related to the above manners and art study idea is to start small. Think of something you'd like to add into your routine or curriculum and start small. For example, I used to read about art study and think I would have to create great notebooks, and mimic the styles of artist, etc during the study. Instead of trying to do my ideal art study time, I decided it was more important to start small. So, I chose an artist to focus on(Mary Cassatt), copied some questions from the Hearts and Trees blog, found my prints, and then each week we simply discuss the prints. We compare the prints each week to the other prints. I am astounded how simply 15-20 minutes per week with this routine has produced such joy and appreciation for art in my children. I will never forget when my youngest, who is barely three saw a familiar print in a book at the library and yelled out, "Mommy, look it's Young Muda (Mother )Sewing!" So, start small. Something is better than nothing.

Lastly, I try to have all my oldest's assignments for the week, including chores and special activities such as piano lesson or Spanish class, written out on one piece of paper for the entire week. I use a standard size printer paper, folded into fourths. I use each square for a day of the week, turning it over for Friday. The chores are always listed as "chores" until the day I assign them. Then, when I have the more specific list, I attach that post-it note to the current day. This saves me lots of trouble in explaining. And it makes my big boy more responsible. Now, if I could get him to establish the habit of putting it in the same place each day! ;)

Well, I hope you can use some of these ideas. Check out the Heart of the Matter for more great habit ideas from fellow homeschooling families.

Then and Now

Last year, for Easter, we were just settling into our new home in London. Hubby and I reflected today on the differences between the two. Here is a comparison.

Last Year
Were in a new (to us) semi-detached home, with little to no Easter decorations.
Were worshiping here.
Took public transport to church with lots of hung-over folks who wondered why we were so dressed up.
Had lunch at McDonald's.
Played at Hyde Park -- no egg hunt.
Couldn't find Easter baskets and kids got Easter bags instead.
Couldn't find jelly beans or many Easter goodies, but the Brits sure love their large chocolate Easter eggs and have them in any theme available. Somehow the Bart Simpson egg didn't really "speak" Easter to us. Alas, we skipped the British tradition!
Had fresh hot cross buns.
Got dressed up for church only to realize that this was NOT apparently an Easter tradition in Britain.
Hubby had a four-day weekend and we spent it visiting the Broadstairs beach and Dover Castle.

This Year
"Back Home Again in Indiana"...(Sing it with me, people. Okay, so if you're not a Hoosier, you don't even know that's a song!)
Worshipped at our home church and sat beside my mama today.
Took our van to church and wondered to myself how could it be full of so much junk, yet again.
Had our traditional Easter feast at mother's -- ham, baked beans, bread, buffet salad, asparagus, cheese potatoes and chocolate pie.
Had an egg hunt in grammy's back yard.
Dug out the Easter baskets that had gone unused from last year.
Jellybeans galore!
I miss those hot cross buns, and all those yummy British bakeries.
Got dressed up for church only to be attacked by a three-year-old weilding a pink chapstick with landed right in the middle of my new dress.
Hubby has a four-day weekend and we spent it shopping for a new vacuum and doing laundry.

Since being back, we find it interesting to play the "what were we doing last year at this time" game. Thanks for reading along!

What Animal Would You Be?

Our "Family Love Talk" question was really Barbara WaWa-ish tonight. It was this: "If you could be any animal, what would you be?"

Here were the answers:

DS6: "A turtle because they live the longest of any animal." (Who knew? Man, I'm glad that kid can read!)

DD2: "A tow-toe" (because she copies everything her siblings say!)

Dad: "An eagle so I could fly."

Mom: "A whale so I could see what goes on in the ocean."

And the sweetest answer of the night...

DD5: "A sheep, 'cause God is a Shepherd."

Yeah. Let's all be sheep.