A Flurry of Fun

Jimmer's offerings to Santa --

A sweet representation of a youngster's hope on Christmas Eve.

A visiting guinea pig:

A sweet representation of a youngster's responsibility on Christmas Eve!

Legos Technic sets -- Mike's dream vehicular set, complete with gears, suspension systems, and even rack-and-pinion steering.

After building the set models, Mikey is now creating his own custom vehicles with additional Lego parts cannibalized from other sets.

A sweet representation of a youngster's creativity on Christmas day!

Dear Legos, Inc.

My 11-year-old son is available to test all your Technic sets. He is additionally able to provide his consulting services and invention ideas to create and enhance future dynamic vehicular sets. He will provide 3D drawings from multiple angles and build all necessary prototypes for each of his inventions/creations.

If you hire him, he'll love you forever...and probably make you a lot of ca$h.

Sincerely,
His mom

Christmas Eve

Saying goodbye to the season of Advent.

Welcoming the new season of Christmas!

It's not often we snap shots of our whole family.

This will undoubtedly be the last of Joe's face we'll see for some time. (Joe's annual facial hair growing marathon got a late start this year.)

We wish for you all a very merry and blessed Christmas!

O come, let us adore Him.

Festivities

It certainly is that time of year...

when our next door neighbors get 9 sets of their trains out and run them throughout all parts of their yard,

when the kids play Christmas music at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar,

and when the kids play football by the nearby huge, extremely well-lit Texas oak tree.


Now all that's left to do is celebrate and enjoy the special day of the season--Christmas!

And eat more treats.
And listen to more festive music.
And stay in our PJs much of the day.
And drink a little hot cocoa!
And find all the little baby Jesuses around the house and put them in their proper manger cribs.

Have a blessed and very merry Christmas!

Crochet Nativity

Out of our several nativity sets, this one is the most unique.

My Grandma H. crocheted the set.

I find it very charming, and our kids absolutely **love** it!

Among all of our Christmas decorations, it's the first thing the girls look for and want to set up in the living room.

Proud Mary

Well, she probably wasn't feeling "proud" since she was so saintly and all. Just doing the job she was called to do, right? She sure looks like she feels great though...and very happy!


Joseph also looks quite thrilled after such a challenging journey (and not just the donkey ride into town).

The good king bringing gold from afar.


All the talk amongst these blond, brunette, and red-headed angels must be about how busy they know they're all gonna be watching over this little Savior's family.

A couple of reasons I find this particular hand-crafted set charming.


Would you just look at that Shepherd's wooly vest? Sweet.

And this. THIS.


The lady is spinning wool. Now, that is making it real with nativity scene detail! No need to stop what you're doing--just come as you are to see our newborn King!

With the mess all those large manger animals surely made, I'm glad Grandma H. wasn't tempted to make it even more real.

This nativity is one more hand-made heirloom I feel privileged to enjoy year after year.

Thanks, Grandma!


I'm adding this to the Nativity Parade.
Go have a looksie at some other Nativity sets.



I've also linked this post to A Meaningful Family Christmas link party where you can check out other families' wonderful ideas.

Christmas fun with fun Christmas funsies

New ride on fun


New indoor table fun



New slope fun

Flying Kathleen fun

Jimmer catching air fun

Mikey Knievel fun

And no fun runs to the E.R.!

We wish you a merry Christmas...

Christmas Eve


Four monkeys


Four monkeys--Calvin style


O, Holy Night!

Merry Christmas!

We wish for you a safe and very blessed Christmas with lots of good family cheer!

Kathleen's 2009 manger scene creation

Jesse Tree :: Advent Activity

We added another Advent activity this year as a new tradition so, as a family, we can continue to focus on the real meaning of the season--of Advent, a time to prepare ourselves for Christmas. We've always done a daily nativity Advent calendar, and we've always used an Advent wreath with readings at dinnertime...but the Jesse Tree is a visual reminder of Jesus' spiritual heritage (not just genealogical) through the Old Testament leading up to Christ's birth and into the New Testament.

The Jesse Tree Kit


Here's the description from the beginning of this book:

The symbol of the Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11: "The royal line of David is like a tree that has been cut down; but just as new branches sprout from a stump, so a new king will arise from among David's descendants." The tree is named after Jesse, the father of the great King David of the Old Testament.

In Church art a design developed which illustrated the relationship of Jesus with Jesse and other biblical personages. This design showed a branched tree growing from a reclining figure of Jesse. The various branches had pictures of other Old and New Testament figures who were ancestors of Jesus. Some trees also incorporated early Old Testament figures like Abraham and Moses, who lived long before Jesse's time. At the top of the tree were images of Mary and Jesus. This design was used mostly in stained glass windows in some of the great medieval cathedrals of Europe.

Another development in religious art during the Middle Ages was that of Mystery Plays--drama that depicted various Bible stories or lives of saints and martyrs. These plays were performed in churches as part of the liturgical celebrations. One such play was based on the biblical account of the fall of Adam and Eve. The
"Tree of Life" used during the play was decorated with apples. (Quite possibly this is also the forerunner of our own Christmas tree.)

This kit draws from elements of both the Jesse Tree window and the Tree of Life. Each ornament symbolizes a person or event in salvation history--the pattern of events in human history that accomplishes the saving action of God. By reflecting on salvation history, we see how God prepared the world for the coming of his Son.

Jesse Trees are meant to symbolize the spiritual heritage of Jesus, rather than his strictly genealogical origins. It is important to keep in mind that the Christian application of the Old Testament stories and symbols used does not minimize their own intrinsic value as Revelation.

Each day of Advent, we color one of the ornaments, read the daily scripture associated with the ornament's symbol and hang the ornament on our Jesse tree. I was looking for a manzanita branch to use as the tree, but no such luck finding one around here. So I just put a bunch of branches into a vase and placed it inside the Advent wreath in the middle of our dining table.



Our kids have been able to recall the specific biblical stories as they look at each of the ornament's symbols.

Here are some of them.

Noah

Joseph

Isaac and Rebecca

I really wanted to do a homemade Jesse Tree--one with ornaments the kids totally create themselves. I knew, however, that pigs would be in flight by the time I get around to making sure all the ornaments are made. So for this year and ? more years, we'll use these paper ornaments. Seeing these symbols for a while may help the kids become familiar with them so they'll be able to come up with their own version easier in the future. At least that's what I'll tell myself until we have all homemade ornaments!

Wouldn't it be nice to think that by the time all the kids left home, they'd have their own set of handmade Jesse Tree ornaments for their own tradition?

I've added this tradition to A Meaningful Family Christmas link party. Have a looksie at the wonderful family traditions others have posted.

Paper Circle Snowflakes Tutorial

We had so much fun with the quilled paper snowflakes, I came up with a different design for these paper circle snowflakes.


I took four sheets of 12" x 12" scrapbooking paper and adhered 2 sets with repositionable spray adhesive. (I put a lighter complimentary color to the backs of the red and green papers.)

The green thingy is my quilling tool.

The other sides of the papers I adhered.


I cut 1/4" strips of various lengths from each sheet--mainly 2-1/2" length for the bigger circles I made with my chap stick as a form guide, and 1-3/4" length for the ones I made with one of the kids' markers. I used short leftover scraps for the 3 loose, quilled centers and the 6 closed coils at the tips of the snowflake.

For each snowflake, you'll need:
13 larger circles
12 smaller circles
3 loose quilled circles for the center
6 closed coils for the snowflake tips.

Here's a link for basic quilling instructions.

I arranged them so that there would be a dark outer circle round followed by the next round with a lighter contrasting color on the outside (if that makes sense--if not, just refer to photo).

Use tweezers to help glue the smaller circles to the insides of the larger circles. (Believe me, it's more enjoyable that way! =)


Use tacky glue to stick 'em all together as they are arranged in the top photo, put embroidery thread or small ribbon through one of the closed coils for an ornament hanger, and VOILA--a circle snowflake ornament!

Hmmm...now that I'm looking at the photo of the hanging ornament, I'm thinking that gold guilded edges would look very nice. I just might have to dig up my gold paint pen and see how it looks.

Let me know if you try this or have more ideas for similar projects.

Christmas Day

Sometimes it's warm here on Christmas, sometimes more frigid (comparatively speaking...and I'm not comparing it to Minnesota). This year it was balmy. Those grilled ribs tasted even better sitting out on the deck. Yep, that's Kathleen in shorts and bare feet. Although sometimes I do think Jimmer should wear a protective helmet at all times(!), he was just wearing the play (non-protective) S.W.A.T. helmet Santa gave him.

He still had on his spy gear while he played on one of his favorite new toys, the Whirly Wheel.

Friends...

Another fun Christmas gift--the Green Machine.


A serious hockey game broke out on the driveway.

I love it that our kids believe GAP stands for God Answers Prayers. (They saw this explanation written on a friend's baseball cap.)

It'll be a while before Kathleen fully gets the hang of riding her unicycle. Practice. Practice.

It'll also be a while before I fully get the hang of using my new dSLR. Practice. Practice. At least I have plenty of subjects and material around here on which to practice. I hope to post better photos in the future. For now, I'm just trying to figure out how to use the thing.


Merry Christmas!
Feliz Navidad, y'all.
Geseende Kersfees, Nici.
Froehliche Weihnachten, Reinhard.