Christmas fun, please come back!!!!!!!!!!!

Woke up still feeling kind of miserable today! Made an appointment for myself. Turns out I have Bronchitis, so the OTC's I've been taking are not cutting it. Couple prescripts later, I'm starting to feel a bit better. Hoping that by the weekend our house will be smelling more like Christmas. Hope to be doing some fun activities beyond watching movies with the boys. Hope to feel good enough to read! Today, we did watch "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" and Kevin read more of "The Christmas Carol"!

How is the Christmas season coming along at your house?  What activities have you enjoyed best?  What about your kids?
 

Better late the never! Right?

Wasn't certain we'd get to any sort of Christmas themed activities today. Been a "real" day here. We've all had them, but we just don't talk about them much. These days sort of just exist.

Fortunately, there were some good highlights today.  Here's the run down:

• our Five in a Row (FIAR) book, "Snowflake Bentley" and Beyond FIAR book, "The Saturdays" had a similar lesson ~ snow!  Was able to incorporate both lessons into one time and use a science activity to make snow!    Really like being able to do that!
• got the boys rounded up after dinner and finished chapter one of "The Christmas Carol"!
• Thing Two had his last Wednesday night Christmas Choir practice.  He preforms this coming Sunday!

Unrelated to the above, my little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree has a new pot, new location, and lights!  :)  Kevin's parents have been sending us live wreaths the last few years (very awesome gift!); this years came with a set of lights that are battery powered.  When I read the directions that came with it, it said that do to weather and being outdoors, batteries may only last 7 hours.  Well hello, I'm not going to plow through a bunch of batteries for that.  It fit the little tree nicely and hopefully the batteries will last more than 7 hours.

What are the Christmas happenings at your house?

4th day of celebrating Christmas

begins! Today's festivities are not totally firmed up.  Tuesdays are crazy days here, very crazy.  2 1/2 hours of therapy in the morning for one child (with the half hour appointment starting at 10 or 10:30 depending upon week), Tae Kwon Doe, Scouts, meals, and oh yeah that thing called an education.

Tuesdays, may turn into an easy celebration of sorts, not a lot of time required like a short movie or something easy to bake.  Today is likely to be a short movie like "Frosty the Snowman" or "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".  We'll sprinkle in some Christmas Mad Libs, which I was able to locate yesterday and continued reading of "The Christmas Carol" ~ assuming my voice holds out.  Might just firm up a short wish list too.  We're trying to teach the boys that Christmas should not be about the amount of stuff you get, but the celebration of Christ.

What is making Christmas special at your house today?
 

P.S. I'll post, in the comments, the mad lib we did and movie watched later today.

A Christmas Carol

Today is the 3rd and I'm thinking we'll begin reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, probably as an evening read aloud.  We finished up "Hardy Boys" a bit ago and just haven't picked anything else up yet.  Maybe this is the spark we need.

Many are familiar with this tale of Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the three ghosts, and Scrooges change of heart.  It's neat to hear phrases taken from this book, in everyday language.  Do you hear, "Don't be such a Scrooge!" or "God Bless one and all!"?  I may incorporate a bit of research into this and have the boys read and write about Charles Dickens and the era the book was written in.  After reading the book, we may pick up a copy, from Redbox or Netflix, and watch it (so many good Christmas Movies to watch!!)

What is your favorite version of movie for "A Christmas Carol"?  I'm not to sure for myself, but don't think the Bill Murray one is high on the list.