St. Nicholas

Thing Two asked about Saint Nicholas today over lunch.  They wanted to know the origins of St. Nick and how it got changed into Santa Claus.  Here's a link we read over, but the highlights are:

• born during the third century
• he was born in what is now the Southern coast of Turkey
• born of wealthy parents
• both died, when he was young, during an epidemic
• he believed in selling off what he owned, giving to the poor, and following Christ example
• Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, he suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned
• so many Christians were persecuted, there was no room for the real criminals—murderers, thieves and robbers
• after his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325
•  he died December 6, AD 343
•  anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day, December 6th

Many legends are floating around regarding with regards to what St. Nicholas did.  Here are some of those:

• three daughters, of a poor man, needed dowries.  It is believed that St. Nick gave bags of gold for each girl to cover the dowry; it is from this legend that some believed a gold ball was used, at times ~ from here oranges were put in the stockings drying on the hearth
• another tells of Basilio being kidnapped during the festival honoring St. Nicholas and being used the rulers cup bearer because he didn't know the language.  Basilio's parents prayed for his safe return.  It is believed that St. Nick returned Basilio, on the eve of the next festival, in Myra with the rulers cup still in his hands
• "Today he is venerated in the East as wonder, or miracle worker and in the West as patron of a great variety of persons-children, mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars, orphans, laborers, travelers, merchants, judges, paupers, marriageable maidens, students, children, sailors, victims of judicial mistakes, captives, perfumers, even thieves and murderers! He is known as the friend and protector of all in trouble or need.

 

Info used from: St. Nicholas Center Copyright © 2002-2012 St. Nicholas Center

Candy, Cookies, & Caffeine

Totally going off subject before I even get started.

     Bwahahahahaha!

Off subject item - read that catchy titles bring readers in.  Did this one work?  Let me know in the comments!  Thanks!!

Back on topic now ~

   Feeling a smidge more like a functioning human being today and wanted to get on to some Christmas sweets.  Usually, by now, we're on our third Christmas treat.   Not so much this year.  But it was time for some cookie making. 

 One tradition we have is Toll house Chocolate Cookies 

made with M&Ms instead.  Very easy and so good!

Just follow the directions on the back of the Toll

House back and swap the chips for the bag of M&Ms.

While the butter, eggs, and vanilla were being whipped together

it was time for a bit of caffeine!  My favorite source tends to

be coffee ~

 Pretty green light meaning it's on.  Yes, old school coffee pot;

even without a timer!

Coffee, over ice ~ great tasting any time of the year.

May I ask how this looks like coke?  I often get asked

how my "pop" is or if I am enjoying the fizz!  Huh?

It's coffee!

 The M&M's poured in.  Next time, I might still add a

cup of chocolate chips.  As much as Thing Two loves just the batter,

I love it over loaded with chocolate.

I used a small cookie scoop because I wanted a lot of cookies

when finished.  Believe I got about 80 cookies out of this round.

That would be just over 7 1/2 dozen and these still won't last all that long.

Oh!  Just a heads up, not sure how to keep the M&M colors from bleeding

into the dough and I used light brown sugar, so these look really, really faded.

Happy Eating!!!!

 

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?
 

On the 6th day of December, my . . . .

true love gave to me, six geese a laying!  Well, maybe not, but he did go by Costco on the way home from work.  That is even better.

Today's activities have been low key again today.  Still hoping to get to some of "A Christmas Carol" and possibly a movie tonight.  Here's who visited though:

A pretty red cardinal.  To bad I had to take a photo

through the screen.

 

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.
 

December 2nd

We've spent the morning in church! What a blessing to have a church home that truly feels like home. It is a wonderful thing.  Our youngest, Thing Two, is singing with the Kids Christmas Choir again this year.  Today, they sang one song, as a teaser, to get folks to come to the show next Sunday evening.  (Gee, want to guess what I'll blog about next Sunday?).  His solo was a part of the song too.  We thought he did really well.  Anyway, we're into to the post lunch, week has caught up to us, crash.  Kevin's asleep, boys are vegging, and I'm working on my "December Month of Blogging Christmas".

I am thinking that today's activities, along with Kevin wanting to do an Advent devotion, will be centered around the Polar Express Movie.

We'll probably have hot chocolate, with whip cream (homemade!!) and crushed up candy canes and let the boys sack out on the floor. 

A few things to print out today:

• Luke 2:13-14 Subway Art ~ link here
• Polar Express Ticket - found many on pinterest, but decided to make my own.  Following is a picture of it:

I plan to print these on tan paper and darken up the lines that make the ticket.  I choose mostly "black and white" as color cartridges are expensive.  Also, in my scrapping booking software, the Santa sleigh was the best graphic I could find.

What are your plans today?  Have you done something special already?  Share, if you care, what you might be doing tonight or in the near future. 
 

Happy December

Today has been a busy day around our house. Lots of kid chauffeuring, thanks Kevin, chores, and some fun.  Today, I got a few last decorations out.  One of the more "important" things is this:

 Won't play a rousing game of "Guess what this is!"
Think most know it is the Willow Tree Nativity Mary & Jesus.

Here's a larger picture of the set.  Didn't want to push

them all together to get them into one photo.

Other things that were put out:  a Santa flag, a nativity flag, grape vine wreath snowman, another santa, and our Advent Wreath.

Hope you enjoy these days leading up to Christmas!  Also, what have you done today, to be reminded of Christmas and "the reason for the season"?  Want to share?  Post a link to your blog in the comment section?  Would love to read about your holiday too!

 

Wrap-up and Begninnings

November has felt like a busy month! Lots going on and a desire to take time off.

Quick run down of the month, no particular order:

• redo of boys bathroom (Ugh to the shower install popping off the wall and not wanting to be put back)
• Thanksgiving, at home, just the four of us
• team party for Thing Two's Fall Ball
• An Emmes Event at "The Museum of American History"
• camping for Thing One
• birthday party to go to for Thing two
• 17 school days
• 3 co-ops
• lots of therapy
• lots of church events (church, Sunday School, bible study, Wednesday Night Services)
• TKD for the boys
• Scouts for Thing One

Yes, a short version of life this time!  Wanted to loosely honor my monthly wrap-ups and move onto other things.   That brings me to this,  although I just mentioned I don't do "link-ups" in my last post, I had some new thoughts on one.

Here is what I am thinking ~ each day, toward the end, I will try to write a blog post about some sort of Christmas Activity that my family has done.  I have no formal layout or plan for activities, but will choose activities from my previous blog post about things to do (see here) plus a few other things that Kevin and I have come up with since the post.  We might see about doing some sort of service project and bless our neighbors with a treat.  Though my neighbors may not be my best friends in the world, having and keeping wonderful neighbors is truly a blessing.  What better time to express appreciation than during the holidays.

Since Black Friday, we have already viewed:  How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Nativity Story, Charlie Brown Christmas, and The Nutcracker.  Also I've watched White Christmas.

What do think?  Do you want to join in?  Would love to see what you do to celebrate Christmas!!
Here is to 31 unique activities with my family.


P.S. Will use the tag "December 2012 link-up if you want to look for posts.