Because of the busyness of Christmas and my nephew’s birthday soon after Christmas, we always celebrate Eli’s birthday just a tad early.  Three year olds have FUN partying!

Our church celebrates Jesus’ birth a tad early, too.  Last night was the annual Christmas pageant.  My sweet little cow was more like a bucking bull who wanted out of his pen after the birthday party excitement.  He lasted just long enough to sing his song (first thing) and was completely done being cordial and pleasant.  Mahayla was the angel Gabriel (yeah, I know, we don’t have enough boys.)  And Caleb was the wise man bearing myrrh.  It was a busy day, but lots of memories were made!

Oh, and have you met God?  Apparently Eli has!  Every time he gets his busy little fingers on a Santa ornament he says, “God.”  (Very reverently, I might add.)  His innocent little eyes looking up at us with complete seriousness that he is holding God right in his chubby little hands. 

I chose not to include most of the other suggestions from the unit since we were already doing other things each day.  It has given my children the chance to really focus on the meaning of each of Jesus’ names and plenty of time to create a daily scrapbook page.

Take a look at a few of their pages.  What a great memory maker for them!

Pretzel and Nut Bark

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup thin pretzels broken into small chunks

2/4 cup salted nuts of any kind (I use mixed nuts)

1/3 cup white chocolate chips or almond bark

2 Tablespoons (more or less) of Christmas colored sprinkles (any style)

Line 13×9″ pan with foil so that the foil hangs over the edges.  In a large bowl, microwave the semisweet chocolate chips 1-2 minutes.  (Stir the chips after one minute, microwave in 30 second increments until chips are melted.)  Stir in pretzels and nuts.  Spread in pan.

In a smaller bowl, microwave the white chocolate chips or almond bark for 1 minute or until melted.  Place melted chocolate in a plastic ziptop baggie.  Snip the corner and squeeze the chocolate over the bark in the pan.  Lightly cover with sprinkles.  Chill for about 1 hour (until firm).

Lift the bark out by the foil, then peel the foil away.  Break the bark into pieces.  Keep chilled until ready to eat.

I thought I’d share one of my favorite indulgences this time of year that’s maybe not so ordinary, but very easy.

Cream Cheese Cookies

1/2 pound butter, softened

1 package cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chopped nuts (I prefer pecans)

2 cups flour

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar.  Stir in vanilla, flour and nuts.  Roll in a damp cloth (or waxed paper) and place in refrigerator for at least a couple of hours.  Slice thin (about 1/4″) and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or just until edges begin to brown.

For what it’s worth, these freeze well and taste just as good frozen as fresh! 

These turned out so cute, and they were fairly easy for a beginning to intermediate sewing project.

• Draw the shape onto a piece of felt, making it about 1/4″ bigger than you’d like the finished product to be.

• Double the felt and cut out the front and back pieces at the same time.

• Decide which sides will face outward.  Go ahead and sew any buttons, beads or other small pieces onto each piece.

• Place the fronts together so that you can only see the “wrong” sides.

• Sew a straight stitch all the way around the felt, leaving about a 1/4″ seam.  BE SURE TO LEAVE 1″-1 1/2″ OPEN SO YOU CAN TURN THE ORNAMENT INSIDE OUT.

• After turning the ornament inside out, fill it with popcorn sized pieces of batting until it’s as fluffy as you desire.

• Sew up the opening with a simple straight stitch.

The kids chose to add a little piece of embroidery thread afterward as a hook, but I sewed a ribbon hook into mine (bell) as I stiched around the edges.  My hook is much stronger and more attractive.

Among anytime readings from the books on my sidebar, I think we’re going to purposefully read a daily chapter from

then

I’m excited about our Bible/unit study – The Names of Jesus from Easy Fun School (which was FREE!)  I’ll be sure to post about the notebooks the kids create in a few weeks.

We’re ditching most of the regular math schedule for a geometry unit from AIMS called

We’ll also be keeping up with weekly artist (various nativity scenes) and composer (Handel) studies.  I’ll post more about those plans soon.

And that about does it for planned school time this Christmas season.  I hope you’re able to take a break from the normal to enjoy something a little different this December.  Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy your children and the joy and excitement that comes with this time of year.  They’re only little once!

I had the pleasure of speaking about homeschooling during the busy holiday season.  We talked about relaxing the “regular” school schedule a bit, while creating unforgetable memories AND including the Christmas chores (Christmas cards, baking, party planning, etc.) as part of school time.

For the ladies who are looking for the links I passed along on Friday:  I think I finally organized my previous Christmas posts so that you can find all the Bible, unit studies, literature, math, science and such lessons.  You probably won’t be able to find them under the links I gave you on Friday.  Instead, if you’ll just click on the “Christmas” link in the far sidebar, you should be able to find what you are looking for.  Please let me know if you have any questions or problems!

Happy Christmas planning!

Each of the girls was asked to prepare a dish and bring the recipe.  (We’re putting the recipes together in a little booklet for them.)  After reading the Christmas story together and snacking on the delicious goodies, each of the moms had prepared a fun game.

Besides a rather unfortunate incident with the girls’ brothers who were playing outside with stick swords, the day was great fun.  Yes, Caleb was involved, but it really was an accident.  Hopefully, a bit more ice and a little more time will heal the giant goose egg under the other boy’s eye.  Caleb was very worried about him and didn’t think twice about apologizing.  (Hey, that’s a pretty big step for him!)  Here’s what I overheard Caleb say after ice had been on the goose egg for about 20 minutes….”Can you open your eye?  How many fingers am I holding up?”  T, if you’re reading this – we hope your eye is better!

Anyway, back to the party.  Mahayla prepared a very yummy cheesball and Caleb made a chocolate fondue with marshmallows for dipping.

I missed out on most of the games because of the unfortunate incident, but here’s a picture from the gift wrapping relay.

We’re officially on Christmas break!  I had planned to school lightly through Friday, but sometimes life just calls for a change of plans.    Merry Christmas!