Happy Gaudete Sunday!!

 It's already the third week of Advent...the wait is almost over. 

 The pink candle has been lit!

 This is the first time we grew an amaryllis.  Is it supposed to get this big?  It's unbelievable.

 The blossoms are bigger than Kim's head. 

Our Jesse Tree is filling up. I so happy with this tree.  We have never gotten this far along with our Jesse tree--it has always in the past fallen by the wayside...but not this year!

Our Celtic Advent Wreath

Thank you, Danny...for this wonderful gift!

Advent Paper Chain

Head on over to The Catholic Toolbox to print out wonderful activities to do each day as you follow your Advent chain to Christmas Day.

December 1st--let the countdowns begin

December is here, and so we are now eagerly waking up in the morning anxious to mark another day off--waiting for the arrival of Christmas! OK--only the four youngest kids eagerly wake up, the rest of us struggle to open our eyes while the festivities take place.

There are 4 kids, wishing for "their" turn, and there just happens to be 4 morning activities and one evening book.

Unwrapping a Christmas book began this past Sunday, on the first day of Advent.
It is our time to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child on Christmas.

I planned this activity as an evening activity, but it is apparent that we will be reading our daily book while we are still wearing our pj's until Christmas! For the evening read-aloud we are reading Destination: Bethlehem. This book has 24 chapters, making it ideal to read everyday until Christmas Eve.

"Two boys, Isaac and Jediah, travel through ancient Palestine. As their journey unfolds, the boys find themselves at the heart of the Nativity Story and gradually realize the birth of the Messiah is at hand." Amazon

Amy made the annual Santa Claus with a cotton ball beard countdown activity.

We have made this every year since my 22 year old was a baby, and the tradition continues.

Everyone morning just glue a cottonball onto the beard and when
the beard is full--it is Christmas!!

Someone tears a link off the Christmas countdown chain every morning.

The biggest excitement is the opening of the annual Lego Advent Calendar. (whatever you do--don't pay this Amazon price--mark it down for next year and in September you can get it for $14.99)

Each day you open a new Lego toy--including Santa Claus and a snowman.

Yep--we have busy mornings in December, with all the activities we have to get through (before schoolwork starts) luckily everyone has an activity to do,(this cuts down on the wailing and lamenting ) we just alternate jobs every morning so everyone is happy!

Christmas Chain Poem

Gracie stapled together our annual Christmas countdown chain today. It is all ready to have a link torn off everyday until Christmas arrives.

This year I discoverd a wonderful poem over at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman to accompany our chain. We topped our chain with a star and I have written the poem on the chalkboard so that Mark and Grace can memorize it during this Advent season.

Prepare

Sunday is the first day of the new year in the Catholic Church, the First Sunday of Advent.

The kids have learned that it is very important to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus on Christmas Day.

Mark made our sign to remind us to "prepare" for Jesus. It is not time to begin celebrating yet, it is a time to spend learning about this holy season.
One important way to learn about the Christmas season is to read books, and we love our books.

I have seen this done on different blogs over the past few years, but I never managed to "get" to it in time for the start of Advent. But this year, with Laura's wrapping help, we are all ready.

One picture book for everyday in Advent, ready to be opened and enjoyed.

We will open one book a day, and watch our pile of books get smaller as Chistmas day approaches..

An Advent Song for You

I remembered this song from when my oldest kids were little. They performed it with their cousins, at a church service. They were directed by my sister Sue.

I forgot about it, and then this Advent, for some reason it came to mind, but all I could remember clearly was the refrain. Thanks to my neice, (one of the original performers) she found me the music and now my younger kids have been enjoying learning this song during this special season of Advent.

The Whole World is Waiting for Love

The First Week of Advent....

the youngest child lights the first purple candle on the Advent wreath.

The names have been drawn...

for the annual Collins' kid's Secret Santa month of fun.

It has been a tradition to draw names on Thanksgiving and then exchange our gifts on Christmas Eve. (Mom keeps a very secret master list of these names-so there can be no funny business.) It is also nice to do "secret" special things for your special person during the season of Advent.

Our new Jesse Tree Banner

Becky and I spent a cold snowy Sunday afternoon making a new Jesse tree for this years Advent.
Becky made the beautiful tree and I cut out and laminated the Jesse tree ornaments.
We are all looking forward to dinner time everyday when we will add a new ornament, which will bring us closer and closer to Christmas.

A Cobweb Christmas-review and craft

Thanks to Cay Gibson's new book--Christmas Mosaic--I have a wonderful resource to find many-many great picture books for the advent and Christmas season ahead. The Christmas Mosaic
contains book studies for thirty books, broken down into weekly lists. Each book study includes discussion questions, vocabulary lists, copywork, and enrichment activities.
The list of books itself, make it a very useful resource.

The first three books, The Christmas Cobwebs, The Cobweb Christmas, and The Cobweb Curtain, have been enjoyed this week. They tell three different stories about the helpfulness of spiders during this holy Christmas season.

I decided to have the kids make their own spide web Christmas decorations today. First I had the kids draw a spiderweb design on black construction paper. They then carefully copied over the pencil with glue. Next came their favorite part of the whole process. They shook a very liberal amount of glitter over the glue, and then as Gracie calls it,

she "did the magic", shaking the glitter off to reveal the design.

Our beautiful finished products.

Becky's picture is exceptionally beautiful! She used a toothpick to spread the glue very carefully. The results of her hard work speaks for itself.

An Advent Paperchain

This year, to go along with our non-traditional advent log, we have made a non-traditional advent calendar-paper chain. We have used the colors of advent--purple and pink--with Christmas highlighted with a red chain.

Here, Mark and Grace hold up our chain. Tags have been added with certain exciting events that take place as we are counting our way to Christmas.

Included on the tags are saint days, family birthdays and Christmas parties. I think I will add other tags with things such as making cookies and decorating the tree. I have written some dates on the paper chain also.

We will tear a chain off everyday, bringing us closer and closer to Jesus' birthday.

Our Advent Log

Inspired by Dawn's advent post last year, when the need arose for a new advent wreath this year, I decided to go the untraditional route and make an advent log.

I sent my wonderful husband outside at my Dad's house on Sunday, and he graciously cut down a birch tree. (It had died and needed to be removed anyway.)

I told both Pat and my Dad what my idea was and they headed downstairs with the log and then emerged with this log with the holes drilled into it perfectly.

Yesterday I purchased new candles for the log and they fit perfectly. It is very sturdy. Last year we just used four candlesticks, and that wasn't practical or safe. This is perfect.

I have added the artificial greens to it and it looks ok, but I think the next time I am at Mom and Dad's, I will cut some cedar to place around the candles.
It has a lovely, simple look that we are sure to enjoy for at least the next several years.

The Liturgical Wheel

As the Liturgical year draws to a close I wanted to show the children the yearly cycle of the church. I found this very simple version of the Liturgical wheel at St. Francis Academy
that we used as a coloring page.

We are very excited to be headed into the season of Advent, which will be full of our preparations for the coming of Our Lord as a baby.

Today we were also reminded that the Baby we are waiting for is also the King of heaven and earth. Tomorrow we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, and in honor of this day we made crowns to remind us that the same Baby born in a manger, the same Jesus who died on a cross, is the same Jesus whom is the Supreme Being, the King of heaven and earth.