Our Christmas ADVENTures

Our family celebrates the Advent season in a few different ways. This year we will have some activities that are annual traditions for us and at least one new tradition.

One of our favorite Christmas traditions in the advent calendar that my mom made for me when I was a child. Each day we add on ornament to the tree and by Christmas day it's all decorated. It's simple and charming. I am especially fond of the rick-rack on it:)

This year I have hung the advent calendar in our learning room so we can add our ornament each day as we do our *morning board*.

Another Advent tradition for us is to read through the Christmas story each night using The Advent Book, by Jack and Kathy Stockman.

This book was a gift when our kiddos were much smaller and is a very well-loved and much-anticipated book each December. The illustrations are amazing and each page (day) has a new door to open that reveals the next part of the Christmas story. We read from the beginning, adding one new door each night.

A note of caution: this book can become so well-loved that competition as to who opens the new door can ensue. I suggest taking turns:)

Another book that we enjoy is The ADVENTure of Christmas by Lisa Welchel. It's a wonderful resource for the *rest of the story* behind our modern-day customs, great activities and ideas, even recipes.

Something new for us this year is to create a Jesse tree. I've been reading/hearing about them for a few years now~it seems like such a wonderful way to teach your children more about the Scriptures and the background to the familiar Christmas texts in Matthew and Luke.

I was SO excited to find this beautiful resource from A Holy Experience (whose blog I love!). If you subscribe to their daily updates (and you'll want to!) they will send you the link for the free download.

I've been busy preparing mine and we are set to start this morning. I know my kiddos will love this activity~and I'm hoping it will become one of our treasured traditions.

Tell me how your family celebrates Advent.

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Fun With 4th of July Crafts: Part 3

I love my new patriotic front door wreath!! I had fun putting this together, although I must admit this is more of an adult craft than one for kiddos. I was inspired by this article in Family Fun magazine. I didn't have quite everything I needed for this one, but all I had to purchase was a few sheets of scrapbook paper and some double-sided tape. Then all I had to gather up were some scissors, regular Scotch tape, a ruler and some cardboard. First I cut four (5"x 6") pieces of each paper. Then by placing a piece of double-sided tape on one of the short ends of the papers, I rolled them into cones, pressing the seams together well. Then I cut a 10" circle out of cardboard and began to stick the cones on it. I used another piece of double-sided tape to stick the cones on, arranging them in a circular pattern. Next I used regular Scotch tape to attach them on the back to the back of the cardboard. After getting all the cones on, I was ready for my centerpiece. He...

my blessed life

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