St. Nicholas

December 6th is St. Nicholas Day. And to let you in on a secret, he is visiting the Nursery Classroom at Hazel's school tonight. The children will be surprised when they go inside tomorrow morning. They will also hear a little about St. Nicholas. Do you know about him?

Saint Nicholas was born in the third century in Asia Minor, now Turkey, to a wealthy family. He was raised to be a devout Christian and lost his parents in an epidemic. There are many stories about his giving spirit and caring for the poor, the sick and the suffering. There are also many stories about how he cared for the children. For more information you should check out my source of this information, the St. Nicholas Center.

In the classroom tomorrow the children will hear about a good boy named Nicholas who was given so much good food and toys that he would walk with his pockets full of them and when he saw someone suffering or poor he would give that person his things. He went on to become a Bishop when he grew up and heard about an entire town that was suffering from hunger. He had all of his servants gather food and sailed a ship with blue and white sails to the town and knocked on the doors of the people. No one saw him, but when they answered the door there would be food at it.

There are also customs in some countries of leaving shoes out for your gifts. Apparently one of the times Nicholas threw the food in the windows it landed in a shoe and after that the shoe legend began.

So not only will Hazel get some St. Nicholas celebration at school in the morning, but we also made the hand puppet pictured above using the pattern I found at St. Nicholas Center. We followed the directions and glued everything. Hazel will get to play with it tomorrow.

I also made a felt ornament. I am going to give it to Hazel in the morning. I found the pattern at St. Nicholas Center as well. They also have stories, pictures, printables, find hidden object game and other crafts.

In the morning we will rush to school, but after school we will have some time to explore St. Nicholas a bit more. I printed the hidden object game (one of Hazel's favorite things to do nowadays) and pages to color as well as some of the paper crafts for us to try. 

We also found this book at the used book store, so we will be reading it tomorrow again. The book, The Gift from Saint Nicholas by Dorothea Lachner is a wonderful story about how children making a wish to St. Nicholas and he comes through with giving everyone what they wished even though it had been snowing for days and no one could leave their homes.

Now why do I love celebrating St. Nicholas? Well I love the fact that it changes Santa Claus to someone who believed in Jesus and followed God. I love that it takes the importance of what you receive away and makes it more important that you are a giving person. I feel that it reminds us of the true spirit of the holiday.  How will you be celebrating St. Nicholas Day?

Operation Christmas

So a few weeks ago, Annie from Annie One Can Cook shared at Sharing Saturday that she was co-organizing a sign up for Operation: Christmas. Operation: Christmas is volunteering to send a care package to a U.S. Military service person or in this case platoon for Christmas. We were assigned a platoon and the only message I received from its leader was he had a Christmas tree and a few things for it but anything else would be a blessing. I emailed him and asked if there was anything specific they wanted, but did not hear back, so I was on my own. I found a website from Military Missions in Kentucky that had a complete list of suggested things to send. So off I went.

A few of my goals were to have Hazel involved and to send useful things and fun things. I also tried to go a bit healthy with some of it. The platoon has 30 people in it so we made 30 cards. The tree style card idea came from Mudpies and Sunshine and was shared at Sharing Saturday this week. While we had the pom poms and pipe cleaners out, the snowman popped into my head. We made about 7 or so this way and the rest were just rubber stamped since Hazel lost interest. We sent two gift cards to itunes (which I purchased at church so my church got part of the money). Hazel also made one of her wooden color crafts--this one a nativity. I helped her a bit which helped her stay in the lines more than she normally does. We sent individual packaged almonds and trail mix and Craisins. Plus tea bags, iced tea and lemonade mix, hard candies, Lifesavers, candy canes and some Rice Krispie Treats (or I guess I should say Crisp Rice Treats since they are not made with actual Rice Krispie cereal but a crisped organic brown rice--I buy them at Trader Joe's). 

Now sending something to a military person overseas is interesting. They have special flat rate boxes at the post office to send it Priority Mail. Then you have to fill out the long custom form. I have not had to fill out the long custom form to send anything to Dino Boy (Kelly's at Happy Whimsical Hearts son) in Australia or to Kelly for that matter including the knitted farm swap squares.

I do not think Hazel totally understood who we were sending the package to, but she did want to help with it. I'm hoping it is something we can do each year so she learns more about it. Plus I love giving back to the military when they and their families are sacrificing so much to protect our country. 

Also one of my goals this year is to really keep the true meaning of Christmas present in our lives. Between this and donating a toy to the local toy drive done by the fire department in our town, I think Hazel is understanding a bit about giving to people even when we do not know them. Plus we always ask for donations to a local charity for her birthday party since she really does not need anything else and she goes with me to drop everything off (including things she has outgrown--toys and clothes) and sees the factory as they call it. I do hope to instill some charity in her.

What are you doing this year for others? Is this something you do every year or is this the first year you are doing it?

Holiday Stroll--Happy Family Times #36

Have you done something fun with your family this past week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. We are collecting different family activities to inspire us all to have more time with our own families. Please share yours below and visit some of the others to get new ideas of things to do.

Ready to go to the stroll.

This weekend our town held its Annual Holiday Stroll. The schools and many churches have different events at them--mostly on Saturday. We went to check out three of the four elementary schools in town. The first offered a Breakfast with Santa which we caught the tail end of. Right when we walked in the door we saw Santa and Hazel got her picture taken, but we won't get it until Wednesday. She however was a big girl and sat on Santa's lap for the first time. I had to walk her over, but she did sit on his lap and had fun. 

Then we went to check out the crafts and what not. Hazel wrote a letter to Santa which she put in her magic mailbox and she heard back from him already. Then she got her face painted.

Next we went to the school Daddy had gone to as a child. There we had lunch and then Hazel made a sand art.

Then she made a felt mouse candy cane holder. They didn't give candy canes with it though.

Then we checked out the craft fair and of course Santa followed us there and was posing for pictures again. We didn't do it twice in one day though. Steve and Hazel stopped to buy a soldier some socks and send a note and then Hazel and I picked out an ornament where the money went to support the K-9 unit at the police department. Sorry for the blurry picture.

Then we went to the third school. By this time we were getting a bit tired. Santa was there as well. He just seemed to keep following us. I was hoping Hazel wouldn't ask how he could be at all three schools like she did about the malls a few weeks ago. Here she decorated a gingerbread man. Sorry I got the picture after she started snacking on him.

Then she decorated a wooden ornament. She chose a penguin frame ornament.

While she and Steve decorated these I checked out the crafts. We bought some cookies from the PTO and then went home to rest. Hazel had the best time and we decided it was a fun annual event to do. We liked supporting the underfunded schools and just getting out as a family. Maybe next year we will plan it better and actually make it to the Breakfast with Santa for breakfast.


Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

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Advent Calendar Round-Up

As I posted the other day, Advent is one of my favorite times. I have wonderful childhood memories of my Advent calendars as well as the Advent wreath on our dining room table. For my post on Advent wreaths visit here. However here is one that Hazel made this morning. It is made from a printable at First School.

A few years ago, my parents gave us this beautiful wooden Advent calendar for a Christmas gift. I absolutely love it and Hazel gets so excited to open a door. Last year I filled it with needle-felted nativity figures and this year we filled it with Nativity story stones.

Now when we were teenagers, my mother made my cousins an adorable quilted Advent calendar. I am hoping to make one at some point. I bought the fabric last year, but haven't gotten around to it. So sometime in the future I will make one. However there are many simple and creative ones that you can make that have been shared the past month or so on Sharing Saturday. Here are some of them.

First two I couldn't get pictures from:
From Life on the Gravelly Road has a wonderful homemade one with each card having a scripture reading and a fun activity.

From Mummy Mummy Mum! has a wonderful felt ornament tree Advent calendar.

Now for some that I could take pictures:

1) From Little Wonders' Day: Easy Door Advent Calendar
2) From Wesens-Art: Star Advent Calendar
3) From Making Boys Men: Magnetic Advent Calendar
4) From S.O.S. Mom: Advent Calendar
5) From Wesens-Art: Advent Calendar
6) From Living Montessori Now: 40+ Advent Activities Round-Up

A Few More...
Here is one from an Advent Workshop at our church last year:

For each of the 24 days before Christmas you glue on a holly leaf to make a wreath.

From Catholic Mom: 2012 Printable Advent Chain each day the chain has a kind activity for the child to do and the instructions suggest paper color to tie in the colors of Advent.

Do you have any more DYI Advent Calendar ideas? I would love for you to leave a link in the comments!! Or even better share at Sharing Saturday!

Advent Wreaths

Advent is one of my favorite times of the year. Advent in Western Christianity is the time to prepare oneself for the birth of Christ or for Christmas. It is a time I think we need to do less and spend more time with friends, family and God. However our society is one of making it all about the parties, the sales and the things that must be done and often one does not enjoy or prepare as well as we should.

In the church Advent starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas, December 25th. So Sunday is the first day of Advent. An Advent wreath is often used in churches as well as homes to help with the celebration of Advent. Each week a new candle is lit to represent different parts of the coming of Christ. The first candle is a purple one and is hope, the second also purple is peace, the third is pink and is for joy, and the fourth is purple and is for love. The candle in the middle is white and is for Christ. It is traditionally lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Typically the Advent wreath is made with evergreens. I remember my mother always having one with greens. She actually had a pottery wreath holder that held water for the greens with holes for the greens around it and the four candle holders built in. I bought the metal one pictured above and do not add the greens since we do not have a real tree. However there are many simple ones you can make as well. For example, pictured below is an Advent wreath we made at church during the Advent Workshop a few years ago. It is a Styrofoam wreath wrapped in green crepe paper and then with fake greens and berries glued on and the candles just pushed into the wreath.

The evergreens symbolize everlasting life and the circle symbolizes God's love with no beginning and no ending. (Source) Purple of Advent represents penance in the church. (Source) The pink candle represents joy. The tradition of the pink or rose colored candle for the third Sunday comes from the Catholic Church when the Pope was known to give a rose at this mass to help break the solemn mood of Advent. (Source)

There are many crafts for children having to do with Advent and Advent wreaths. Here are a few I found.

• Advent Wreath Craft in two sizes from First School (See above)
• Coloring Pages of Advent Wreaths and Bible Stories from First School
• Advent Wreath Coloring page from Catholic Mom
• Advent Paper Chain (with different activities for each day in Advent for a child to do) from Catholic Mom (See links on the bottom of Resource List)
• An adorable paper hand print Advent Wreath from The Catholic Toolbox
• Loyola Press has a great  hand-out tutorial for a wreath as well as history, readings, etc.
• Activity Village has an activity wreath where you can color or print in color and add the candles each week.

Another favorite part of Advent is the Advent Calendar. I will share more about this tomorrow. The calendar starts on December 1st. Hazel opened hers today and got a Mary story stone. I have all the Nativity story stones in hers. I try to give her something to play with as we tell the story.