{{Keeping Christ In Christmas}} - 7 Ideas For Families

Christmas will be here soon!!

Twelve more days!!!!

December 25th marks the *beginning* of Christmas, not the *final* day!!!

Although most of the world around us is celebrating Christmas now,  as Catholics, we are called to hold off and wait until Christmas Day and use this season of Advent to prepare ourselves.  Then come Christmas Day, we can rejoice in the Newborn Babe and celebrate His birth and presence in a number of ways.  Here are 7 tips on Keeping Christ in Christmas....


#1 - Keep your decorations up!   Don't take them down and pitch the tree in the ditch on December 26th.  Let the tree and all your decorations stay up for at least the 12 Days of Christmas to get you to Epiphany.  The Christ-child is the Light of the World, so keep celebrating his birthday by keeping your home decorated until Epiphany.   Feel free to leave all this up til Candlemas (Feb 2nd) even!   But at least follow the Church's example by celebrating with decorations until the feast of Epiphany.

#2 - Speaking of the 12 Days of Christmas, celebrate them!   They begin ON Christmas, not END on Christmas.  Again the 12 Days carry you all the way to Epiphany.   We have a few books on the Twelve Days of Christmas, that we read a page a day (only on that day of Christmas).  We talk about the symbolization about what each day means in our faith.  Every day, the kids open a simple gift that represents that day.  And, of course, we sing the song about the twelve days of Christmas, motions and all!  When you finally reach Epiphany,  go all out with an Epiphany play - with the 3 wise men and their gifts, Mary, Joseph, a baby Jesus!  Click HERE to see posts on how we celebrate these special days.  (there's also a gift idea for a Twelve Days of Christmas gift basket, if you are still looking for that "perfect" gift - it's obviously religious themed and one that keeps on giving!)

#3 - Keep listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies!!!   

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is 

singing loud so all can hear" 

~Buddy the Elf (from Elf)

Our local radios stop playing Christmas music at the New Year, so dig out all your Christmas CDs or get your playlists ready to keep the Christmas Carols playing.  Make a joyful noise!!

Fa la la la la, la la la la!!!  

Likewise, keep the joy of Christmas going by watching your favorite movies together as a family.  Pop the popcorn, turn down the lights, push play to start your favorite Christmas movie, and enjoy some fun family movie nights remembering the JOY sent down on Christmas Day to be a gift to every one of us.


#4 - Add baby Jesus to your nativities on Christmas day.  If He's already in your nativities at home, go pull him and hide him until Christmas Day.  Wrap Him up and put the wrapped baby Jesus under your tree. And then on Christmas Day, read the story of Christ's birth and have the kids open The Best Gift Of All - Christ born into the world!!   We always have a procession singing one of our favorite Christmas songs as we as we walk about the house and stop at the nativities to place Baby Jesus into His crib.  We actually have multiple nativities/cribs set up in our house, so this takes a bit of time.  But it's so special because multiple kids each get a chance to open the Baby Jesus gift and carry Him to His crib.  Such a special way to begin our Christmas morning and help us remember why we even celebrate Christmas.

#5 - If you haven't sent out Christmas cards, DO!!!   It's still Christmas until Jan 5th, and if you want you can even give yourself to Feb 2 (Candlemas) to get them out.    Everyone loves to get mail and what a beautiful statement you'll be making to others by continuing on the celebration of Christmas.

#6 - Focus on the people you love, not the present.  One of the best gifts you can give another is the "gift of time".  So if you are needing to take part in gift-giving/exchanges, consider giving the "gift of time" - either from the time/love/hard work put into a homemade gift (here's our favorite homemade gift to give) -OR- give a homemade "gift certificate" for a gift of taking a loved one out to dinner/movie or a concert/movie or adoration/coffee date or a daily Mass/breakfast date.   The ideas are endless!!   And just think of the love of Christ in you that you'll be sharing and then the opportunity you'll get to spend time with your family/friend to find Christ in them when you actually spend that special time with them.

#7 - Celebrate with a cake and a song.  Everyone knows that you can't celebrate a birthday without a birthday cake and singing "happy birthday".  Same with Christmas Day!   Bake (or buy) a cake, write "Happy birthday, Jesus" and sing "Happy birthday" to him.  Easy peasy and another reminder why we celebrate Christmas.  We celebrate Him!   The birth of the Newborn King!   Happy birthday, Jesus!    (Our Pookey's birthday is 4 days before Christmas, so we always write his name on the cake too.  He LOVES being birthday month buddies with Jesus!)

May the blessing of the Newborn Christ 

live in and shine so beautifully 

through you this Christmas season!!    

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This is the second month of a new blog hop, 

Siena Sisters Blog Hop!  

Click on the image below to see what other Catholic Women are 

sharing on this month's theme {{Putting Christ In Christmas}}....

7 Ideas for Kids to Celebrate the 2016 Olympics

I don't know about you, but my kids are thrilled the 2016 Olympic Games have started!!  As a homeschool teacher, you always want to tap into the interests of your kids and expand upon them to create unique learning opportunities.  So why not do so with the Olympics this year??

1.  Schedule
Here are two printable schedules that we found and printed online.  Be sure to check out the tv listing one though for the actual times that the sports are broadcasted.  My kids have been so cute, first thing in the morning, running to the schedule to see what's playing for the day.

2.  Flag Banner
We printed these cute little table toppers, cut them out, folded them over and glued them onto a piece of yarn to make a nice banner.  There are only 16 flags, but they are most popular ones and definitely ones that are good for the kids to recognize and become familiar with.

3.  Torch Craft or Coloring Page
Gotta include the Torch, eh?  Pick which one is best for you and your crew - a simple coloring page or a 3D version of a hand holding a torch.  Both super cute!!  And if you have big kids too like me, you might want to offer this cool Origami Olympics Ring craft as well.  ;)

4.  Food and Snacks
Love this link and three of their ideas - Olympic Rings Pizza, Torch Snack, and a Gold Medal Dessert!  Sounds like a great family night and a fun themed meal already planned!!

5.  Build Lego Flags
If you have Lego fans in your house, then you gotta set them loose in building away little Lego flags.  Here are two examples I found online.  They might have to be creative with some symbols - like all the stars in the United States flag.  (my crew just taped on some white paper to add in that color since we didn't have white duplos)  See what they can come up with!  And, maybe their little imaginations will run wild and they'll build other creations related to the Olympics.

6.  Build Up Some Pride For Your Team/Country
Wear your red, white and blue clothes and your stars and stripes!!  Get out all those cute clothes that your kids wore for Fourth of July and have them wear them when they watch the Olympics.  Wash them, and then re-wear again!  Most likely, you'll be in the comfort of your own home, so you can wear the same outfit twice during the week, or even three times, four times!  ;)  Learn about the States where your favorite athletes are from.  Make a Flag Banner and Flag Legos for all the states (#2 and #5!).  And, if you don't know this song yet, watch and watch and watch until you are singing it by heart....

And a second song that I want my kids to work on and learn by heart is our National Anthem, since it's played whenever Team USA wins gold....

7.  Watch It Together
Seriously, this one is SO easy, yet SO hard.  Moms and Dads, sit down with your kids and watch it with them!  We have been doing this and even eating some dinners out in our living room (easy, non-messy finger foods, of course!).  This quality time is huge for kids - they love it.  And you will love the conversations that happen SO naturally when you watch it with them.

What are some fun things you are dong with your family to celebrate the Olympics this year? 
Please do share and comment below!  I'd love to hear from you!  :)

++God Bless Team USA and all the other participants in the 2016 Rio Olympics++

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Gender Reveal in 7 Easy Steps

Last Friday, I announced our pregnancy here on the blog.  Thank you all for your love, support, and most especially your prayers.  I'll need them for sure and appreciate them greatly.  And, as CrAzY as it sounds, this week I get to share the gender of our precious little baby.  What?  I know already?  Oh yeah!!  Today's post is "7 Easy Steps on How To Do a Gender Reveal".  Enjoy, my friends!!  

#1- Take the Informaseq Blood test.  It tests for Downs and Trisomy, but the BIG thing is...  it also tests gender.  And is 100% accurate on the sex.  This is the second baby we have done this for, because it's a newer test and wasn't available for my other pregnancies.  Plus, the cool thing is that it can be done much earlier.  Much earlier than the 18-20 week ultrasound that you are just hoping baby isn't crossing his/her legs for.  Anyways, I had my blood test done last week and was only 11 weeks along.

#2- Answer the phone when your doctor's office calls and tell them "yes" that you want to know over the phone.  Shhhhh!!! Don't tell anyone!!  (Except I did tell hubs, but not the kids - they got the Big Reveal!!)

#3- Go shopping as soon as you can!!!  How many kids do you have?  Me?  I have 8.  So, I bought 8 boy things and 8 girl things, plus 8 gift bags (or you can wrap the items, if you wish.  I'm lazy.  And busy.  Gift bags work best for me).  Obviously, I knew which items we would really keep since I knew the sex.  But kiddos didn't.  A few of my kids were at their homeschool history class, so I only had the 5 littles with me.  They got to help me pick out things and had a blast doing it!  But again, they had NO clue which items we'd be keeping!!  Now if you are able to shop alone, then only buy the sex you need.  I bought items for the other gender as a cover-up so my crew didn't know the secret yet.  (**don't forget to keep the receipt, because the items of the wrong sex should all be taken back**)

#4- Stuff away!!!  Put the correct items that match the gender from your phone call from your test into the gift bags (or wrap away - your preference!).  Don't forget to shut or lock the doors.  Or threaten kids to NOT PEEK and STAY AWAY.

#5- Take a cheesy picture of the kids.  For fun and a great "before" picture, but mostly to stall as long as you can.  And get everyone to smile perfectly.  Again more stalling.  You have to get the "perfect" picture!

#6- Take a video of the kids opening the presents/The Great Reveal.  You can't forget this one.  You will love to go back and re-play and watch it over and over.  Especially the really great actors of the family!  Where's my video?  Scroll to the bottom of this list.  I *have* to make you wait.  At least a little bit.  ;)

#7- SHARE AWAY!!!  Other than texting family and close friends the day of, this is my blog and Facebook reveal!!  Enjoy...

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An Announcement and 7 of My Favorite Baby/Children/Pro-Life Quotes

Due Date:  November 28th

Expected Arrival:  around Halloween

(doc will take babe a month early to minimize the stress on my uterus that last month of pregnancy)

This will be my 9th c-section.  Very risky as I've mentioned before, so please pray for us.  We love this little one to pieces already and trust Our Lord who allowed me to get pregnant again.  Obviously we are hoping and praying to have a beautiful baby to hold and snuggle and a healthy and happy family of 11 by the end of this year!!

So, onto seven of my favorite children/baby/pro-life quotes....

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

~Matthew 19: 14

“How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.”

~Blessed Mother Teresa

“When a child is given to his parents, a crown is made for that child in Heaven, and woe to the parents who raise a child without consciousness of that eternal crown!”

~Ven. Fulton J. Sheen

"The greatest gift you can give your child is another sibling."

~Pope Saint John Paul II

(although I just found this and now wonder if he really said this.  Does anyone know?)

"Look at the mothers who truly love their children: how many sacrifices they make for them. They are ready for everything, even to give their own blood so that their babies grow up good, healthy and strong."

~Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

“All of us must care for life, cherish life, with tenderness, warmth…to give life is to open (our) heart, and to care for life is to (give oneself) in tenderness and warmth for others, to have concern in my heart for others.  Caring for life from the beginning to the end. What a simple thing, what a beautiful thing..So, go forth and don’t be discouraged. Care for life. It’s worth it.”

~Pope Francis

“A person is a person no matter how small.” 

~Dr. Seuss

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And I'm going to add in an eighth quote as prayer for myself and my little one in womb...

"0 Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to happen to me, make me only know Your Will".

~Saint Gianna Beretta Molla

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7 Quick Takes - Newness All Around

As we walk through life, the only true constant is change.  But I'd like to add to that - and God!  He is always there for us.  Always knocking on the doors of our hearts.  Always waiting.  Always loving.  And, if we are striving daily to love Him....to please Him... to grow closer to Him..., then we need to be open to change and the newness of our daily routine and lives.  A change of heart.  A change of life.  A change of pace.  Whatever it may be, He is constantly molding and shaping us into the persons we are meant to be.  Change is going to and should happen.  We might as well accept it.  

Many new things have happened this week and last week and here's a peek at what God has been doing in our lives - the newness that He has created and allowed for us....

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#1

We are now in Ordinary Time in our faith.  Green, it is!!  Green is for growing, right?  But how can anything grown when it's January?  And cold?  And snowy?  Everything is dead outside, but we can let things become dead inside of us.  We must continue with Piety, Study, Action and lean on the Sacraments to get us through daily and continue with the spiritual growth.  

#2

My sweet kids have begged to use a pottery wheel or take an art class where they could.  One of my daughters even wanted to buy one of the little chintzy kits sold at Hobby Lobby.  You know, the like kits that they do once and then are stashed away and forever forgotten about?  Yeah, you know you KNOW!  ;)  Anyways, this momma said "yes" to this experience, because a sweet friends let me know that a local museum (that we already belong to!) has drop in classes multiple times each week where the pottery wheel is available.  Win!!!  I offered to take anyone buy little Yoda, since he's a little too little to work the wheel and play with clay.  He'd only want to eat the clay.  No thanks, sweet baby!  Melody, Ariel, Max, Pookey, and Rose all said "yes" to going.  (I think Fone and Mario thought they wouldn't like it, but I might be able to convince them to go next time!).  What an awesome experience it was!!  Can't wait to take these kiddos back!!

#3

Already blogged on this one, but had to share that this was the first of I'm sure many witnessing experiences for our Fone.  So proud of him for saying "yes" for making it his.  He did a great job sharing on this topic and using his gifts/talents in making it new and fun and enjoyable for all!!  So, if you haven't seen what he did, go NOW and take a look for yourself.  

#4

I'll let this picture of newness speak for itself...   Be sure to let me know what you think. This cutie (and all my cuties are the biggest fan of the blog here!)  

#5

Newness in this little guy's medical history.  Yoda now has a new piece of hardware in his body, although you can't tell by the picture.  He had TUBES surgery this week from reoccuring ear infections (7 last year!).  I'm sure he's bound to start feeling better and be an even happier baby.  

#6

Newness in school!!  February Funk and the dryness and deadness of this time of year can get everyone down, including my kids.  So, I added a couple new fun things to our school routine...

*Prodigy (math games app - the kids have really been loving it!!)

*new Draw Write Now journal books for the kids who didn't have them

*a kit for some Geography studies

*some cute dot coloring books and markers for Miss Rose

#7

And, last, but not least of all, I'm part of a fun and exciting new adventure...  I'm one of the blogging momma's at Cuppa Catholic!!  Go, now, and join me (and some other great moms and friends) for some fun chattin' about family, life and our faith!!  

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7 Quick Takes - our peg doll collection

I have been painting peg dolls since I first saw them on one of my favorite blogs.  It was the perfect time to start creating our own collection because Ariel and Melody were doing the Alphabet Path as well and having a saint to go with every letter was ideal.  Ideal is the word here...  I only got through painting half the alphabet.  It was a great start though and I was such a newbie.  Who knew painting one doll at a time was actually harder than painting multiples?  I've learned now, by being in many peg doll swaps that painting multiple pegs and trading with a group of people doing the same thing is *the* way to go when adding to your peg doll collection!!

Today's quick take is a peek into our peg doll collection - either created by me, collected through swaps, or bought off of Etsy.  Enjoy!

#1 - our first Saint pegs - half of the alphabet - lol!  This is where it all started!  See how plain they were.  My sweet humble peg dolls.  Goes to show that "practice makes perfect".  Well, not even perfect, but much much better.  But still, oh so special, since these guys are where our collection all began.  (St. George was MIA during the "photo shoot")

#2 - Saint peg dolls (some I painted, some I bought, some I swapped)

#3 - super heroes - the big boys and I painted and gifted Max with a set of his own super hero pegs a couple years ago.  And, the next year, St. Nick brought some fancier painted ones (found on Etsy) for Pookey.

#4 - Star Wars pegs - I painted a whole bunch of the Admiral Ackbar pegs and traded in a character peg doll swap.  See close ups of all these guys here.

#5 - Marian pegs - I think out of all the swaps I've done, this is my favorite!!  We love Mama Mary!!  I painted over 20 Our Lady of Mount Carmels and then traded and received so many beautiful Mary peg dolls.  Click on over here to see our whole set and close ups of all our little Mary's.

#6 - Rose received these Disney Princess/Prince/Pair pegs for her birthday this year.  Aren't they adorable?!!! Well, she is too!  I painted Mulan/Shang and traded for the rest through a character peg doll swap on Facebook.

#7 - here are four sets of Nativity pegs that I recently received from a swap - one for us to keep and three to give away as Christmas gifts this year!!

Phew!  I think it's time to take a peg doll painting break, eh?!!

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