Keeping Christ in Christmas

We love Christmas!  Although we do believe in Santa around here, it's important to me for my kids to remember the reason for the season, the birth of our Savior!  Here are four ways that we do that:

1. Advent Calendar.  You can read about our tradition here.  The last couple years the kids didn't know all the songs.  So we had several nights where I tried to sing with Primus reading the words over my shoulder, off key right in my ear.  Memorable, but distracting.  We fit several of the songs into our scripture memorization time the last few months though, so this year was better.

2. Birthday cake for Jesus.  You have to have birthday cake at a birthday party, right?  So why not have one for Jesus?  We eat ours on Christmas Eve.  We even sing the birthday song.  This year Secundus decided we should have this Mickey Mouse cake.  I'm actually really proud of how it turned out!  And I'm sure Jesus would have loved it, too.  :)

3. Kids' Nativity Blocks.  I made these a couple years ago.   They are still in great condition and the kids love to play with them.  On Christmas Eve, Primus got to use them to teach us all the biblical account of Jesus' birth.  I would love to add some characters from the Book of Mormon account.

4. Present for Jesus.  This was new for us this year and we will definitely be doing it again.  At the beginning of the month we talked about Christmas being Jesus' birthday and how the way we give him gifts is to do service for others.  So then every night we wrote on little pieces of paper the acts of service we did that day and then folded them up and put them in our present for Jesus.  For the kids, especially Tertius, they were mostly things like, "I cleaned up when mommy asked me to," or, "I shared my hat with my sister."

Christmas Ornament Crafts

 I love to make Christmas ornaments with my kids.  I prefer my tree to be filled with hand-crafted ornaments rather than Hallmark.  So every year I come up with a couple easy crafts that the kids can do.  Here's what we came up with this year.

These hand prints were done with tempera paint on cardboard circles (white paint doesn't show up on white paper!) and then glued to red construction paper hearts.  Tertius did the snowmen, Quartus did the reindeer, Secundus did the Santa, and Primus did the candy cane.  Primus' hand wouldn't fit on the circle, so I just drew a simple candy cane shape for her and then she finger painted the stripes. 

I had a few of these empty clear glass balls on hand so this was a super easy thing to have them do one night before bed.  It was good fine-motor skills practice for Tertius, too!  Just remove the top and then fill with little colored puff balls.

Find instructions for this pinecone pineapple ornament here.  

This one isn't the prettiest but definitely the fastest one to do.  To make a bell, cut out one cup of an egg carton and cover it with foil.  Then use a pencil to poke a hole in the top.  Put a small piece of pipe cleaner through to form the loop at the top and the clapper inside.  

Sheltered and Happy

We don't have cable or satellite.  If the kids want to watch TV, then they go online (pbskids.org or nickjr.com) or they watch a DVD from the library. Add that to the fact that we homeschool, and yep, my kids are pretty sheltered.  And I'm ok with that.

They don't really understand what commercials are, expect for the DVD previews.  So thankfully they don't beg for rainbow looms or Furbies or whatever the heck is "hot" this holiday season because they either haven't heard of it or at least haven't been told repeatedly that they should want it.

Primus is almost 8 and still likes to watch things like Sid the Science Kid, Wild Kratts, and Daniel Tiger's neighborhood.  I know she will grow up and feel too old for these shows eventually, but right now I don't think she needs to be watching things that talk about kissing and having a boyfriend and such.  She has no idea that pre-teen shows like those on the Disney Channel even exist!  And it just goes without saying that she has no idea who Miley Cyrus or Kim Kardashian are.

The kids won't be young and ignorant forever, and I wouldn't want them to be, but I am definitely enjoying it while I can!

Rice Crispy Great Wall

  We're studying Ancient China and so decided to build the Great Wall out of Rice Crispy Treats.

I made up a quadruple batch and cooled them in three 9X13 pans (lined with greased wax paper.) When I put them in the pan, I pushed it down with my hand (coated in cooking spray) to make them more dense and sturdy.

 Then I cut them into very small squares.  We ended up with a lot extra, but the kids should have built bigger walls so it would have been a good amount.

For mortar we used jarred frosting.
 Tertius just stuck a bunch together in a random order.  But, boy, was he proud!

When we placed the girls' next to each other it made a longer wall. This led to a good review of how the Great Wall was composed in places of previously built walls linked together and repaired

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 It was a fun activity.  Even Quartus got in on the action (the best part-eating it!) when Tertius dropped a big chunk on the floor.

My Thoughts on Beauty

I've been meaning to do this post for a long time.  Then recently I read this blog and saw this video and that was the kick in the butt I needed to add my thoughts to the conversation.

In high school I wore basketball pants in PE no matter how hot it was outside because I was so self conscious about my leg hair.  Even if I shaved the night before, I thought everyone was staring at my legs and noticing the stubble when the sun shined on it. 

I learned how to wear makeup but on mornings when I didn't have time to put on a little mascara, I would wear glasses instead of contacts to distract away from my hideous face.  I wore makeup not because I enjoyed putting it on or experimenting with different techniques and colors, but because I felt like I needed it to look less repulsive.

I had major self confidence issues. 

After I got married, I became a little more comfortable with my appearance, a bit more lax in my shaving frequency, and less frequent with my makeup usage.  But I still had many, many days where I felt ugly and felt like I needed a little help.

Then about three years ago I took a Women in American History class.  At one point we discussed the way women are portrayed in advertising.  And I realized in a sudden moment of clarity, there is a  multi-billion dollar "Beauty Industry" that is making a ridiculous amount of money off of my self-esteem issues.  Their business is literally built on making me feel ugly in my natural state.  Every time I think that the way God created me is inadequate, somebody earns another dollar toward their beach house.  

I have not worn makeup since then.  And I have never felt more beautiful.  In the interest of full-disclosure, occasionally I will still use a dab of concealer to minimize the appearance of a blemish, but that is it.  (As a bonus, I actually have clearer skin now than I did when I was wearing makeup regularly.  Piling on the concealer, foundation and powder-and not being good about washing it all off at the end of the day-contributed to my pretty bad, acne-prone skin.)

I also stopped shaving my legs.  Perhaps this deserves it's own post.  But to be brief, I think humans have body hair for a reason.  (Not exactly sure what that reason is, lol, but there must be a reason!)  And my husband has never cared or noticed whether or not my legs were smooth.  So I have been unable to see a reason, other than "social norms" to scrape a sharp object over my limbs everyday. 

It is now my conviction, and I am trying to instill this belief in my children, that beauty has more to do with confidence and personality than physical appearance.  You are beautiful the way Heavenly Father made you!  Nature is beautiful.