Advent Happenings

Making our Christ candle.  Very simple rub-ons that I picked up at Michael's at last year's post Christmas sale.

Inspired by Jessica's post from last year, I created an O'Antiphon's house of our own.  She so very sweetly shared the document she used for her house and I was well on my way :)

Some purple spray paint left from Lent, some gold from Easter and a trip to Michael's and I was all set.  They didn't have any blocks in the size I needed, so we got one large block and hubby cut them down to size for me.

Also inspired by Jessica, we celebrated the O'Antiphon days with their own special activity.  Each day was a hit and the kids were so excited about the next day.  This is definitely a tradition that we'll be keeping around here!

December 17th ~ O Wisdom ~ We gave the kids each a book.  Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to catch them...but they got books about Epiphany

December 18th~O Adonai~ Gingerbread house kit!  The boys and their daddy had a blast putting it together.  I think they did a rather nice job for their first time :)

December 19th~O Root of Jesse~ I had planned on making a stew or soup of some kind including root veggies, but I ran out of time.  So I settled with reading The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola.  BTW...did you hear his good news???  Another good idea would be these cupcakes.

December 20th ~ O Key of David ~ Key lime pie, of course!  I think I may need to find something else because the boys weren't too into this pie. :(

December 21st ~ O Dayspring ~ We went for a Christmas light drive.  Other ideas.

December 22nd ~ O King ~ the plan was to make crowns or crown shaped sugar cookies.  Notice I said "the plan"...

December 23rd ~ O Emmanuel ~ We didn't really do anything for this.  But I'm in love with this chocolate Nativity set Jessica made.  Of course she has other wonderful ideas to go along with O Antiphons too :)

Of course we had our Advent wreath, Jesse Tree, and other countdown calendars as well as our Nativity set.  (I see that I neglected to post pictures of the completed donkey...)

When we rearranged the house we neglected to leave space for the Christmas tree :(  So we searched and procrastinated. Finally we decided to put it in the corner of the dining area.  You can see a bit of it in the picture above.  There was no room for the angel though, so she resided on top of one of the bookcases looking over the whole room.

Donkey and goat

Two more figures for our Nativity...

 donkey

goat

The set is really coming together.  My goal is to get the other 2 wise men done before Christmas.  I would also like to get the cow and any other animals done before we put the set out.  I forget how many others there are.

Shepherd, sheep and wise man

I've been working hard at getting my project list completed for the year.  I'm behind "schedule", but I'm making progress and I'm content with that :)  I've completed some more figures for our Nativity set...

Wise Man #1

The sheep...

and of course, since you can't have sheep without a shepherd...

I'm hoping/planning on getting the other two wise men and the donkey done before Advent starts.

More Christmas crafts & a new angel

Velcro Boy's snowman

My generous Velcro Boy decided he wanted to make this wreath for Doodlebug's door.  Isn't he sweet???

Inspired, The Professor decided to make him a door hanger.  Unfortunately with the way our doors close, a doorhanger is less than practical :(  So the kids each have a doorhanger now, and it hangs on their wall :)

In addition to the family tree, each of the boys has their own tree in their room.  The elders decorated on their own, I "helped" Doodlebug.

Doodlebug's

The Professor's

Velcro Boy's

We also got an angel for our family tree.  We've used a star  for the last several (since I can remember) years.  Last year we couldn't find an angel we liked.  This year, we did!

Isn't she pretty??

The finished tree...

Gabriel

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm now surrounded by Gabriels!  The Annunciation has happened about 20 times today.  Just here in our house.  Imagine how many times it's happened around the world ;)

Doodlebug's (aka made-by-mommy)

The Professor's

and...Velcro Boy's

We were planning on making Joseph today, but got busy doing some other things.  That's right...more pictures tomorrow or the day after :)

I'm surrounded!

By Mary!  Velcro Boy had a project to "make" Mary.  And of course what one boy does, the others have to do too.  Someone has got to tell me how to say no to these requests.

So there's not one...

Doodlebug's

Not two...

Velcro Boy's

But three Marys floating around the house.

The Professor's (Of course, he had to be different!)

Bet you can't guess how many Gabriels are floating around ;)

Joseph comes tomorrow :)

Our Nativity

Our Nativity is all set up.  Well, all except the 3 most important visitors.  The box in the middle is one of the Professor's projects.  He made a manger and the kids get to put in a piece of "straw" when the do a good deed or make a sacrifice.

Closeups of the cow, donkey and a goat.

 

On the shelf above is the flock :)

The shepherd, 2 sheet, a beggar and a flutist.

 

As it turns out, there are only 19 pieces to this set.  I had earlier mentioned 21.  I have 4 pieces done already and hope to get 6 more done next year.  I think a goal of one figurine every other month is a good goal.

The Angel

Once again I forgot to take the before picture.  Remember Joseph?   Well, here's the angel that announces the birth of Christ...partly done.

Before

After

O Wisdom-O Sapientia

O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Come, O divine Wisdom, give us the true knowledge and the taste for what is  eternal and divine. Inspire us with a thirst for God's holy will, help us seek God's guidance and direction, enlighten us in the teachings of the holy gospel, make us submissive to Thy holy Church. Strengthen us in the forgetfulness of self, and help us to resign ourselves to a position of obscurity if that be Thy holy will. Detach our hearts from resurgent pride. Give us wisdom that we may understand that "but one thing is necessary" (Luke 10:42). "For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26.) The Holy Spirit would have us know that one degree of grace is worth more than all worldly possessions.

~from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B

found here

It's all up!

The house, inside and out, is finally decorated for Christmas. With the exception of the tree anyway. That will go up on Sunday and be decorated next Monday and Tuesday.

In years past, I've made an all-out push to get the decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Last year, hubby convinced me to slow it down and delay the decorating. So I did, sort-of :) I took it even easier this year. I put up a box or two of decorations last week, then another this past Sunday. There's another box or two of tree decorations left to do.

I love getting out the Christmas (and Advent!) decorations. So many of our things are home-made, it's like meeting old friends all over again. My ultimate goal is to have all (or most of anyway) of our decorations be home-made. We're well on the way to that goal. And, it's something I'm striving toward over the next several/many years :)

Advent 2009

I thought I would post pictures of our Advent "decorations".

This is the Advent calendar I made 2 years ago.  There are pieces of Velcro on the backs of the ornaments and the reciprocal side on the tree.  When I first made this I only planned it for 2 kids, so I got doubles of the ornaments, you know so there couldn't be fights over who got which ornament.  Well...now that there are 3, I'm thinking that I may need to get a few more ornaments.

Our new Jesse tree!!!  I'm so happy with how this is coming out.  I'm horribly behind on this project.  I only have one more ornament made to be hung then I'm out.  I HAVE to get cracking on this!

 

Our Advent wreath:

 

I got tired of picking wax off the greenery and chasing the kids away from the candles, so this year we were going to switch to votives in the holders that fit into the taper holder.  But...we couldn't find unscented votives in the right color.  So hubby found these.  They are LED tapers.  A bit high-tech for an Advent wreath, but they actually look nice.

Our creche`:

As you can see, a sheep has already come to visit.

 

This is the Advent calendar I just finished making.  Boy was it a pain!  But the boys are having fun opening it each day, and that's what counts.

 

I started decorating for Christmas today.  I got through 2 of those big Rubermaid boxes (out of 5 total!).  I'll do more next week.  The tree will go up on Gaudete Sunday and we'll decorate on Monday and Tuesday.  There are so many people in the neighborhood that already have their Christmas lights up. I can't believe it!  The boys are starting to bug me about Christmas light walks.  For the past several years we've gone out walking the neighborhood looking at lights a few times a week after supper.  They want to restart this tradition.  I'm dragging my feet since it's still so long until the holiday.  Plus I would rather wait for a few more lights to go up :)

Joseph is done!

Finally!  Actually, I got him done 2 weeks a few days ago and just forgot to take pictures.  Poor St. Joseph!  First I forget to take his before shot (until after I start painting him!)...

Then I forget to take his after.  I wrapped him up and put him back in the box with Jesus, Mary and the other figurines (still unpainted)!  Poor guy.  Well...here he is at long last :)

Nice, huh?

She's Done!!!

Mary's finally done.  Actually she was done several days ago, I just never got around to posting pictures :)

Here she is

While I'm at it, here's the before of Joseph.  I got so excited by the progress I was making that I forgot to take his picture BEFORE I started painting.  So here he is

I've made quite a bit of progress on him so far and I expect to be done with him shortly into the beginning of November.  I had hoped to be done by the end of October, but got behind (sick kids).  Now I have a few other obligations that I have to take care of.  At least the Holy Family will be done well before Advent.  I MAY even get to Gabriel  before Christmas :)  We'll see how Advent goes.

Our week off, updates, etc

We took last week off, actually the week before - I guess I'm running a bit behind :), and I got a few things done around here. I've been falling a bit behind lately. Velcro boy's toddler bed was busting at it's seems, literally, so we decided to separate the bunk beds and set him up in his own "big boy" bed. We got the mattress, comforter, etc (I already had sheets) and got to work. We redid the room, came out quite nice I must say. After a couple days of making it myself, Velcro Boy has learned how to make his bed all by himself!!!! (Less work for me :) !)

I also did some decluttering and deep cleaning in the master bedroom. We didn't get rid of much, I try to keep up with it as we go, but we did clear out some space in hubby's closet and dresser.

Last Advent we purchased a new Nativity set. Hubby had the idea of getting one with lots of pieces that I could paint. Of course, he knows that I love to paint figurines, so I was all for the idea. To give him credit, he has offered to paint an inconspicuous piece, but I flatly turned him down. It's something I enjoy doing and I don't get to spend much time on hobbies anymore. This covers it for quite a long time to come :) So, while we were on break, I painted the baby Jesus figure. I think it came out fairly well.

Before...

After...

Not too bad. One down, 18 more to go... I'm going to try to get the Holy Family done by Advent. Wish me luck :)

I also got a much needed haircut! I had her go shorter this time. It's up to about my shoulders now.

Of course, knowing me, some time was spent in the kitchen. I made another batch of colby cheese crackers. They're almost gone now, so I need to make more soon. I also took a crack at making graham crackers. Given the rapidity with which they disappeared I would say they were quite good. They really were, and the kids LOVED them! I need to make another batch soon too. The boys have been bugging me about making bagels lately. I've been putting it off since it's a fair amount of work, and I already have enough to do. And I don't need the caloric temptation hanging around.

School is going well. The professor was giving me such a hard time about his spelling (turns out he was bored), so we went through the rest of the 2nd grade book and he knew all the material! We only needed to review one set of sounds. He nailed those, so we've moved on to the 3rd grade book. The work is harder and much more on par with were he is. He's also in the 3rd grade grammar book. We're onto a quick subtraction review in math. We took a while on the addition review because he managed not to learn his math facts last year. We drilled on those for a while and did some review work and I think he's on top of the problem. He still doesn't have them all down cold, but he's getting better and now knows when to count (fingers). We covered Reptiles, herbivores, carnivores and herbivores so far in science, now we're on to the skeletal and muscular systems. We'll spend quite some time on these areas. We're wrapping up our study of North America this week and then we move on to South America.

Velcro Boy (and Doodlebug) are working on the unit for letter "I". Velcro boy surprised me the other day. We were reading and he recognized several letters we haven't covered yet! I was amazed. He's also getting better in his number recognition lately.

And...someone can open doors now! Bet you can't guess who! He can turn the knobs and push the door open into a room, but can't turn and pull the door open (yet). I'm sure it won't be long.