Friday, December 31, 2010

Christmas Lapbooks, Cookies, and Family Fun

Here is our lapbook, The Arrival of a King, from A Journey Through Learning. We still need to fill in the blank spots with some stickers or artwork.







Decorating cut-out cookies





Church Christmas program -- 4's and 5's Class




Recital at Great Grandma's




Santa Grace



"What did you get, Jacob?!!!"




Mom hard at work in the kitchen. She is wearing an original, granddaughter-made
necklace.



Our new quick and easy Christmas decorating ideas


Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas!


Unto us a Son is given, unto us a Child is born!

For our Bible times this month we went through a little book by Michael Card, The Promise: A Celebration of Christ's Birth. The book accompanies his Christmas CD. Here are some of the main points that we learned.


*Christmas is the celebration of the keeping of a promise.
Christianity is founded on a promise. Faith involves waiting on a promise.
Our hope is based on a promise. God promised He would be "with us", not as an unseen ethereal force, but in the form of a person with a name: Jesus.

*Christmas means finding in a place where you would least expect to find anything you want, everything you could ever want.

"He will be called WONDERFUL COUNSELOR,
MIGHTY GOD, ETERNAL FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE"

All this, and infinitely more, alive in an impoverished Baby in a barn.


*An ancient Latin motto, Vicit agnus noster cum sequamur,
means, "Our Lamb has conquered, Him let us follow."

We discussed the paradox of weakness being strength, defeat is victory,
and poverty is wealth.

"Christmas, the celebration of the first Coming of the Lamb,
looks back to the humble stable and the simple shepherds.
The setting is a dark, fallen world. He has come to expose through
His weakness the impotence of what the world calls power. he has come to show
us that it is we who are upside-down. "

*
Christmas is a preparation for the celebration that will be the Second Coming,
of the Lamb triumphant.

My prayer is that the truths of the Incarnation of our Immanuel, God with us, will be hidden in our hearts and drawn upon throughout the coming year.


Monday, December 20, 2010

The Week Before Christmas

This week is one of my favorites of the entire year! It just keeps getting better each year as the kids grow. We all work together to make all of the fun extra things happen. Today Kayla and I baked Christmas cutout cookies together and had such a special time together.




Saturday we hosted our Christmas gathering with Dave's side of the family. The kids have so much fun when they're all together!


Caitlin's Giant Christmas Cookie



A Family of Musicians -- Sharing Christmas Songs




Pile-Up on Caitlin!


Sunday, December 12, 2010

Roman Feast

Last week we completed our unit on ancient Rome and celebrated with a Roman feast! Here you can see the family enjoying their meal, Roman-style, in our triclinium. The meal consisted of roasted peacock (actually chicken!), salad, figs, pears, grapes, and a round loaf of whole grain bread. Dave was the Emperor and I was the household slave serving the meal. We had such a memorable time! After we ate, Kayla entertained us with a lovely dance to harp music and Jacob and Grace recited the Bible verses from Romans that they had been working on since the beginning of the school year. It was a just a little bit of effort to put together, but a super way to conclude our unit!

Our Friendly Emperor (such a good sport!)



The Young Orators



Saturday, December 4, 2010

Family

I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not conceal them from their children,
But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach them to their children,
That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,
That they may arise and tell them to their children,
That they should put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments.
Psalm 78:1-7

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for teaching me God's law and for impressing upon my young heart His wondrous works. Thank you for showing me that my God -- the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- is my strength.

I will not forget His works and will tell them to my children.

Oh, the providence of our Heavenly Father!

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