Weekly Menu - The one with a Birthday and Christmas

I'm not quite sure how it happened but, it's Christmas Time.  Wow.  Really, that's all I have to say!

Saturday - Today is Darryl's family Christmas.  We are doing snacks for food so I'm going to take The Bacon Wrapped little Sausages and Bacon Dip with Chips.

Sunday - Baked Sloppy Joes, Salad, and Rolls.  This is a new recipe but it appears to be something simple I can put together on Saturday and then cook after we get home from church.

Monday -Today is Nate's birthday so we are meeting my parents for dinner to celebrate.

Tuesday - Marinated Steak Bites, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, and Biscuits.

Wednesday - We'll be heading to my parents for Christmas.  Our tradition is to feast on snacks after the Christmas Eve Service.  I plan on taking a cheese ball/crackers, Gingerbread Cheesecake Dip, Bacon Wrapped Dates, and veggie pizza.  (Well, that's my plan at the moment!)

Thursday - Merry Christmas ! My mom is cooking - I think we are having Steak and Potatoes.


Friday - Our family Christmas so we'll have the full Christmas spread.

A Christmas Tour

Here's a look at our Christmas Decorations this year!  I found that I enjoy putting out our favorite things and not overloading the house with stuff.  :-)

 We love these two musical houses.  My mom gave them to me and the boys love to hear them play Christmas music and light up. 

 This set holds a special place because my Grandma made them.  I have several other Christmas items that she crocheted through the years and I love putting them out each year.  She was extremely talented and make awesome things through the years (I miss the slippers she used to make us!)

 I love the top of our TV cabinet.  The trees, the Christmas Tree and Snowman which are snowglobes that run on batteries, the candles - some of my favorite items! 

 My nativity scene!  I made this during the summer and was very excited to get it out this year.  The boys have enjoyed the "Activity" too. 

 Of course, our tree!  I love having a Christmas tree up - especially at night or early in the morning when the lights are all that is on.  It is so peaceful!

 Another thing I love is to put out things the boys have made - those snowflakes were made a few years ago. 

 Of course, there must be trees in the boys room!  They each have their own and they love to decorate them.

 A few more art projects :-)  Nothing better than hands and feet (and fingerprints!)

 This tall, skinny tree is a new addition.  I bought it after Christmas last year and just love it!  I wouldn't mind getting a few more to place in corners around the house.

 This is "my" tree.  It sits in the dining room and is covered in pink and purple.  It's a total girl tree and I love it HA!  Plus, it matches my purple dining room!

What We're Eating - Corn Casserole

Corn Casserole
adapted from Made from Pinterest

I came across this recipe when someone posted a link on Facebook.  It sounded good and like something a little different for a side dish than what we usually have with dinner.  A friend of  mine shared that her family has been making this for years and it is a true favorite.  It really was tasty and it is a pretty inexpensive dish to make also.  


1 (8 ounce) box Jiffy Corn Muffin mix
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (15 ounce) can creamed corn (not drained)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients together and pour into a greased 8″x8″ casserole dish.
Cook uncovered for 50 minutes or until lightly browned.
 

Homeschool Happenings - Week 16

I remember, when I taught school, how exciting this last week of school was before Christmas break.  I would plan special activities that revolved around our studies currently, make special crafts, finish up work on Christmas gifts I would make my students, and plan our Christmas party.  Really, I was just trying to make the week go faster so I could enjoy a few weeks off HA!  (Now you know how teachers feel!) I have a similar feeling this week - I want to do some fun things, wrap up some studies, and get ready to take some time off. 

 I shared on Monday about the Snowflake craft that we made this past week.  We usually do our crafts on the day that the munchkin I babysit doesn't go to preschool which is normally Friday but, this week he did not have school on Tuesday (but went on Friday instead) so we did our craft on Tuesday.  They all enjoyed glitter glue and paint to the fullest extent possible.

 The boys had fun "rolling" a gingerbread man (the idea comes from Teaching Hearts) .  They always love when they get to use the giant foam dice that we have and, amazingly, they had very few extra rolls; they had to tally mark each number that they rolled and you can see that there weren't a lot of marks!  (Josh's is the one above and Nates picture is the orange one.)

 Another day, we colored this cute little reindeer based on reading sight words. This comes from a packet created by The Moffatt Girls. 

 The boys really love to sing so using some printables from 1+1+1=1 to teach them "The Twelve Days of Christmas".  We sing one section each day and they have a number tracing sheet to do as well.

 Nate's numbers to our song.

 Josh's Numbers to our song.

I really struggled this holiday season with what to use to teach the Christmas story.  I've done something dinfferent over the past two years and thought about using one of those again but, honestly, I wasn't feeling a month long advent study - I felt like it was just too much.  Then I came across this 12 days of Christmas concept from Happy Home Fairy that was perfect.  It's just these little cards/pictures that you place inside an envelope; each day pull out the card which tells one piece of the Christmas story and the pictures.  It's a great way to talk about the Christmas Story with the boys. 

Just a peak at our White Board.  Josh likes to keep track of how many days we have to special things such as Nate's birthday (The "Happy Birthday") and Christmas.  He changes the numbers every day.

Our regular school work is going great.  Josh accomplished a big thing in phonics . . .he can sound out words; he is beginning to read!  It is so awesome to see that happen and see him start to put the sounds together. 

It's hard to believe that we are coming into our last week of school for 2014.  We will take the week of Christmas off without anything school related at all.  We will do some fun things but mostly, we'll focus on Nate's birthday and Christmas.  The week of New Years, I'd like to do as little as possible but I may plan a couple of fun crafts to break up our day. 

Make it Monday - Star Christmas Ornaments

I've mentioned before that I have tried to be intentional with our December plans by planning activities and, well, actually doing them!  The boys have enjoyed doing some crafts especially when those crafts include things like glitter glue, beads and paints! 

Mess for Less shares a simple tutorial for making some awesome snowflake ornaments that were perfect for my boys.  I love the idea of having the boys make a special ornament each year for our tree so making these was a winner!

 Nate's masterpieces which he made exactly the same. 

Josh's masterpieces - he made a rainbow and a fun snowflake with lots of beads.

I did a little prep work on these by using hot glue to make the snowflakes out of popscicle sticks.  This way, the boys could just paint and glitter and glue to their hearts content and I wouldn't need to scrap anything off to glue them together.  We made two ornaments - one to take to Great Grandma and one to keep at home (but Josh has already told me that his is for Papa and Nana so . . Mom, you might get it but it is really mine HA!) Great Grandma loved her ornaments and hung them on her super tiny tree (she lives in a nursing home). 

These would make a great craft for the family, daycare, or a Sunday School class!

Things My Kids Say

* I've had so much fun listening to the boys sing their songs for their Christmas Program.  My favorite part is how they sing the wrong words.  Such as the line in Hark the Herald Angels Sing that says, "God and Sinners reconciled".  Josh sings it, "God and Sisters reconciled"  or, a song from their program that says, "Holy Holy" and he sings, "Homey, Homey"  :-) hahaha

*We took the boys to see Santa recently (which raised all kinds of questions from whether Santa drives a car to how he knows who is naughty or nice!).  One of the Elves walked by and Josh (loudly) exclaimed, "Look mom, even the Leprechauns came to see Santa!"  We explained that they were Elves; for the next few days Josh would ask, "What are those people called who work for Santa?"

Family Fun - A Live Nativity and An adorable Nativity

This past weekend was filled with some awesome fun! 

We started out on Saturday with a trip to my Father-in-laws.  I didn't take any photos but we had a great visit.  He even took us to "The Cheese House" and bought us some awesome cheese (I love the Olive Cheese!).  Once we left there, we stopped at McDonald's for dinner and the boys got to play in the playland for a little bit too.  From there, we went to a Live Nativity put on by another local church.  Now, I have never been to a true live nativity and really wasn't sure what to expect but, it was fabulous.

 Darryl and the boys.  Josh and Nate thought this was awesome.  We got to walk down a path that was light by torches so we had to "Follow the fire"!

 As we walked along the path, there were stops where, as we arrived, a light would come on and they participates would tell the Christmas story.  It was so well done from the story itself, to the costumes, the the real live animals. 

After we had walked through the entire set, there was coffee/Hot Chocolate and coffee.  There was the option to ride in a wagon through the Nativity but we were glad we walked it so we could do it at our speed.  We did take the wagon ride from the cafeteria back to the beginning and that was fun. 
We plan to make this a tradition in coming years. 

Sunday we got to enjoy the boys Christmas program which they have been working on for months! 

 The boys singing in the choir.  Don't you just love their shirts?  I do!  I ordered from a great Etsy shop called Embrace Ethiopia.  The owner was wonderful to work with and I got the shirts very quickly! 

 Josh had a small solo in one of the songs.  It was so awesome to hear him sing out his part loud and proud (since every time we practiced at home, he whispered his part!)

 Near the end of the program, all of the younger kids left and then came back dressed up as the Nativity.  I don't know about you but to me, there is nothing cuter than a bunch of munchkins dressed up in costumes of "days of old". 

 Nate was a cow.  He picked the cow costume and loved it.  And let me tell you, there has never been a cuter cow.  Ever :-)

 I could just eat that cow right up . . .oh wait, that's kind of odd. 

 Josh picked a shepherd.  How adorable is this kid anyway?  He also said his verse without any help - he had that thing memorized and said it loud, and clear.  (we worked hard on that!). 

 The Cow, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the microphone and refused to say his verse (which is fine because cows don't talk anyway, right?).  He just chose to look cute and play with his ears. 

The boys took a bow together at the end - I loved it!

The added bonus on Sunday is that both my parents and Darryl's mom and her husband came to see the boys.  The boys were so excited to have the two sets of grandparents there to watch them. 

We had a fantastic weekend as we started the Christmas season and are looking forward to more in the coming weeks!