The Christmas Story

This coming Sunday marks the beginning of Advent, which those of you who study Latin will recognise as coming from the Latin word meaning ‘to come’ -- ad venit. Having suffered the decapitation of my baby Jesus from my nativity set, I was inspired to pick up my needles and start knitting after seeing that the Kathe Kruse dolls were a little too pricey for me :D

The idea was, to give the kids something with which to act out the Christmas story. I wanted something soft and safe to play with… and I have a lot of spare yarn in my stash :) So digging down into the stash, I grabbed appropriate colours and began to knit. Here are the initial characters!

From The Gospel of Luke Chapter 1: Douay-Rheims Bible 1899

²⁶ And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, ²⁷ To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin's name was Mary.

²⁸ And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. ²⁹ Who having heard, was troubled at his saying and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be.

³⁰ And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. ³¹ Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus. ³² He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. ³³ And of his kingdom there shall be no end.

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?

³⁵ And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren. ³⁷ Because no word shall be impossible with God.

³⁸ And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

What a Week...

I do hope all of you in the USA had a Happy Thanksgiving! Ours was intimate, and a little subdued, because a family friend is rather sick.
Then we took advantage of the sales, and bought about 3 things. The rest we got online another time!
THEN there are the presents to be made... my Secret Santa Recipient will get some, and so will the kids... so I'm busy busy busy. Aren't we all?
I'll get some pictures and such uploaded later!
In the meantime, Elizabeth has posted some Christmas ideas :)

Thanksgiving Fun...

I LOVE Lemon meringue Pie!  HT Drew over at Running River Latin School

You Are Lemon Meringue Pie

You're the perfect combo of sassy and sweet. You always know how to brighten someone's mood, but you're not overly sappy. In fact, you can be a bit too honest at times. And most people find that refreshing. While you're always true to yourself, you keep things light. That's how people are able to stomach your slightly bitter outlook. Those who like you have well refined tastes. You're complicated - and let's face it - a true enigma. You enjoy defying expectations, and there are many layers to your personality. There's not one easy way to define you.

What Kind of Pie Are You?

Then after all the eating, perhaps you'd like some entertainment...
Try this one over at Nissa's Blog!

Blogged with Flock

What Part of Thanksgiving are You?

HT to Dawn.

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Oridnary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You're the glue that holds everyone together.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

Blogged with Flock

Ben Stein on Christmas

I discovered this over at  Does it Bother You if I Change my Title Occasionally?
And I found it very interesting :)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on a CBS Sunday Morning Commentary............

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few
confessions from my beating heart: I have no
freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them
on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am
buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask
the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know
who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will
it change my life if I know who they are and why
they have broken up? Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do
not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee
and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just
have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young.
It's not so bad.

Next confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors
was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little
bit when people call those beautiful lit up,
bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel
threatened. I don't feel discriminated against.
That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry
Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting
me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact,
I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers
and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It
doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger
scene on display at a key intersection near my beach
house in Malibu If people want a crèche, it's
>>just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred
yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a
Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting
pushed around for being Christians. I think people
who believe in God are sick and tired of getting
pushed around, period. I have no idea where the
concept came from that America is an explicitly
atheist country. I can't find it in the
Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the
idea come from that we should worship Nick and
Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we
understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where
Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we
knew went to.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blogged with Flock

Another Bookwalk

Over at Cay's Cajun Cottage!


You could win Alice Cantrell's book Tea and Cake with the Saints... but you only have today to do it!

Blogged with Flock

My Inner European

HT: Mary Ellen.  I saw this days ago and spent a LONG time trying to see if I could get English.  But no... I was Dutch, French, Spanish, Irish, Swedish and Russian, in the end I answered as truthfully as possible, and apparently, Je suis Francaise.  Bonjour tout le monde!  Je m'appelle Rachel...  I guess it could be true, after all my grandmother was half French...

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

Blogged with Flock

A Serendipitous Journey to Christmas

Those wonderful bloggers Katherine and Elizabeth have done it again!
Serendipity is now beginning some Jesse Tree preparations and Lesson Plans in readiness for Advent and Christmas.
In the meantime, the Gnomes are enjoying a month long addition study, and the Lively Language Lessons will resume in January!
You will also find 'G' up at Along the Alphabet Path.
If it confuses you at all, Elizabeth also posted a sample weekly schedule on her blog Faithful Over Little Things.

Blogged with Flock

HERE, HERE!!!

Nissa shares this wonderful talk over at her blog Simple Gifts.  You HAVE to listen to it, I am sure you will find yourself agreeing with it.
Most of us who homeschool can really sympathise with it!

Blogged with Flock

Thinking Ahead

So perhaps you are not crafty enough to make your own toys...  and you are tired of hearing about yet another "Made in China" recall.  What can you do?
Well Vicki over at Balderdash & Blokus has compiled a series of links to help you buy toys from elsewhere.  HT to Homespun Juggling for the link :)
Then there are books, DVD's... and other such gifts.  In the meantime, batten down the hatches and think fast!

Blogged with Flock

Does this Mean I am a Genius

Or is my blog just hard to read? :)

HT to A Lee in the Woods

Blogged with Flock

Spies and Halloween

We should be making Soul Cakes today, because of the All Saints and All Souls feasts :) BUT, I made cookies yesterday, and two little munchkins got a LOT of sweet things from their Trick or Treating last night.

Here they are in their costumes :)

First, the inspiration for the costumes... Spy vs. Spy from Mad Magazine. Jacobite has shown them a few cartoons of them from online and they are captivated. One suggestion from me, and yes, they wanted to be them!

And so, Jacobite and I brainstormed, and came up with their costumes. These were REALLY easy, but a lot of fun and VERY much admired ;)

Spy vs. Spy

Spy vs. Spy from the front.

The "White Spy".

The "Black Spy".

Parents loved the outfits. Kids didn't know what it was, nor did they like the attention they got LOL. Well... except for our kids of course ;)

Blogged with Flock