Advent Countdown Printable

40 Days to Christmas - printable

Last year I made a quick nativity printable to count the 40 days leading to the birth of Christ.  This year, I wanted to make it a bit prettier. My oldest daughter sat down with me and helped me decide just how to make it, and I think we're both pretty happy with it. You'll notice there are 2 versions - one has stars for 40 days, and the other has the usual 25 days. (Orthodox Christians start counting 40 days before Christmas, which is coming up on November 15!) As usual, I can't just do one thing - I also made a black and white version if you want to let the kids color their own.

This works great as a last minute advent calendar if you don't already have one, or to accompany your Jesse Tree readings so you can quickly see your progress. We will put ours on our fridge and probably X, count, or otherwise draw the days as we go. We also used a magnet last year, but it was often knocked out of place, so writing seems to work best. :)

Just grab the png and print. Enjoy!

25 days to Christmas - printable

25 days to Christmas - coloring page

40 days to Christmas - coloring page

cross-posted from many mercies 

Old Testament Timeline Printable

Okay, I'll admit it: I started playing Christmas music yesterday. 

I'm getting ready for one of my favorite family traditions. During Advent we do a Jesse Tree, with readings and ornaments from the Old Testament that lead to the birth of Christ. I've noticed my children don't always have a good sense of how the different events relate to one another. For years, I've wanted a Bible Timeline to provide a context for the stories we tell. There are several commercial ones: most have a lot of text and dates and are more involved than I need. I really like this one with all the pictures, but its 10' long! That just won't work for our home. 

So I obsessed over it for 48 hours, and made my own. I drew a simple cartoon history of the Old Testament. It doesn't include every prophet and king and favorite story (because otherwise it would be 10' long!), but it provides a big picture, so when you're reading your favorite story you can point and say, "this happened here." I'm hoping it will help my kids develop a sense of the continuity of the story.

I drew the timeline over 5 sheets of paper, but through the magic of Adobe, I've squished it onto a single printable page. Yes, ONE page. The pictures are tiny, but they are simple and readable, so I think it works. 

And its for you, too! Wishing you a good Advent and blessed Nativity! Grab the printable PDF here - it includes a black and white page, and one with a little color.

If you don't want the teeny-tiny version, you can order it in poster from Zazzle in various sizes and paper qualities.  Its also available as this pretty 17 x 24" poster printed by Fine Art America. (Be sure to select: Size: natural.)

St. Lucia Day

On the heels of St. Nicholas day, comes St. Lucia day! We've enjoyed learning about these people of both history and legend, whose memories have become so closely associated with Christmas in various countries. We like to keep Christmas about the nativity, but learning about these special people who loved Christ is a fun way to prepare for Christmas.

Lucy of Syracuse, according to the stories, carried food down to the Christians hiding from persecution in the catacombs. With her arms full of bread, she put candles in a wreath on her head to light the way. She was martyred for her faith during the reign of Diocletian in 304 AD.

Lucy Cats

We made bread the day before so that we could have them for breakfast this morning. I was confused why the buns, called Lussekatter or Lucy cats, were shaped like an S, or what cats had to do with St. Lucia! Quite the mystery, until I read this:

The Lucy cat is an interesting little cake. If you look closely it has the appearance of two eyes. We remember that Jesus told us how the eye is the light of the body. Yet, in the tradition of St. Lucy, her physical eyes were gouged out. Yet, she saw the light of Christ with her spiritual eyes. And so, in the Lucy Cats, she reminds us that we need to open our spiritual eyes so that we can also see the light and not fear the darkness.  During the longest night of darkness, and with a simple pastry, she tells us to have faith and to rejoice and sing. As St. John wrote, “And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it.” (John 1.5) - source

 What a sweet story for the weeks leading up to Christmas, while we are anticipating for the coming of Christ the true light!

Materials: felt cut in squiggly-leafy shaped strips,
green and yellow (and orange) pipe cleaners,
white pony beads and a bit of fabric glue.

The girls and I made St. Lucia wreaths from pipe cleaners and felt. I don't use pipe cleaners often, but a friend suggested this activity and we thought we'd give it a try. The original tutorial is from here, but I used felt cut into leaf shapes instead of fabric. 

fun with beads and pipe cleaners. 

The girls really liked twisting the pipe cleaners and putting the beads on. Getting the bead-candles to stand up was definitely the hardest part. I let the girls go play while I wound the leaves on, and was able to prop the candles of with the leaves. Then they came back to help me glue the berries on. 

We were pretty pleased with the results. :)

They make a cute table decoration as well, and will store nicely for next year I hope. 

Happy St. Lucia day! May your eyes be full of light!

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. - Matthew 6:22

Happy New Year!

The holidays are so often a rush and a whisper - a whirlwind of busy-ness and a call to peacefulness.  Ours has been a bit paradoxical, both lovely and lonely. And I am eager to hold on to the lingering lovely moments that we have before our routine returns, to hold on to them and plant them into our routine.

I made an absolutely beautiful loaf of bread, but didn't bother to photograph it until it was almost gone. Yet, its beauty persists each morning as we eat another toasted slice. 

And despite our abnormal schedule and irregular appointments, we are still pouring two cups of coffee each morning and washing the dishes [most days]. This is beautiful, too. This is life and it persists despite our disrupted routines.

I have no idea what is in store this year, what projects we will undertake, what joys and tragedies we will face, but I am going in with my eyes wide open. I am determined to make this a year of love and not argument. I am looking and looking. Wishing you much love and beauty this year!

"Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone he met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was to call out this beauty... 

And this is what we must learn to do with regard to each person as an individual, but also - and this is not always as easy - with regard to groups of people or a nation. We must learn to look, and look until we have seen the underlying beauty of this group of people. 

Only then can we even begin to do something to call out all the beauty that is there. 

Listen to other people, and whenever you discern something which sounds true, which is a revelation of harmony and beauty, emphasize it and help it to flower. Strengthen it and encourage it to live." - Met. Anthony Bloom

Christ is Born!

In fact, Christ is born all over our house, in a variety of manger scenes finally being completed! My favorite certainly being this little doll in the wooden manger John made. He's just a bit too long, but still I think he looks rather comfy on his bed of hay.

I made the head Waldorf style - although I just did it from memory, and I'm sure I didn't do it quite right. The body was just sort of a stuffed tube that the head was stitched onto, and the swaddling clothes stitched on permanently as well. We'll keep him around for the 12 days of Christmas before hiding the baby away for next year, when we will marvel again at the baby who comes to bring peace to the world. 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

American Lussekatter

I might as well say "Lucy Cats" since there is nothing Swedish about my bread. I saw lots of talk about St. Lucia day, and since I love an excuse to make shaped bread, AND I loved Kirsten as a kid (and in fact have her tucked away in the attic. Shhh! I don't want to tell the girls I have her until they finally sit through one of the books!) I thought we should have a little last minute St. Lucia day celebration, too. 

At first, I dreamed of the girls letting me sleep in, and then waking me, dressed in pretty gowns and bearing fresh-from-the-oven sweet bread and hot coffee, to serve me breakfast in bed.

But then I woke up and decided a tea party was a better idea.

Unfortunately, I had already started mixing the ingredients before I learned of the vital (and rare and expensive) ingredient saffron. Even more unfortunately, I realized too late that I didn't actually have enough flour to turn this batter into bread. So I stuck the goopy mess in the refrigerator. Yes, this is how I roll.

The next day, I added some flour and cinnamon and a few other entirely non-Swedish-tradition ingredients and braided up this bread.  I intended to shape them all into the cat shapes (sort of a cross made of 2 S's), but it was messy and the kids were yelling, and so I quickly braided the rest into a Lucia crown, and threw them in the oven. 

It was quite ill-planned - nevertheless, we sat down to our tea party with sweet bread, cocoa, candles and a little reading from the end of the Kirsten book. (spoiler! It's St. Lucia day and guess who gets to be St. Lucia!) The girls loved the story and (surprisingly) the bread, although the cocoa was a touch too hot. It's amazing how sticking a candle into your food can get everyone in a festive mood, and plenty of sugar glaze will keep everyone quietly licking their fingers while you read. Yes, it was a good time. 

Space Stations, and Meteorites and Holy Nights

We've enjoyed being outside with the girls and especially watching the sky with them. Its very dark at our new house since we are far from any street lights, which makes the star gazing absolutely amazing. Seriously.

This week has been especially fun, with all the organizing credit going to John (okay, and the folks at NASA, too). John signed up for Spot the Station, a free program by NASA that will send you text or email alerts telling you when the International Space Station is visible in your area. John has been spotting the ISS for a few months now, but this week the timing was at the perfect time in the evening when we could all bundle up and sit outside together. It was very cool to see and to think about the astronauts on board (the NASA website is also very cool). Space stuff is always a little mind boggling to me in all of its paradoxes: far away but visible, empty but infinite.

Left to Right: Windows, Space Station, Jupiter

I know you're amazed at my crazy photography skills. Yes, that dot of light is impressive. But seriously, it's fun to watch and it passes over fairly quickly, so check it out if you can.

Last night, we bundled up for another adventure - watching a meteor shower! The peak time was at 3:00 AM, but there was no moon or clouds, so they were visible for most of the night. We took the girls out from 7-8PM and made a cozy bed in the back of the truck and watched patiently. We probably saw two dozen shooting stars, and the girls were thrilled with each sighting. You can keep up with what you can see in the sky each night at EarthSky, although John says sometimes you have to google around for meteor showers and comet sights. He got up again at 3 to watch at the peak time, and said he saw 75 shooting stars that were brilliant! I'd say that was worth losing sleep.

It seems fitting to marvel at the stars during the Christmas season.  It reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas Carols, O Holy Night. I prefer the version with the coffee commercial, but I couldn't find it, so here's one with a scene from the Nativity Story. Happy star gazing to all!

Paper Stars

  

I think this is the beginning of what will surely be a trend of books and crafts. Last week we were reading Patricia Polacco's Uncle Vova's Tree, in which the children make paper stars to decorate the tree.  L immediately said, I want to make those!  And so we did. 

 

We hadn't actually put up our tree yet, so they stayed in a vase for a few days - which I think looked quite lovely. But L carried one to our local Christmas parade to wave at the floats as they passed. 

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

This is the first year we've celebrated St. Nicholas Day, so we're having fun learning and making new traditions. In a little bit, the girls will wake up and find their shoes filled with a few small treats, including St. Nicholas staff (candy cane) and gold coins (chocolate) to remind them of how he gave to the three girls in the story.

Yesterday, we made cookies, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite pre-Christmas traditions.  This was the first time I made shaped cookies with the kids, and they thought it was so cool (just like play dough!).

And later, we'll spend the day making gifts for family and friends (Martha has a great list of gifts kids can make). We decided to make gift making on St. Nicholas day part of our family tradition partly because we want our children to be people who see the needs of others, like St. Nicholas did. It is all too easy to be self-involved (believe me, I know), but compassion begins with looking at the people around you, instead of yourself.  And I want to be compassionate. Our gifts won't be world changing for anyone this year, but hopefully they will help my girls and I look outward. Perhaps it will grow into something more significant.

Ultimately, I want this day to become a day of compassion for our family. Which is hard sometimes during the holidays as you recount your life, your goals, your wish lists.  I want to teach my kids compassion, but I think I'm hungering for it, too.

How do you teach your kids about giving at Christmas?

St. Nicholas and the Dowries

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And be sure to check out the St. Nicholas Center!  You could easily lose an afternoon there. Which I did. So here are a few of my favorite links to help you out:

• the story of St. Nicholas and the Dowries - explains the custom of the shoes
• How St. Nicholas became Santa Claus 
• ideas on How to Celebrate.
• several online picture books for kids
• traditional recipes from various countries
• and, of course, St. Nicholas craft projects