Christmas Festivities and Preparation

I hope you all are enjoying preparing for Christmas.  We've had several Christmas events over the last week and I thought I'd share some pictures and even a video.

We joined a homeschool public speaking group this year and it has been such a blessing to us.  Its a good growing experience for the kids and we adore the families that are a part of it.   Bookgirl and Mathboy memorized Luke 2:1-20 and recited it in play form at a nursing home.   The following weekend they shared it two more times on our church outreach day.

Here's the group that went to the nursing homes and the video.  The babbling you hear is Baby New Year.

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Buon Natale!

We did a week study of Christmas in Italy!  At the conclusion of it, we participated in a Christmas Around the World night with our homeschool group.   In Italy the focus of decorations are Presepio (nativities) of all sizes and kinds.   The kids featured several on their display.   We also made our version of a Ceppo.   They learned about the legend of Befana and drew their own pictures of what they thought she'd look like.  They learned that children put their shoes beside their bed on Dec 6th to be filled with candy for St Nicholas day and about the festivites of St Lucia's Day.   Here's a link with some simple info Christmas in Italy

Last year Bookgirl started making this stuffed nativity with Grammy.  Mathboy stuffed it, but we never got around to finishing the handstitching.   Last week, Bookgirl and I finished the main pieces.  We still have to stuff and stitch the wisemen and some additional animals.   This is a great project from one of my favorite sites, The Learning Parent

Sunday we went to a local garden and shot about 100 pictures of the kids to choose some for our Christmas card.   It was fun (despite the sweltering humidity) and we got some great, some funny, and some silly pictures.  Afterwards we had some muffins and then Daddy took the older 3 out to get our Christmas tree.  It was a nice family time.   Here are a few that we did not use for our card, but I think are worth sharing.

I will leave you with a video of Bookgirls dance for Christmas.   Its on there twice from two different nights.  The first night their music got stuck, but they handled it with grace.  The second night I was in the balcony, so its a different view.   Bookgirl is the last one to come out from the left (stage-right) and then when they come out without their candles, she is the first to come out from the right.  She's also the shortest :)

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Merry Christmas!