Monday, December 20, 2010

Christmas Traditions



Our yearly family Christmas tradition might be a lot like yours. They are a compilation of my family traditions growing up, Paul's and then some new ones that we decided on. Regardless, I think Christmas traditions, like all family traditions are the pillars of your family. They will be what our kids look back and remember fondly when they leave the nest. They will be what they want to relive and experience again after returning home for the holidays as a young adult. They may even emulate them with their own families one day. The memories...not the gifts will be what grows sweeter and more precious through time. Albeit simple, we start our Christmas traditions with a night right after THanksgiving sometime where we decorate our family tree together. Before we jump in to the actual tree trimming, we eat our once-a-year special dish of fondue. We USED to do cheese fondue, but the kids weren't digging it. So, we switched to deep dish pizza followed by chocolate fondue for dessert.


Need I say more?



Strawberries, pineapple...



Marshmallows...



Graham crackers and bananas...



chocolate on the face...



MORE chocolate, and more chocolate



Delicious AND nutritious!!!



The kids also get a new ornament from us every year. We try to make it something that reflects their likes or activities. This year we got them each an ornament from the Nutcracker. We have been studying Tchaikovsky this year, specifically the Nutcracker right before Christmas. They loved them!!



Sugar Plum Fairy



Nutcracker Prince



A new ornament Paul and I bought for us this year.













Good job guys! Actually, this is not our finished tree...not sure I even got a picture! How sad is that? We'll do it all over again next year. I'll get one then, I guess! HA!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Thankful



I KNOW!!! It's January and I'm posting about Thanksgiving!! How could I just let it go by without documenting though, huh? Bear with me!!

So....very much to be thankful for this year!! WOW! See all these sweet friends? Well, they're all new friends since April. THAT'S something to really be thankful for! As home schoolers we have to plan our own parties and get togethers and group science experiments, etc! So, we got together for a Fall/Thankful Party and what fun it was!! We started things out with a pumpkin experiment. See the pumpkin guts and neat chart? That's science y'all!!!



In the background you can see our pilgrim hats that were kind of a runny flop. Kids didn't care though.at.all!!!

We had a cute craft planned...making little Pottery Barn knock-off boats for Thanksgiving table. SO didn't happen! Baseball with buddies is WAY more fun that felt and glue!


















Lastly we convinced them to come inside for a little Peanuts Thanksgiving movie. Sweet!



The real Thanksgiving Day was a few days later and we had family at our house this year which was super fun! This was our kid-friendly appetizer!! Gobble, gobble!





The kid table had butcher paper for drawing and they had a menu check-off list to keep track of what they had left to eat. We also had Thanksgiving trivia. Fun times!











So thankful for so many things! God is good. None of the family and or things we have would mean a thing though if it weren't in light of the gospel that gives us life and peace. Thank you for Jesus! Thank you for the cross! Thank you for victory over sin and for loving and saving a wretch like me!