Christmas Caroling
It is a favorite simple Christmas tradition. Where our church gathers together and sings on the front yards of the elderly and sick from our own.
It is a simple but profound act of love and service. One where we, the carolers, walk away brushing back tears and feeling immensely blessed.
This is the fourth or fifth year we have done Christmas caroling with our church and this year was the first year the boys truly understood and were excited about it all.
They asked if they could go dressed as a bear and caterpillar.
{I am sure if real bears and caterpillars had voices to sing they’d be Christmas caroling too.}
They do these quirky things often. A stranger once whispered, with tears in her eyes, “Don’t squelch it. Who knows what it might become.”
And I like that thought. While now they are little boys Christmas caroling as a bear and a caterpillar what they are doing is much deeper. Thy are exercising this ability to have a different idea and be different from all those around them.
{And I am so thankful for how kind our sweet church family is! They are very loving of my boys ideas!}
I know they’ll grow out of bears and caterpillars {least, I hope they do one day. But that day can be far away!} But I hope they never, ever grow out of their individuality. I hope they never lose site of the gift of being uniquely created by their Creator.
When the littlest one prays, thanking God for making him him it always causes me to think – isn’t that how we should all be? Thankful for who God made us to be. Thankful that He created each of us uniquely.
“In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
Christmas Quote from C.S. Lewis – The Last Battle
Simple Christmas activities for kids – this we do well in our house.
At the beginning of this month I set out a dozen or so festive paper bags, each one containing simple Christmas activities for kids. Every few days I allow them to pick one out and we do whatever is inside.
We have painted ornaments. Watched Christmas movies. Made up silly games with random Christmas-y objects. Colored Christmas Coloring pages. Decorated chocolate bars into snowmen to give away.
The simple Christmas activities serve two purposes – occupy the boys when I need something for them to do and create special memories for them. They love these Christmas bags with the simple activities inside.
The most recent – and very popular – simple christmas activities for kids was a sheet of light bulb stickers and a simple felt tree from the Dollar Tree that I picked up last year in their clearance.
The boys had a blast applying the Christmas light stickers to the tree – I hadn’t anticipated how popular of an activity this would be! They went through two sheets of stickers and covered almost the entire surface of the felt tree with tacky Christmas light stickers.
Fun for them. 20 minute break for me. Win win!
In honor of Paul finishing this semester the boys and I sat down to record their thoughts on the questions that may have been on his exams and what job he should get once he is finished school… favorite answer: “He should work on our swing set.”
This hot cocoa recipe is so creamy and yummy and perfect for making in large batches to use as gifts in a jar.
To make Peppermint Hot Cocoa you need
40 oz of store bought hot cocoa mix (I used two 20 oz cans of the store brand cocoa)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup coffee creamer
3 crushed peppermint candy canes (plus more for topping off the jar)
6 oz dark chocolate chips (get good ones! quality. quality. quality.)
mini marshmallows
Mix the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Scoop into jars of choice. Top with mini marshmallows and more crushed candy cane.
Instructions to make your own cup of Peppermint Hot Cocoa
Mix 2-3 TBS hot cocoa with boiling water. Stir thoroughly until chocolate has melted. Enjoy!
This hot cocoa recipe made enough for 3 pint jars, 1 quart jar and leftovers for us to enjoy!
Inspired by You Are My Fave‘s toppers for gifts in a jar I decided to make a boy version to top off the semi-homemade peppermint hot cocoa mix we made as gifts for people.
What is more boy-ish than cowboys, Indians and Ninja warriors?
Add a little bit of moss {it comes in a SHEET at the Dollar Tree – amazing!} and you have the perfect landing spot for these masculine heroes.
Hello Super Ninja Warrior. Guardian of the creamiest peppermint hot cocoa.
And hello cowboy.
Better watch your back.
Moss was hot glue to the canning jar lids and the plastic figures were then hot glued to the moss.
A perfect topping to the gifts in a jar from boys!
Congrats Esther! I know you’ll love your new Aeropress!
I’m sorry not everyone could win one – I highly recommend adding one to your Christmas wish list this year!
I asked Wesley if I could take a nice Christmas picture of him – he responded with a grunt so I ran and grabbed his dress clothes and took him outside. Oh how this boy melts my heart!
It practically kills the child to look at the camera. And when he does look his mouth refuse to cooperate with his winsome smile.
But those big blue eyes. The smirks. The bored expressions… those are my boy at three. He’s a great big hunk of “make mama melt” - especially when those sweet blue eyes do their sparkling magic and he leans in close and whispers “Mama, I love you. You’re my favorite mama. And you are so beautiful!”
And, I’m sorry… I couldn’t pick just one to share, so here are the favorites:
As part of our unit on snow I had to include a paper snowflake craft! These ended up being so cute {and easy!} I decided to hang them just inside our front door. This is a great winter activity for preschoolers with lots of hands on opportunities.
Coffee filters were used to make each snowflake and food coloring to color them.
A tiny bit of water mixed with a couple drops of food coloring, a paint brush and a stack of clean coffee filters occupied the boys for a good hour.
We let them dry and then moved on to the actual snowflake cutting.
Once folded into a pie shape make cuts along the two edges that form the “V” shape. Different cuts make different shapes in the snowflake – the boys enjoyed seeing what a big difference a could different cuts could make in the final result.
Carefully unfold the snowflake.
The light shining through these coffee filter snowflake is so pretty – and they are so simple to make!
Using a needle and thread I did a simple stitch to hang each snowflake from a ribbon hanging in a door frame right by our front entrance.
I think my favorite part of the snowflakes is the uniqueness of each painting – if you wanted to be a bit more coordinated looking you could limit the amount of colors the kids have to paint with!
I found a recipe for How to Make Snow in a book last week and thought it would be perfect since our school was all themed around snow for the week.
While we all thoroughly enjoyed the activity the only snow-likeness is that it is white! But being as we live in the south and will likely not see real snow I’m game for calling this snow!
To make you need
- equal parts grated soap and lukewarm water
- a mixer
- food coloring {optional}
- paint brushes {optional}
I used 1/2 cup of grated Ivory soap and 1/2 cup of water.
In your mixer combine the water and soap and mix on low until smooth. Increase to medium/high and mix for 3-5 minutes until meringue like peaks form.
Once whipped divide into smaller containers and add food coloring as desired.
Use fingers or paint brushes to apply to windows and mirrors for a festive touch. For less mess use a large cookie sheet and let the children play with their homemade snow on the cookie sheet.
Paul joined us for the fun!
Cleaning this homemade snow off the windows it easy – simply wipe off with a damp cloth!
