New Christmas Books for the Feast of St. Nicholas {and a St. Nicholas Giveaway!}
Our children (and teens!) have also always received a new Christmas book as well, which has helped us build an amazing collection over the last twenty years. It will be so great to pass each of their collections down to them when they eventually start families of their own.
(I didn’t get books for our college boys, but ‘m hoping to mail them a St. Nicholas care package too!)
This one goes so well with Rose’s little collection of wooden birds (the tooth fairy brings her a sweet little bird every time she loses a tooth!) but her older sister will love it too!
This seven, soon-to-be-eight year old, needs an extra reminder on what Christmas is all about! 😉
I also picked up these three new books this year too! They’ll either be given to the children on the first day of Advent or in their Epiphany Book Stacks.
Once again this year I will be hosting FOUR Advent and Christmas themed giveaways! Here is the first giveaway in preparation for the feast of St. Nicholas:
Prize #1 – Set of Five Cookie Stamps with Recipe Booklet
Congratulations, Debora!
“Beautiful giveaway! Thank you for the opportunity to enter!”
sponsored by Saints Around the World (value $55.00)
“Thank you for the giveaway! St. Nicholas is on one my favorite saints and the patron of one of our children. “
a Rafflecopter giveaway
And here is the link to the St. Nicholas Chocolate Coins!
For additional Christmas book suggestions you can find some of our lists in the archives:
Saint Nicholas & the Nine Gold Coins {Beautiful book!}
Christmas Mosaic: A Review & Featured Book List
35 Favorite Christmas Picture Books for Children
Feasts & Seasons :: Advent & Christmas Collection
Our 2015 Advent Book Basket and Printable Labels
Our 2016 Advent Book Basket and Printable Labels
Our 2017 Advent Book Basket and Printable Labels
Our 2018 Advent Book Basket and Printable Labels
{I’m planning to share our 2019 Basket and Labels soon!}
New Christmas Books for the Feast of St. Nicholas:
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Stacks of Books on Christmas Morning or Epiphany:
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
Even more St. Nicholas themed gifts can be found in these past posts filled with Christmas Gift Ideas & Stocking Stuffers from 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018!
Martinmas Lantern Walk
In A Book of Feasts and Seasons author Joanna Bogle shares that “the main festivity on St. Martin’s Day especially in France and Germany is that of making paper lanterns and carrying them in procession.” Our family decorated glass jars years ago for our annual Lantern Walk on Martinmas.
Sometimes I really miss our old home, especially on special feast days. We lived there for over 18 years and left with countless wonderful memories. Lately I’ve been missing all the beautiful trees on our old property. As much as I love our new home, we only have a handful of very young trees… Even though we aren’t riverfront, we DO have river access, so for this year’s Martinmas Lantern Walk we headed down to the river to enjoy the trees, the gorgeous sunset, and create some new memories!
November Book Cart
Saints Around the World :: St. Martin de Porres
Praying “please let it be another boy saint!” Silly boy. |
St. Martin de Porres by Little Drops of Water • Saint Martin de Porres and the Mice (We already owned a copy of the book so we’ll probably pass this extra copy along as a gift or a future giveaway prize!) |
Some books from our November Book Basket |
Searching for Peru… Found it! |
Note: Saints Around the World is offering a special edition box for the upcoming feast of St. Nicholas! Check out all the details here.
Veteran’s Day Wreaths Across America Fundraiser
Two of our nieces are American Heritage Girls and they are currently raising funds for their troop and Wreaths Across America! Please consider sponsoring a wreath.
“On December 14, 2019, Christmas wreaths will be laid on the gravestones of fallen U.S. veterans across the nation.
By sponsoring one (or more!) of these wreaths for $15, you can support our Troop MD0134, which will receive $5 for every wreath sponsored. When joined to prayer for the deceased veterans in Purgatory, you are fulfilling the spiritual work of mercy, ‘to pray for the living and dead,’ and the corporal work of mercy, ‘to bury the dead.’
November is the month of the Poor Souls, so it is a perfect time to pray for these deceased American heroes, who put their lives in harm’s way, to liberate the oppressed and to defend the freedoms – especially religious freedom – that we enjoy in abundance here in America.
See our troop’s Wreaths Across America fundraising webpage here. Please forward to family and friends to raise even more donations for our troop and to honor veterans!”
Where’s Waldo?
And from Christendom Today…. “Where’s Waldo?”
All Saints Guessing Jars {Printable Guess Pages}
On October 31st, just before this year’s party, I quickly created some last minute printables to go along with each of this year’s All Saints Guessing Jars… In the past I’ve always used guessing slips, keeping each participants guess a secret, but with so many people expected at our parish party (we ended up having over 400 people!) it would have taken forever to figure out the winners.
I have had some requests to share these so I’m adding them to the blog now. These guessing jars don’t need to be exclusively for All Hallows’ Eve/All Saints Parties! They are also great for feasts and seasons throughout the liturgical year, as well as sacramental (confirmation and baptism) parties.
All Hallows’ Eve Party at St. Joan of Arc Parish
Some of our children’s favorite childhood memories are the All Hallows’ Eve Parties we had at our old parish (up through 2010) and hosted at our old home (from 2011-2017). When we moved last October they were so disappointed that we wouldn’t be hosting our annual All Hallows’ Eve party… and I was relieved since, with our last baby (and now another!), I just haven’t had the energy to host it anyway!
One of my dear friends was asked by Father Gordon to put together the parish’s All Hallows’ Eve/All Saints Party this year and she did an AMAZING job! We had a little planning meeting (just three of us!) at my house, but other than putting together some posters to advertise the party (above) and taking on the All Saints Guessing Jars game, I did very little. She did an incredible job and put in a lot of time and hard work into coordinating, preparing and pulling it all together. On our way to the party I told my kids, “I’m so glad this parish has a Geneva!”
It was a lovely evening beginning with outdoor games before it got too cold and dark. After that we moved inside for the Litany of the Saints and then Dinner. After Dinner there was more indoor games, including the All Saints Guessing Jars and a Pumpkin Carving Competition.
There ended up being OVER 400 people in attendance!
I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked while holding my little two month old (plus all I have is my iPhone camera now after a recent accident with my camera…sob… so some of the pictures are pretty blurry), but here are some that I did take to share.
Giving some instructions to the Maiden’s of St. Joan who were helping for the evening! |
St. Lucia, St. Cecilia, St. Pio, St. Zelie, The Little Flower, St. Louis and St. Philomena – All Saints in Heaven, Pray for us! |
The Slay Goliath game was AWESOME! This is a larger version of the David & Goliath game we came up with back in 2007. The couple from our parish who put this one together did an incredible job. Definitely one of the highlights of the outdoor games, especially for all the teens!
I didn’t get any pictures from the Saintly Procession, Litany of Saints, or Dinner, but you can find some over on the parish’s Facebook page!
Geneva’s carving of the Immaculate Heart which was outside and not included in the competition – So beautiful! |
The three parish priests choose the three winners from all the anonymously carved pumpkins. Second and Third place went to carvings of the Sacred Heart and Nativity.
– St. John Vianney
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