Counting down the days…
For the past year I have had a screensaver on my computer, counting down the days, hours, and minutes till this favorite feast day of ours! I can’t believe that it is almost here again… It seems as though I just posted Happy Feast of St. Nicholas And What a Feast it Was!
Are you ready?? I’m not… But thankfully we have a couple more days to prepare! 🙂
We will definitley be making our Candy Cane Coffee Cake once again for breakfast, and I am hoping to make our Saint Nicholas Cocoa Mix as well!
A few years back the children and I made our Saint Nicholas Cocoa Mix to give as gifts to some of our friends. We packaged the mix in Mason jars with decorated lids. With red and white ribbon, we attached the directions, along with candy canes to be used to stir the cocoa mix. It was so much fun to make, delicious, and a perfect treat for the feast of St. Nicholas and/or for Christmas morning!
I think it would be adorable to make gift baskets with the Cocoa Mix. We could package up a jar of the mix, possibly a couple mugs, and a bunch of candy canes, and then……For a Christmas Gift Basket we could add a copy of The Legend of the Candy Cane
or maybe the DVD
instead, and then throw in some Candy Cane Kisses.…OR, for a Saint Nicholas Gift Basket we could include one of the great picture books about St. Nicholas, or maybe the movie Nicholas, The Boy who became Santa, and then finish it off with a bunch of chocolate gold coins!
Anyhow, here is the recipe in case you’d like to try it out as well:
Saint Nicholas Cocoa Mix INGREDIENTS:
8 cups powdered milk
1 (16-ounce) package instant cocoa
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
10-ounces powdered non-dairy creamer
8-ounces miniature marshmallows
6-ounces finely crushed peppermint candy
DIRECTIONS:
Combine powdered milk, cocoa, powdered sugar, creamer, marshmallows and peppermint candy; mix well. Store in an airtight container.
RECIPE TO ATTACH:
For each serving, mix 1/2 cup of mix with 1 cup boiling water; mix well with candy cane. ENJOY!!
Oh, and before I go… You can find tons of other ideas including fun crafts, recipes, and much more, over at The St. Nicholas Center. We have enjoyed many of their coloring pages and have made a few of their crafts in the past. In fact, we made one of the crafts during our Christmas in July!
UPDATES:
- Here is a link to pictures of us making this recipe.
- The above recipe yields 5 quart jars of mix.
- I’ve uploaded pdf files of my tags for St. Nicholas Day and Christmas, which you are welcome to use.
For the Feast of St. Francis Xavier
PRAY the Litany of St. Francis Xavier
READ about St. Francis in More Saints Lives and Illuminations (Pg 20)
WATCH Francis Xavier and the Samurai’s Lost Treasure
MAKE St. Francis Xavier Ornaments
EAT Xaver Soup or Polla a la Vasca
Look Who’s Walking
Snuggles, at 17 months, finally decided he was ready to walk! Hubby had caught him trying to take a few steps here and there, but, until now, he had refused to even stand for me. Now he is walking all over the place.
Here are a couple short videos from last Saturday night:
A New Arrival!
Well, I just couldn’t wait any longer, so I called Amy’s mother-in-law… From what she said, Amy just delivered her little baby boy about an hour and a half ago! She did not end up needing a c-section after all, and both baby and momma are doing well. I am DYING to meet the little guy and see if he still looks as much like his older brother as he did in his ultrasound.
and the rest of your beautiful family!
Bargain Books
I am always on the lookout for bargain priced books to add to our collection… I absolutely *LOVE* Amazon, but my second favorite place is BookCloseouts.com. Book Closeouts is constantly offering millions of titles in new condition at *amazing* blowout prices, many under $5.00 with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Over the past couple years I’ve been able to find quite a few titles off of Cay’s book lists!!
In fact, right now ALL their Christmas titles are an additional 50% off until December 10th, AND they are offering free shipping with a $35.00 purchase. To activate the Free Shipping, the following coupon number and password must be entered on the shopping cart page.
- Coupon Number: freeshipping
- Coupon Password: bookcloseouts.com
My latest favorite find was Angela and the Baby Jesus. Cay recommended this book last year and they have over 200 hardcovers available for only $3.99 each! I ordered two copies… One for us, and one to give as a gift. (I tried to order more, but they are only letting you purchase a max of two copies of the Christmas Promotion titles.)
Let’s see… My latest order included twelve books (mostly hardcovers, with a few board books and a couple paperbacks) for a total of $35.63 — with a savings of $140.17 off the retail price! Not bad huh?! I was excited!
Some of the books I noticed they have right now include:
- Pascual and the Kitchen Angels (featured in Catholic Mosaic)
- The Crippled Lamb (featured in Catholic Mosaic)
- Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
- Christmas in the Manger (Only .99 cents right now for this Board book!)
- Inside Noah’s Ark (Another great Board Book)
- Tomie DePaola’s Make your Own Christmas Cards (this sounded fun)
- Betty Crocker’s Christmas Cookbook
- and tons more…
Anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know about this site (as well as the fact that I rarely ever pay full price–or even close–for our books!). Oh and for all you other bloggers, they also offer an associates program which gives a 20% commission towards future purchases!! So… if any of you head over there, I’d love it if you clicked my link first, or use the search box below! 😉
| SEARCH for the best book prices online
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Our Picture Books for Advent & Christmas
A couple weeks ago I pulled out all of our Christmas picture books and ordered a few new ones to add to our collection this year! My plan was to wrap them up and read one each day during the Advent and Christmas season. Well, I never did have a chance to find purple paper and get them all wrapped, but we have been reading one each day — following our Jesse Tree Bible Readings — and I finally have them all listed with the date for when we will be reading each one. Most of the books have study guides in either Christmas Mosaic, An Illustrated Book Study for Advent and Christmas
Here’s our list:
November 30 (First Sunday of Advent) ~ Waiting for Christmas: A Story about the Advent Calendar (Traditions of Faith from Around the World)
December 1 ~ The Little Fir Tree
December 2 ~ The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey with CD: Gift Edition
December 3 ~ The Christmas Cobwebs
December 4 ~ Cobweb Christmas: The Tradition of Tinsel
December 5 ~ The Miracle of Saint Nicholas
December 6 ~ The Legend of Saint Nicholas
December 7 (Feast of St. Ambrose) ~ The Christmas Candle
December 8 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) ~ Good King Wenceslas
December 9 ~ Shoemaker Martin
December 10 (Feast of Our Lady of Loreto) ~ A Small Miracle
December 11 ~ The Clown of God
December 12 (Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe)~ The Lady of Guadalupe
December 13 (Feast of St. Lucy) ~ Hanna’s Christmas
December 14 ~ The Christmas Promise
December 15 ~ One Christmas Dawn
December 16 ~ The Night of Las Posadas
December 17 ~ Night Tree
December 18 ~ An Orange for Frankie
December 19 (O Antiphon: “O Flower”) ~ The Legend of the Poinsettia
December 20 ~ Santa’s Favorite Story
December 21 ~ Mortimer’s Christmas Manger
December 22 ~ The Christmas Bird
December 23 ~ The Donkey’s Dream
December 24 (Christmas Eve) ~ On Christmas Eve
December 25 (Christmas Day) ~ The Very First Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas:
Twelve Days of Christmas Stained Glass Coloring Book
December 26 (Feast of St. Stephen) ~ Stephen’s Feast
December 27 (Feast of St. John the Apostle) ~ Through the Eyes of John
December 28 (Feast of the Holy Innocents) ~ The Little Match Girl
December 29 ~ Bright Christmas: An Angel Remembers
December 30 ~ The Twelve Days of Christmas
December 31 ~ Mary: The Mother of Jesus
January 1 (Feast of the Circumcision and Mary, Mother of God) ~ Mary, Mother of Jesus
January 2 ~ The Christmas Story Board Book
January 3 ~ The First Christmas
January 4 ~ We Three Kings
January 5 ~ The Last Straw
January 6 (Feast of Epiphany) ~ The Story of the Three Wise Kings
Family Advent Read-a-loud with Daddy: The Trees Kneel at Christmas
I also have a basket with Board Books for our littlest ones including:
- B Is for Bethlehem: A Christmas Alphabet Board Book
- Who Is Coming to Our House?
- Christmas in the Manger
- The Legend Of The Three Trees – Board Book
- Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
- Spot’s Christmas
- ABC is for Christmas (A Little Golden Book)
- Touch and Feel Baby Jesus Is Born
I am planning on posting some upcoming feast day plans as well as some recipes over at Catholic Cuisine, but I am not promising anything… (My blogging has been rather sporadic lately…) In case I don’t, I did post a few feast day ideas last year and I added the link (titled On the Calendar) to my sidebar for the next few weeks. Our plans are pretty much the same as last year with a few new additions which I am hoping to squeeze in, as usual! 🙂
You know, looking through (and listing out) ALL those Christmas picture books has me wanting to have another Cocoa, Cookies, Crafts, and Christmas Stories party! It was so fun seeing everyone else’s favorite Christmas books! In fact, if you’d like, I’d love for you to tell me the name (or about) YOUR family’s favorite Christmas picture book, so please feel free to leave it in the comments. God Bless!
Jesse Tree Readings and Coloring Pages for Advent 2008
You can find an updated version of this post for 2010 here: Jesse Tree Readings and Coloring Pages for 2010
Last year I compiled the following list of coloring pages, activities and bible passages (used in addition to the stories in our Children’s Bible), to go along with our Jesse Tree.
I adjusted the dates for this advent, and I have checked most of the links to make sure they still work, but please let me know if you run across one that doesn’t. (I have a file of all the coloring pages already, so I didn’t need to print them out again this year.)
You’ll also notice that many days we will be reading more than one bible story and hanging more than one ornament on our tree. The number of days in advent changes each year, and so I tend to just double up some days so we have the opportunity to read all the stories and use all of our ornaments each year.
For those of you that do not already have a Jesse Tree, and are looking for something simple, here is a link to a pdf file of some Jesse Tree Symbol and Shape Patterns that could be colored by your children. Another version is also available from Domestic-Church. Oh, and here is one more… Hopefully you can find one that will work well for your family!
November 30
Readings & Ornaments:
Creation: Gen .1:1-31; 2:1-4 Symbols: Earth
Coloring Activities:
Creation or God Created the World
December 1
Adam & Eve: Gen. 2:7-9, 18-24 Symbol: Man & Woman
Fall of Man: Gen. 3:1-7 and 23-24 Symbol: Serpent
Coloring Activities:
Adam & Eve
Adam & Eve Expelled from the Garden
December 2
Noah: Gen. 6:5-8, 13-22; 7:17, 23, 24; 8:1, 6-22 Symbol: Ark
Noah’s Ark (we will make a collage with these pictures)
and maybe one of these for the girls
December 3
Readings & Ornaments:
Abraham: Gen. 12:1-3 Symbol: Stars
Melchisidek: Gen. 14:17-20; Ps. 110:4; Heb.20 Symbol: Bread & Wine
Coloring Activities:
Abraham or Abraham with his son Isaac
High Priest for Melchisidek
December 4
Readings & Ornaments:
Isaac: Gen. 22:1-14 Symbols: Bundle of wood
Jacob: Gen. 25:1-34; 28:10-15 Symbols: Ladder
Coloring Activities:
Isaac
Jacob wrestling with Angel
Star of Jacob from Eucharistic Adoration Coloring Book.
Readings & Ornaments:
Joseph: Gen. 37:23-28; 45:3-15 Symbol: Multi-Colored Coat
Moses: Ex. 2:1-10 Symbol: Stone Tablets/Ten Commandments
Coloring Activities:
Joseph
Moses receiving Ten Commandments
Readings & Ornaments:
Joshua: Joshua 6:2-5; Jos. 1,3,6-11) Symbol: Sword & Trumpet
Ruth: Ruth 2:15-17 Symbol: Sheaths of Grain
Coloring Activities:
Joshua
Ruth gathering wheat
Readings & Ornaments:
Samuel: 1 Sam. 3:1-18 Symbols: Oil lamp
Jesse: 1 Sam. 16:1-13 Symbols: Shepherd’s staff
Coloring Activities:
Hannah prays for a Son and Samuel
For Jesse we will color this Shepherd with Staff
Readings & Ornaments:
David: 1 Sam. 17:12-51 Symbol: Harp
Solomon: 1 Kings 3:5-14, 16-28 Symbol: Scales of justice
Coloring Activities:
David & the King
David & Goliath
King Solomon
Readings & Ornaments:
Elijah: 2 Kings 17:2-4, 6; 2 Kings 17-18:21-39 Symbol: Raven
Hezekiah: 2 Kings 20:1-6; 2 Kings 18-20 Symbol: Teardrops
Coloring Activities:
Elijah Praying
Readings & Ornaments:
Nehemiah: Neh. 2:17; Neh. 1-7 Symbol” Walls of Jerusalem
Raphael: Tobit 11:7-8 Symbol: Fish
Coloring Activities:
Here is a fun maze for the wall of Nehemiah.
Readings & Ornaments:
Judith: Judith 13:7-10 Symbol: Sword
Esther: Esther 2:17 Symbol: Queens Crown
Coloring Activities:
Esther or this one of Esther meeting the King
Readings & Ornaments:
Isaiah: Isaiah 7:14 or Ecclesiastes 48:25 Symbol: Scroll
Jeremiah: Jeremiah 30:21-22 Symbol: Stone
Coloring Activities:
Bible & Scroll
Readings & Ornaments:
Daniel: Daniel 6:12-23 Symbol: Lions
Jonah: Jonah 2:1-2, 11 Symbol: Whale
Coloring Activities:
Daniel in the Lions Den
A Couple other options for Daniel can be found here and here.
here and here.
Jonah & the Whale
Readings & Ornaments:
Zachary and Elizabeth: Luke 1:11-13 Symbol: Angel
Joseph: Matt. 1:18-25 Symbols: Carpenter’s Saw
Coloring Activities:
I couldn’t find a color page of Zachary & Elizabeth, so we will color a picture of The Visitation.
Here is one of St. Joseph
Readings & Ornaments:
Mary: Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38 Symbols: Lily
Gabriel: Luke 1:26-38 Symbol: Angel with lily
Coloring Activities:
Picture of Mary out of our Mother of God Coloring Book.
As an option, here is a coloring page with a lily.
Angel Gabriel appears to Mary
December 16
John the Baptist: Mark 1:1-8 Symbols: Shell with water
Coloring Activities:
St. John Baptizing
I plan on doing an extra activity or gift instead of a coloring page each day this week based on the selections in Celebrating the Faith in the Home Series. I have quoted the ideas under each date.
**Actually, here is my “O Antiphons” post from last year that shows exactly what we did for each of these days!
Reading & Ornament:
O Wisdom (Jesus is Wisdom): Sirach 24:2; Symbol: Open book
“Since the symbol for wisdom is a book, one could give a special book, perhaps a family catechism. Or each individual could receive a small, inexpensive prayer book.”
Reading & Ornament:
O Lord (Jesus is Lord): Ex. 3:2; 20:1 Symbol: Burning bush
Tonight, a fire could be started in the fireplace. The family could gather together and roast marshmallows and drink hot chocolate. Or maybe a flaming dessert could be served.”
Reading & Ornament:
O Flower (Jesus is Flower of Jesse): Isaiah 11:1-3 Symbol: Flower
“An obvious choice for this evening is a floral gift. Maybe the family could receive their first poinsettia for the holiday season. Since some translations read, “O root of Jesse,” a special fruit or vegetable could be served–a carrot cake, for example.”
Reading & Ornament:
O Key (Jesus is Key of David): Isaiah 22:22 Symbol: Key
“In the monasteries the monk in charge of the wine cellar would bring forth a special bottle of wine to serve that night. Similarly, you could allow some special treat or priviledge that is normally off limits.”
O Radiant Dawn (Jesus is the Radiant Dawn): Isaiah 41:25-26 Symbol: Sun rising
“Tonight you could have a candlelit dinner… You might also consider taking time this evening fo a walk or a ride to view the Christmas light displays in your community. If your unable to wait until Christmas eve to decorate and light your home, you could do it this night.”
Reading & Ornament:
O King (Jesus is King of the Gentiles): Psalm 2:7-8; Ephesians 2:14-20 Symbol: Crown
“Most little ones love crowns and would be delighted to wear a crown made out of gold or silver for this meal.”
Reading & Ornament:
O Emmanuel (Jesus is Emmanuel): Isaiah 7:14; 33:22 Symbol: Holy Eucharist.
“Emmanuel means “God is with us.” Since Christ is present to us in the Blessed Sacrament, the gift tonight could have the Holy Eucharist as its theme. For example, each member of the family could receive a Holy card with a picture of the Holy Eucharist or a prayer book with prayers to the Blessed Sacrament.”
Reading & Ornament:
Jesus is Light of the World: John 1:1-14 Symbol:Infant Messiah
Attend Mass in honor of the Birth of Christ!
The Advent Wreath
**Updated and reposted from last year! 🙂
I love the tradition of the Advent wreath. It so totally packed with symbolism! It is such a great way to teach the children even more about God, Christ and the Christmas season.
The round shape stands for God’s eternity. Like God, it has no beginning and no end.
The greens used to make the wreath are EVERgreen, and therefore unchanging, just like God.
The four candles symbolize the four centuries that man waited for the coming of our Savior.
Three of the candles are purple since Advent is a time of penance. It was because of our sinfulness that we needed a Savior, and so we must prepare ourselves through sacrifice and penance during Advent for Christ’s coming at Christmas. However, we know that Christ HAS and IS coming again, and so our penance is a joyful one! We are joyfully anticipating and preparing ourselves for the celebration of Christmas, as well as Christ’s second coming. Therefore, one candle is pink to represent our joy.
On the first Sunday of Advent we light one purple candle. On the second Sunday of Advent, two purple candles are lit. On the third Sunday of Advent, which is called “Gaudete Sunday”, we light the pink candle since “Gaudete” means “let us rejoice!” And then, on the fourth (and final) Sunday of Advent, all four candles are lit. The gradual lighting of the candles is a visible sign for us. We can see the light growing brighter the closer we get to birth of Christ, who IS the light of the world!
We use to make our own Advent wreath by gathering greens from our yard, but the past couple years I have been purchasing wreaths. This year I found a beautiful artificial wreath from Costco, for only a few dollars more than the real evergreen wreath, and decided to switch over since it sits in front of our fireplace and dries out so quickly. We will also be able to reuse it now! 🙂 I have four silver candle stands on which I place the candles. I use to purchase taper candles, but since we light them every night, we burn through them so fast… So, I switched to pillar candles which will last all of Advent, and have been working great! (Thankfully I was FINALLY able to find a pink candle, though not exactly the shade I was looking for… oh well!)
After dinner, on the first Sunday of Advent, my husband leads us in prayer as he blesses our wreath before we light the first candle. We use the blessing found in a great little book called Handbook of Prayers. (I just LOVE this little prayerbook!) You can also find the blessing here.
Each evening of Advent, before we relight the candles of our wreath, we say one of the following prayers, depending on which week of Advent it is:
The First Week
Bestir, O Lord, Thy might, we pray Thee and come; That, defended by Thee, we may deserve rescue from approaching dangers brought on by our sins, and being set free by Thee, obtain our salvation. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
The Second Week
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Thine only-begotten Son, that through His coming we may be worthy to serve Thee with purified minds. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
The Third Week
Incline Thine ear to our prayers, O Lord, we beseech Thee; and make bright the darkness of our minds by the grace of Thy visitation. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
The Fourth Week
Bestir, O Lord, Thy might, we beseech Thee, and come; and with great power come to our aid, that, by the help of Thy grace, that sins may be hastened by Thy merciful forgiveness. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
An early visit from St. Nick?!?
Today we attended a 50th Anniversary Mass and reception for some very dear friends of ours. In fact, it was for our children’s wonderful swimming teacher! We had a wonderful time, and it was so nice being able to reconnect and visit with lots of old friends!
However, we forgot to lock our door before we left, and when we arrived home, we were all stunned to find a Christmas Tree in our living room!
What a nice surprise!!!!
Now, if we could just figure out where it came from?!?
UPDATE: Well, it turns out that the tree was a gift from 2 of my brothers, Paul & Scott! Actually, my first guess WAS Paul. 🙂 He is such a sweetie! A few years back, on Thanksgiving, I unsuccessfully tried to get him to stay late at my parents and play board games with us, but he said he had another job to do. (He has an Outdoor Lighting business, and is always super busy hanging Christmas lights this time of year.) Anyhow, a few hours later, we headed home and were shocked to find OUR home COVERED in little white Christmas lights! It was BEAUTIFUL! He is always so thoughtful. When I called him last night, I asked if he had been playing Santa Claus again, and he laughed. He said that it was from him & Scott and that they had just done a job for a tree farm who wanted to add a bit of extra lighting in exchange for a few trees.
So that explains how we came home to find a tree in our living room… Something I would have never expected! Don’t I have the sweetest brothers?!
Thanksgiving Day in Pictures
Making Oreo Turkeys
My twin sisters with all three of their nieces.
Snuggles with his Daddy, Godfather, and Grandma.
More pictures…
My parents recently remodeled their kitchen, and it is SO pretty!
A couple of my contributions to the meal.
Feast… Feast… Feast… Feast…
Of my parents 12 children, 11 of us made it home for Thanksgiving this year, in addition to all 7 grandchildren! We sure missed you Sean, I can’t believe it has been 5 years since we have all been able to get together at the same time!!! I am SO bummed that we didn’t take a family photo… Hopefully we can find an opportunity while everyone is still in town.
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! God Bless!
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