Celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas
We always have such fun celebrating the feast of St. Nicholas… This year was no different!
The children woke up a very tired momma who stayed up way too late bright and early to see just what St. Nick had left for them this year.
As usual they each found a new pair of slippers (except for Snuggles who refuses to keep any form of shoes on his feet) and a new Christmas picture book to add to our collection. It brought tears to my eyes when Captain left the living room and came back from his bedroom with one more picture book to add to the lineup. He said that it was for Gabriel up in heaven, and that he would read it to him.
Hubby led the blessing for the day and then read a story about St. Nicholas while we enjoyed our St. Nicholas Hot Cocoa and Candy Cane Coffee Cake (which I completely forgot to glaze due to the fact that I was half asleep while making it at 2am). It was delicious just the same, and probably a bit healthier. 😉
For lunch we had St. Nicholas Pizza. (I meant to take a picture after it came out of the oven, but I completely forgot!) This was a hit, and I am sure we will be making it again.
God, we pray that through the intercessions of St. Nicholas you will guide and protect our children.
Keep them safe from all harm and help them grow to become loving disciples of Jesus in your sight.
Give them strength to always mature into deeper faith in you, and to keep alive joy in your creation.
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
St. Nicholas ~ Pray for us!
St. Nicholas Hot Cocoa
Last night the children and I made our St. Nicholas Hot Cocoa!
We had so much fun!!
After I printed out the tags, I was wishing I would have used an image of St. Nicholas, but I was out of time so I left it as it was… Next time. Oh, and now we know that a single batch of the recipe makes 5 jars of the mix… And it is even yummier than I remembered! 🙂
UPDATE: I too had a hard time finding more jars and lids locally, but I was able to find them online at Amazon. Here is a link to the lids
A Makeover for Santa Claus
A Makeover for Santa Claus Chocolates, just adding a miter and a crozier!
Isn’t he just the cutest?!?
You can find the directions at the St. Nicholas Center.
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, 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 candyDIRECTIONS:
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!
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