Posts Tagged ‘traditions’
I have never gone all out on party decorations before. Usually I’m still trying to get cleaning done as guests arrive. So this year felt extra special because of all the help I had to get it all done and how wonderful it turned out. I really liked how everything looked. And now we have a gold clock hanging back in our bathroom. It’s just too cool. Makes me want to spray paint the wall silver!
After snacking for a while the girls made their New Year’s self with party hat and blower. They seemed to enjoy it and it was simple enough that all the girls finished theirs. While they were working on that, the grown ups were blowing up all the balloons I didn’t use in decorations. Once that balloons were blown up and the kids played with them for a bit we decided to do the kiddie countdown earlier than originally planned. It worked perfect though. We did the countdown at 8:3, popped all the balloons (my favorite NYE tradition) then headed outside to do some fireworks provided by a family that came to the party. All the kids did tons of sparklers, including Scott who was mesmerized and didn’t even try to put it in his mouth. There were some bigger fireworks and then we headed back inside.
Three little girls got jammies on and snuggled up in Elli’s bed. Scott and Brady fell asleep and shared the crib. Jaylee fell alseep in her Daddy’s arms and was snuggled into our bed. Then the games began. Brent was such a trooper and played all sorts of games with the older kids: Chutes and Ladders and The Tinkerbell Game.
The grown ups played the sign game. I remembered that I am really not good at that game but it is fun just to laugh and relax with friends. I love the mirror ball and plan on keeping that safely tucked away for next New Year’s Eve. It was just the right length for the tall guys to bump their heads on it, but no one seemed to mind too much.
Sammi made it all the way to midnight. It was fun to have her sit on my lap and Brent at my side as we counted down to the new year. Lots of kisses and hugs. Then jammies and bed for the rest of us. Overall, I feel blessed to have ended 2011 on such a great note and to have begun 2012 with friends and loved ones in out home.
Hope your 2012 is off to a great start!
We’ve baked up a storm today making chocolate chip cookies and ginger snaps to leave for Santa. Sammi also thought it would be prudent to leave Santa a gift. She chose to give him cookies for the ride home 
We’re off to read the Nativity Story and
open our new Christmas jammies.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Merry Christmas!
I have always loved Nativity Sets. My mother had a beautiful ceramic set painted in blue and white that I remember from my childhood. It was so soft looking that it helped me feel the tenderness of the Christmas story: the birth of Jesus Christ. Since I first went away to collage I have added a few nativity sets to my collection, including my mother’s set from my childhood.
At the beginning of each December we pull out our nativity sets. This year we have the same number of sets as people in our family: 5. Scott is using the Fisher Price Nativity Set we got when Sammi was a baby. As we set up our nativity sets we read the Bible verses about each character. Then we sing a song about each character. This has proved to be a successful activity with young children.
This year it was all about Elli’s wise men visiting Sammi’s Jesus. It’s so fun to see the girls finding each person or animal as we read about them. Then when we are finished reading we play with the sets, retelling the story or parts of it. I love starting the Christmas season this way because it puts the Christmas story of Christ’s birth in our minds and hearts as we go about the rest of our holiday preparations.We also read the story and sing the songs again on Christmas Eve.
Here are the details of our Nativity Story and Songs for each character:
Mary: Luke 1:26-38 “Silent Night“
Joseph: Matthew 1:18-25 “The Shepherd’s Carol” CS, 40
Jesus: Luke 2:1-7 “Away In a Manger” or this version
Shepherds: Luke 2:8-20 “Angels We Have Heard on High“
Wise Men: Matthew 2:1-12 “With Wondering Awe“
This year we are also making a little book that follows the order we read the Christmas story from the Bible. I wrote a short summary of each part with the verse references to put on each page. Yesterday we did the Angel Gabriel and Mary pages. We’re making three books, one for each child, so it’s taking a fair amount of prep work, but the pages yesterday turned out so cute and we had so much fun doing it that I think it’s worth it.
Today we did the pages for Joseph and the angel who comes to him in a dream. Sammi totally won the creativity award today. She made the best looking sleeping Joseph. I wish I’d done my arms the same way! If you’re interested in making this book, too, you can download the words and verses for each page here.
How are you sharing the Christmas Story with your family?
Happy November! We’re surviving the candy hurricane from yesterday. The wrappers are settling and mostly making their way to the trash. And the girls are trying oh so hard to eat their candy slowly. I’m actually very impressed with their “save some for later” attitudes.
I thought before we headed into another season of getting (from Halloween candy to Christmas presents) we would take ALL of November to thing about our abundance and develop a deeper feeling of gratitude.
We started at lunch today. I shared a scripture verse about living in thanksgiving daily. We talked about blessings and being grateful for them. Then I brought out the thanksgiving journal. Each day we will go around the table at dinner or lunch (depending on our schedule) and write down what each person is thankful for. These are some scriptures I found on “thanksgiving.”
…that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you. Alma 34:38
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalms 100:4
If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. Doctrine and Covenants 136:28
This works well for us since Sammi is a beginning writer and still writes very large following practically no spelling rules and Elli isn’t writing words yet and Scott just coos and looks adorable. For this year, either Brent or I will write down everyone’s “I’m thankful for…” sentence. Since I made the rule that we can’t repeat anything we’ve already said, it will be fun to see how specific or general we become in our gratitude.
I found some other ideas about bringing gratitude into the hearts of your family that I thought were adorably fantastic.
Chocolate on my Cranium: Blessing Boxes
Almost Unschoolers: Flock of Thankful Turkeys
Latter-day Homeschooling: Gratitude Posters, Leaves and Letters
We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ: Thanksgiving Advent Calendar
What are you grateful for this month?
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While Brent got to participate in the Air Force’s version of summer camp for grown ups (think flying a Cessna, being a firefighter, parachute simulators and other such fun), the girls and I headed off to Utah to visit grandparents and friends. Flying with the two girls was a whole lot better than I had expected, with particular thanks to the USO lounge in the Denver airport that we hung out in both ways.
We spent time with both sets of grandparents. At my mom’s house the girls enjoyed playing in the dirt in their princess dresses. I loved how Sammi held her dress out with one hand so she wouldn’t drag it in the dirt. Such elegance!
We also took a day trip to the Farms at Thanksgiving Point. The girls had a lot of fun riding the horses and playing in the little room they had to teach kids about the agricultural process from garden to market.
The girls loved celebrating their birthdays early. Each one got her very own cake with her name on it. Sammi put the right number of candles on each cake and they loved blowing them out. We sang Happy Birthday twice so I could get pictures of each girl with her cake. They loved it! They also adored their Disney princess Barbie dolls they got. Elli of course got Cinderella, her favorite, and Sammi got Snow White, her favorite.
We continued a tradition we started last summer by attending the Princess Festival. Elli was particularly excited this year because she was dressed up and knew she was a princess. They had so much fun meeting princesses and princes and helping them escape the evil witch’s spell. Elli charmed Peter Pan into pushing her on the swings and Sammi got her picture with Snow White.
We also revisited the Orem Public Library, one of my favorite libraries anywhere. We participated in Laptime and browsed through all the books. It was heavenly!
I think we had so much fun at Brent’s parents’ house that I didn’t take very many pictures. But the highlights included eating peas from the garden every day, playing under the tree in the front yard with the neighbors and going on walks with Grandma. We were also excited to see aunts and uncles and a cousin visiting from out of town. I was so happy our trips overlapped so we could see them, too!
The trip home had its own adventure. Just as we were boarding the first plane, Sammi tripped and hit her lip on the doorway of the plane. She got a huge fat lip and was so very sad. We got her some ice and Tylenol and she calmed down. She was a trooper for the whole flight. We got more ice in the USO lounge and by our second flight, she and Elli both fell asleep and were peaceful the whole ride. I got to read a new book and it was rather relaxing!
After reviewing 2009, I am ready to look forward to 2010. {Side note: Brent says “two thousand ten” and I say “twenty ten.” How do you say it?} There are lots of goals I’m anxious to set and achieve as well as interests I’m ready to pursue more fully.
Personal Goals
Spend time each day in a one-on-one activity with each girl doing an activity that is age appropriate for the girl. This is partly because I think I need to focus more on some learning activities with Sammi (letters and numbers) and partly because Elli always gets clumped into crafts I create for Sammi and I think she needs her own, age-specific stuff.
Get fit and healthy in 2010! I think this is a recurring goal for me. I seem to make a little progress each time I set it, though, so I’m not giving up. I plan to exercise more regularly {we bought gym passes to a local gym} and to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into our snacks and meals.
Catch up on some reading. I created and acquired quite a list of books to read in 2009. Some are for fun, some are about parenting and some will make great read-alouds with the girls. I’m excited to get into these books and share their magic with you.
Blogging Goals
I’ve really enjoyed the shift in focus this past year to music and book reviews. For 2010 I’m interested in finding out more about some of the awards that are available and learning who has won those recently to bring that goodness to you. I’m going to start with the Parents’ Choice Awards, the National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA), and the iParenting Media Awards.
I’m attending Blissdon ’10 in Nashville next month. Did you see my Blissdom ’10 button? Isn’t it cute? I’m so excited to meet with other bloggers, make new friends and connections and start the year off with some great tools and resources to make Because Babies Grow Up even better!
Write more posts on developmental stages for different ages from birth to five years old. My initial idea was to focus on development, but as the year progresses, I seemed to focus more on crafts and then music, book and toy reviews. This year I want to bring back the focus on development, both cognitive and physical, as well as add in music and movement and literacy.
Whew! What a list.
It may not be long, but it is packed with lots of fun and fantastic goals that will bring lots of content to Because Babies Grow Up in 2010. I look forward to what the year will bring and hope you’ll spend some of it with us through comments, guest posts, and giveaways!
To get right on that, what is one thing you would love to see me cover this year?
Today is the last day to enter the Bari Koral Family Rock Band Giveaway!
Butterscotch Monkey Bread
Yesterday I talked about the importance of family traditions and asked you to weigh in on what traditions are part of your family. I’ve gathered your responses from Facebook and Twitter as well and have some fantastic ideas if you’re in search of a new family tradition for the holidays.
New Family Traditions
My mom and I have always loved traditions. Every time we sit down and try to think of our family traditions, though, we come up blank. It seems every year we do something new and think “This will be a tradition!” And every year we forget what we did last year! So, we decided our family tradition is to START family traditions!
In the spirit of starting family traditions, I’m showcasing the traditions friends and readers have shared with me. There are some great ones and I hope you find something that will make this holiday season a little more memorable.
Katie said: “After all the good stuff on Christmas Eve (church, dinner, stories, songs, pjs, etc) we take the boys out to sprinkle reindeer food (oats and a little glitter). To them it’s the perfect end to day and anticipation of what’s to come!”
Kim said: “We have bonitsa (Bulgarian) for breakfast, Boklava (bulgarian) Christmas day, Rice pudding (Danish) Christmas eve, Talk about nativity (Peru) Christmas eve, and Celebrate the birth of Christ ALL day on Christmas (Christian) We try and do things as you see from all diffrent cultures we love”
J said: “One of my favorite traditions is watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Christmas eve.”
New Christmas Pajamas
My sister-in-law, Sara, and Vanessa of I Never Grew Up both share our tradition of new pjs on Christmas Eve.
Greg said: “Maybe driving around looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve.”
Mrs P, who has a wonderful, interactive site where she reads books for children, said: “I like to make paper leaves & have everyone write what they are thankful for, and then read aloud along w/ The Gift of the Magi”
One tradition that I married into and we have adopted into our own family is butterscotch monkey bread for breakfast on Christmas morning. It’s delightfully sweet and gooey.
Christie shared her family’s daily traditions that shape their identity: “As a family, we have so many traditions – my daughter and her Dad share a story in bed every morning before he gets ready for work. We sit down together to eat our evening meal every night. We have a bedtime routine that involves all three of us and remains unchanged since she was six months old. I completely agree that family traditions and rituals shape the identity of the individual and the family unit.”
Hope the holiday season is a wonderful time of celebrating and family bonding for you and your little ones.
Bari Koral Family Rock Band Giveaway ends tomorrow night!
Thankful for Fall in Cumberland Gap
The holiday season is full of traditions for many families. As we approach Thanksgiving this week and then officially enter the Christmas season on Friday, I’ve been thinking a lot this weekend about what I want to do with the girls to help them celebrate the holidays. Then I got to wondering why I feel so motivated to start and follow through with our family traditions. Here’s what I think
Family traditions work on two levels: the family level and the individual level. By doing the same activity every year, or even every week, as a family, we build strong family bonds. We come together as a group with our own unique identity. “We are a family that eats dinner together every night.” “We start the Christmas season by cutting down our own Christmas tree.” Whatever the tradition is, each member of the family can depend on it. This leads to how traditions work on an individual level, too.
Each person in the family knows the pattern and their part of the tradition. They develop a sense of self-identity as well as group-identity by participating in family traditions. One child may know, “I set the table for dinner and that’s important for the whole family to be able to eat.” Another may say, “I sweep the floor after dinner because no one else wants to.”
We do craft projects
This is especially true for our precious little ones who are eagerly trying to figure out who they are and how they fit inside the family dynamics. They value who they are and their place in the family when they know they have a special part in what the family does. Little ones from about one on up are learning about cause and effect relationships. Traditions, especially weekly or daily ones, strengthen this learning process.
Some of our family traditions include reading stories and singing songs at bedtime, eating dinner together daily, attending church together every Sunday, volunteering at the library, doing craft projects and making cookies together. Many of our traditions can easily take on a holiday theme to reinforce the purpose of the holiday and the many ways we celebrate. We have started singing Christmas carols with the girls at bedtime. It’s fun to see them listen intently to a new song, learning the melody and words so they can join in, too. I’m also looking forward to making Christmas themed cookies with the girls to share with our neighbors and friends.
What are your family traditions?
What are you looking forward to doing with your little ones this holiday season?
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