Living liturgically: morning prayers

Recently I read this post on Living Liturgically as a family, and it got me reflecting on the things that our family does to live liturgically throughout the year in our little domestic Church.  I think my favorite part of this article was the very first point she made: it takes YEARS to build up traditions and become familiar with the liturgical year.  True. That.  I remember being a young(er) mama with a toddler and a baby and feeling so.overwhelmed. at all the different things that we could be doing but weren't doing.  But slowly over the years we have added this, tried that, quit doing something else because no one would cooperate, etc. etc. etc.  And now, what may seem like a lot for someone from the outside looking in, is simply the rhythm that our family lives throughout the seasons of the Church year.  Do we have it all figured out?  Nope.  We're still adding and molding and forming, and I am amazed how traditions evolve through the years as the kids get older.  I may have gotten a little teary last year when there was really no reason to sing our little "Jesus is Coming" toddler-song around the Advent wreath.  But I think that's the key to traditions, letting them evolve and take the shape they need to for your family wherever you're at, and realizing that traditions can change (or go away) over the years as children grow, and that's OK.  

I also liked her point #2: living liturgically happens year round.  I noticed this year, profoundly, that it didn't seem like we were doing much for Advent...and then I realized we were doing all our "regular things" but since the liturgical year has become such a natural part of our lives year round, Advent was more-or-less a bit of a change-up in the regular things we do daily instead of the "radical switching of gears" she mentioned.  

The rest of her points are good too.  Seriously, check out the article.  But I'll stop now and get on to the point of this post, which was supposed to be family Morning Prayers.

One of my favorite liturgical-living traditions that our family has added recently (past 6-8 months or so) is using the Prayer found at the end of Morning Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours (I use the one volume version, Christian Prayer) at the end of our family morning prayers.  Our morning prayers typically consist of the Bless us, oh Lord prayer (since we pray them before breakfast), the traditional Morning Offering, stating the Holy Father's monthly intentions and also praying for a specific priest or seminarian from our diocese each day.  We also add any family member/friend who may have a birthday or anniversary (or something else going on) that day.  We pray a simple prayer that goes along with whatever the month's theme is (did you know that each month has a particular devotion in the Catholic Church?  See here for more on that...) for instance, a Hail Mary in October or the Act of Contrition or Act of Love during Lent (this is also a great opportunity to help the kids memorize their rote prayers).  Then I say the Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours (which takes all of 10 seconds) and we're done.  I love adding this Prayer because it is such a simple way to focus on what is happening liturgically on that specific day, be it a Church season like Lent or Advent, or a feast day or memorial, such as the Transfiguration or the Feast of St. Luke.  And full disclosure: my oldest still grumbles most days that I had the audacity to change our regular morning prayers by adding this (apparently excruciating) ten seconds of recited prayer.  But I'm sticking with this one.  ;-)

God is good...all the time.  May he continue to bless us, everyone, as we live His love throughout the year.

Homemade decade rosaries

One of our activities several weeks back during "R" week was making homemade decade Rosaries with pipe-cleaners and beads.  I found the directions for these in my Catholic Icing preschool curriculum book, they were very simple.  Gemma made one for each of her grandmas, and kept the sample one I made for herself.  We keep it in the car, as we've recently started praying a decade of the Rosary each time we go somewhere with our Holy Heroes Rosary CD.  The one I made (which is the one she has) has the 10 beads in color-wheel order, so it is very easy to help her follow along without having to turn around and look at where her fingers are.  For some time now I have wanted to start a "Rosary habit" with the kids and just haven't had the motivation to do it.  These little homemade Rosaries and the Holy Heroes Rosary CDs have been awesome tools.  As a side-note, the pictures below really crack me up, they are quite an insight into my children's individual personalities...Gemma with her beads all lined up neatly in a row, and Kolbe with a bent pipe-cleaner throwing beads across the kitchen and laughing when they bounce under the fridge.  AHHHH kids!

REVIEW: Holy Heroes Rosary CD's

For his birthday, Kolbe's godmother gave him the Holy Heroes Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary CD.  We finally pulled it out last week for "R" week, as I decided it would be a good opportunity to talk about the Rosary.  I was really impressed with this CD.  The entire Rosary is led by children, with explanations at the beginning of each mystery and then a brief meditation before each Hail Mary.  This is a wonderful tool - in my opinion - for praying the Rosary with kids.  Because I have high hopes of praying a Decade of the Rosary with my children and I'll be honest, it just never happens.  Now we've started the habit that if we go somewhere in the car (which happens more days than not it seems), the first thing we do is listen to/pray a Decade of the Rosary.  Call me lazy, but having it on a CD is so much easier than trying to lead it on my own, and engage the kids in what is going on.  I was so excited about this that I decided to purchase the Sorrowful Mysteries as part of the kids' Valentines present for us to use during the upcoming Lenten Season, and will likely purchase the Glorious Mysteries as an Easter gift.  You can also purchase the entire Rosary as a set.

Click here for more information about Holy Heroes.  And if you haven't heard of their Lenten Adventure, you can check it out here.  They also have an Advent Adventure and a Summer program as well.  We've never participated actively in one of their Adventures, but I am signed up for the emails and they have great resources for families during these important Liturgical seasons.  And, it's FREE!!  So go check Holy Heroes out and support a wonderful, truly Catholic, family produced and run company.

***I received nothing in return for this review, I simply wanted to give an honest review about a Catholic product I found to be a good fit for our family.***

Baptism Anniversaries 2012

Soon after our January birthdays, we celebrated Baptism anniversaries. When our oldest was Baptized we got a really neat pamphlet from our parish talking about the importance of Baptism and commemorating this special day.  This has been very helpful as we have begun celebrating Baptism anniversaries in our family.  For Gemma, we actually had her renew her Baptismal vows for the first time this year.  She was very enthusiastic with her "I do".  It was sweet.  We said the prescribed prayers, let her blow out her candle, and then she got a small gift, a Holy Water font for her bedroom.  I think she and Kolbe are a little too excited about it, but hopefully the novelty will wear off soon ;-D  And please, don't be fooled by the folded hands and angelic smile...

For Kolbe we just recited the Apostle's Creed together and let him blow out his candle.  He was quick, Aaron couldn't even snap the picture before the candle was out.  Kolbe received the book Baby Come To Church.  I'm hoping it will keep his attention a little more at Mass.  The realist in me says it probably won't.  Nothing ever does.  

Ahhh grace.  Thank you God for the Sacraments, and thank you for my children who are constantly giving me opportunities to grow in grace.

And don't forget to get in on my Lenten Giveaway if you are interested!  Contest closes Tuesday 2/7 at 8PM.

"I" week

"I" was for ICE CREAM during "I" week at our house!!

Gemma had lots of fun making this Ice Cream Man.  She was very proud of him.  She even spent several minutes pretending to eat him before hanging him up on the cabinet.  Silly girl. 

I thought this ice cream cone dot-to-dot was pretty cool. This was Gemma's first time to do a dot-to-dot.  I'm sure there will be many more in our future!!

I had some coupons for a free ice cream at a local restaurant, so one afternoon we headed out for ice cream together.  That was a fun (and cheap, er, free) little date with the kids...all three of us had a very nice time!  And we still have two coupons left that we need to use by the end of the year!

Some of our favorite "I" books were:

I Love You Because You're You

I am Invited to a Party (oh how we love Piggie and Gerald at our house)

My "I" Book (I think these books are a little odd, and very dated - at least the ones at our library - but Gemma loves them and chooses them to read almost every day, so I keep checking them out.)

From Cow to Ice Cream (very informative)

Isaac the Ice Cream Truck

1, 2, I Love You

We also did this craft from Catholic Icing, but called it "I" is for Infant Jesus instead of "E" is for Emmanuel.  I modified it a bit so we could use items we had on hand.  I was really excited with how this turned out, I just thought it was super cute...and it was a good opportunity to remind Gemma of Jesus' living conditions when he was born.

Here are Gemma and Kolbe playing our "find-the-letter" game. They really like this.  We usually do it on Thursday mornings.  I have two sets of those cheap magnetic letters, and they are in a coffee tub with a slit cut in the lid.  Gemma finds the letter of the week, and then she often likes to line them all up in alpha order, or ask Kolbe what letter something is.  Since he's going to answer her, you know.  Kolbe just likes putting the letters back in the slot.  Or throwing them.  ;-D  At any rate, it seems to be good, educational entertainment for both of them.

That's all for "I" week.  Be sure to check back first thing Monday morning for a special Advent give-away!!

Morning Prayers

Morning Prayers have been a work in progress at our house since I started saying them with the children about a year-and-a-half ago.  I finally feel like I have a good balance of something that really works for us so I thought I'd share.  I'd love to hear others' ideas as well! 

I like to have our prayer candle lit (we have a church votive that correlates with the liturgical color each day/season) and the saint of the day card on the table when the children come out for breakfast.  If Gemma asks about the saint of the day I will tell her a short story about him or her.  She still seems a bit young for our saint stories books.  We also have a weekly saint who's name we invoke each day from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints.  This saint correlates with our letter of the week.  After we finish up with breakfast and see daddy off we begin our prayers at the kitchen table.

• Sign of the Cross (I've really been working with Gemma on doing this correctly)
• sing monthly song (a traditional/seasonal [when applicable] hymn I choose and we sing all month, except for Saturdays and Marian feast days when we sing Immaculate Mary)
• Morning Offering (children's version with actions: Our Father in Heaven, I give you today, all that I think and do and say. Amen.  -- This was the same morning offering I said as a child!)
• daily Guardian Angel prayer from our Prayers for Everyday book
• daily prayer (this can be a variety of things ranging from the opening prayer for Mass that day if it's a special feast or saint, the morning prayer from MagnifiKid, a prayer from our Prayers for Everyday book, a Psalm or the Memorare on Saturdays or Marian feast days).
• sing monthly song again
• Sign of the Cross
• invoke weekly/daily saint(s)
• weekly Scripture memory Verse (when we started doing weekly verses I used a passage from the Responsorial Psalm from the previous Sunday and this worked very well.  Now that we've started our homeschool preschool, we're using the weekly verse from the Catholic Icing preschool curriculum that correlates with our letter of the week.  I like this because it has us moving around the Bible a lot more, Old and New Testament.)

After prayers we sing our day of the week song, Gemma does the weather chart and we have our circle time.  At the end of Circle Time we say this prayer, also with actions:

Jesus sees me when I sleep,

Jesus sees me when I play,

Jesus sees me all the time and cares for me each day. Amen.

Then we make the Sign of the Cross, invoke our weekly Saint (St. XX - Pray for us) and repeat our memory Verse one more time.

Blueberry muffins for the Blessed Virgin Mary

We celebrated the Blessed Virgin's birthday last year for the first time, and decided to continue the tradition this year.  I'm finding rather than trying to do every little thing for the multitudinous feast days the Church celebrates, that it is nice to pick a handful of feasts throughout the year and do something to make them special.  This year we had blueberry muffins** with blue birthday candles.  We sang happy birthday and had a special snack together.

Gemma and Kolbe each enjoyed a turn blowing out the candles.
 

** This was one of the better muffin recipes I've had recently.  I used brown sugar instead of white and less than 1 cup, I used half whole wheat flour, butter instead of margarine, and added some chocolate chips.  I baked in mini-muffin tins which cut the baking time about in half.

Our school year

Recently I've been doing lots of thinking and planning for the coming (current) school year.  At this point we don't intend to send Gemma to formal preschool, but I like the idea of doing some formal learning at home this year and next before she starts kindergarten (which at this point we are planning on Catholic schools, while still being open to homeschooling).  I have found several sources that I am looking forward to trying and thought I would share them here along with our (planned) daily schedule.  I want things to be "formal" enough that it is special and out of the ordinary, but not so formal that it becomes a drag or something that she (or I) resents.  And of course we're working around and with Kolbe as well which I know will be fun but challenging!  Just the little bit of planning I've done has given me soooo much more respect and awe for those who homeschool.  Not that I didn't have it before, but wow.  Just wow.  Hats off to all of you!  Right now the plan is to spend 10-30 minutes a day working on "preschool" and everything will be centered around the Letter of the Week.  Here are my resources:

The Alphabet Path

The Flower Fairy Coloring Book

An Alphabet of Catholic Saints

Museum ABC

Catholic ABC's Preschool Curriculum from Catholic Icing

Catholic ABC book and coloring book

A is for Altar, B is for Bible

I also really like what I've read from Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Preschool Years, and am excited about using our new busy bags (which I hope to blog about in the near future)!

You can click HERE to view our tentative daily schedule for school (we're intending to start the week of September 12th).  I'd love any feedback and advice or tips.  We'll definitely be learning as we go!!!
And while we're on the subject of schedules, I thought I'd share our "daily schedule" (click link) as well, which is really more of a daily to-do list than a schedule.  We have a pretty regular routine that we follow each day, but this list helps me remember everything else that needs done (the items in parenthesis are items that are not always done weekly).  In the big open section I am able to write things that come up and need done/places we need to go, etc., and I have a place at the bottom for meal planning (which I try to do a week in advance).  I typically keep at least a month's worth of these printed out, and they hang on the side of our fridge where they can be easily referenced.  Head over to Catholic Icing to read about others' schedules and link up your own if you'd like!!

the kids working on their pattern blocks together one morning

House rules, the bees!

I mentioned in my monthly update about some of our issues with Gemma's behavior recently.  Probably just normal stuff for a three-and-a-half-year-old I'm sure, but still behavior that is annoying and inappropriate (sass, her tone of voice, not listening, being mean to Kolbe, etc.)  Anyways, I decided to come up with a few house rules for all of us to follow, and while this hasn't been magic by any means, it really has helped for Gemma to have something a bit more tangible with which to relate when she's misbehaving. So now we have "the bees".  They are three cut-out, colored and laminated bees that reside on the fireplace, each with a message.  "The bees tell us what Jesus wants us to do," and we try to remind her of this when she's misbehaving.  Sometimes I'll even get one particular bee out and we'll read it together (if I can remember to keep my sanity and composure intact that is....ohhhhhh patience and consistency how you allude me!).  It seems to be making an impression on her though.  Like I said, no huge changes but the fact that we now have a physical reminder has definitely been helpful.  She has reminded me a few times as well what the bees say, and this has been quite humbling let me tell you.  But good for me.  I need to hear it too.  I need to practice what I preach because heaven knows teaching by example is ions more effective than a whole list of rules to enforce.  This parenting thing.  Wow.  Never easy.  Still finding our way.  Probably always will be.  But for now, our bees are helping us along the road and as always, life is good.

Feast of the Sacred Heart (and some cool Target finds)

I saw this neat idea for a children's activity for the Feast of the Sacred Heart over at Catholic Icing and adapted it onto paper for my children.  I think next year we will do t-shirts, I'm going to keep a lookout and see if I can find the supplies on sale/clearance.  I just thought it was a really cute idea, and anything involving children's hand-prints is just such a fun little keepsake to look back on.  We also learned the sign-language to the song "Jesus Loves Me" and sang it together several times.

Also, I had to run to Target this morning to grab some toothpaste and of course had to browse the dollar section as well. I hadn't browsed far when I stumbled upon a wealth of educational items.  I was SO excited!!!  I got all this (and a couple more items not shown) for right around $10.  YAY!!!  Go check it out!  

HAVE A HAPPY FOURTH, EVERYONE!!!!

Lent update

I can't believe Lent will be over in less than two weeks!  I thought I'd take a moment to update on our Lenten activities.

The Lent calendar on the refrigerator has been great!  Gemma loves doing the activity for each day.  She is very excited to "help the babies" and often comments, "Oh mommy, look at all our moneys!  The babies will be sooooo happy!"  Next year though I need to do a prayer, fasting and almsgiving item for each day instead of rotating on a three day cycle. 

Our morning prayer routine, using a Station of the Cross each day, has worked really well.  The book we have seems to be a very good level for Gemma.  We've been singing "Forty Days and Forty Nights" each morning to start our prayer time (just the first verse) and Gemma can sing the whole thing now. I love it when I catch her singing a religious or church song around the house during the day, it makes my heart happy.

The Lenten Cross Readings activity from Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church has been...interesting.  My friend Mary, who is also doing the same activity with her young family, was asking about how it was going for us, so here is the answer I gave her.  The main thing we have been using the Lenten Cross for is our countdown - or count up, as it were - until Easter. Gemma knows that when all the little velcro pieces are covered Lent will be over and it will be Easter. I have done a few of the shorter Scripture readings with her. She kind of tunes them out. The longer ones I haven't even attempted. She always comments on what the picture is (even when she's wrong, "mommy, a tea pot!") and I try to somehow tie it in to the Scripture message with a few words that will help her make the connection. I think we will stick with this activity in years to come, as something for our family to grow into over the years.  The children may not get much out of it now, but I still think it's worth doing.  The Holy Spirit works in amazing ways and you never know what seeds He is planting through an activity like this. I thought about using Gemma's children's Bible to coordinate some of the readings but never got around to it, so I might try to be a bit more proactive about that next year.  Aaron reads to Gemma from her Bible each night before bed though, so at least she is getting Scripture daily, even if it's not tying in. I was a bit disappointed in the pictures that go with each day too. I really think I could have thought of better pictures as symbols on some of them. I'm not sure what their "plan" was when they chose the pictures. And a few of the pictures in the book are different from the printable ones online.  I'm thinking it might be worth it to get some clipart of my own here and there and redo some of the days, so I'm debating that for the future.  The main thing it has been for us is a very tangible way to travel through Lent and measure the passage of each day while learning some of the themes and symbols in the Old and New Testament. Gemma always looks forward to "getting a sticker" (as she calls them) for the cross, and then counting what day we are on each morning. It has really done wonders for her counting abilities, she never (successfully) counted past 20 before. ;-D

And that about sums it up!  I have this book and this one from Scholastic.  I'm planning to get the first one out for Palm Sunday and Holy Week, and will probably save the other one for when she's a little older as it's a bit longer and more detailed.  They both look pretty neat though.  All in all I'm happy with our activities and definitely getting some ideas for future years.

Lent 2011

I'm excited about some of the things we have planned for Lent this year and wanted to share them here as a record for myself in coming years and also in case anyone else was interested in using some of them; namely because all of these ideas are ones I've gotten from others as well.  Not a whole lot of originality.  But why reinvent the wheel, right?

I have drawn from three main sources.  The books Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church and Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler and Catholic Icing's blog and subsequent linky's etc. (check out this post).

First off, I really like Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler's take on fasting. (quoting) "Your child is too young to fast, or understand the purpose if you have him "give up" something.  For example, abstaining from meat on Fridays may be something you do with him, and this is good.  But he will not understand its purpose when he is 1-4 years old!  ... Instead of 'giving up' for Lent, have him 'give out' food."  It goes on to explain a really neat activity that I've modified a bit to use with Gemma (3yrs).  While it has you having your child pick an (inexpensive)  grocery item each day to give to the poor at the end of Lent, we're actually going to use baby items.  I have some friends who run a pro-life outreach, so I bought a bunch of small baby items (socks, onesies, toys, teethers, sippy-cups, etc.) and Gemma will get to choose one on the days that we focus on "fasting" to put in a box for the babies and after Easter she'll get to deliver them with me.  I am hoping this will be just right for her, because some of the items are potentially things that she might like to have for herself but doesn't "need" (the cups, toys, etc.) so hopefully the message of generosity and giving to those in true need won't be lost on her.  It seems fairly age-appropriate in my mind (we'll see how it works in practice), and I think it will be more effective (for her) than food items would.

I made a Lent calendar for her from this template from Catholic Icing (again, love that site).  On each day I wrote either a "prayer", "fasting" or "alms" item, and we'll color each day purple as we go.

• The PRAYER days we will pray for things like peace, an end to abortion, grandparents, priests, etc.
• The FASTING days she will choose a baby item to give away.
• The ALMSGIVING days she will count a specific thing in our house (pillows, rooms, windows, etc.) and then put that number of "moneys" in a jar, also to be given to the pro-life outreach after Easter (this was another idea from Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler).

Then, I am using the Lenten Cross Readings idea from Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church.  I think most of the Scripture readings from this will be a bit above Gemma's head, but I still think it will be a really good family activity and something we can do as a family each Lent in years to come as well.  Basically, it is kind of like the Jesse Tree for Advent, only there are 40 images in the book that I copied, cut, colored, laminated and glued velcro on the back.  I made a big cross on a piece of sturdy foam poster-board, and attached 40 pieces of velcro to it as well.  Each day we will add an image, talk about its meaning, and read the corresponding Scripture, which follows the messianic prophecies through the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the Crucifixion narrative.  I (intend to) put a picture of the Risen Lord and "He is Risen, Alleluia" on the back, and we will flip the board around Easter morning at the end of our forty days to see what the Lord has done, how He makes all things new!  I am glad that I decided to make this more "permanent" so I don't have to either do it again or come up with something new next year.  I am really excited about this.  I don't read the Bible nearly as often as I should, so I think this "rich in Scripture" activity will be just perfect.

I plan to focus on one Station of the Cross each morning when we do our morning prayers.  I have a few children's stations books with good, age-appropriate meditations.  I'm hoping we can make it to Stations of the Cross once or twice at Church as well during the Lenten season.

Maybe next year Gemma will be old enough for this jelly bean activity.  I debated about it this year, but honestly I think she would just want to eat the jelly beans and would totally miss the point.  And that's not the kind of battle I want to fight all Lent.  So we'll see. 

And there you have it!  I'd love to see what others are doing.  Feel free to share any ideas in the comments section, and if you have a post you've done on Lent (this year or another) you can link it up on this Catholic Icing post as well.

BLESSINGS!

Baptism anniversaries

After discussing it with some friends at our Motherhood group and hearing my sister talk about some of the traditions they've started with their children, I thought it would be nice to start 'celebrating' the children's Baptism anniversaries. This was our first year to do this with Gemma (although her godmother helped commemorate the special day the other years). We showed her the album with her Baptism pictures, lit her Baptismal candle, said some prayers (as she gets older, we'll have her renew her Baptismal vows) and gave her a little gift (a book called A is for Altar, B is for Bible, which I would highly recommend for young children).

Here she is with her candle. I was very relieved she didn't burn herself with hot wax (note to self, get a taper-holder). Looking at her new book and her Baptism pictures. She was comparing (with my help) the "O is for Oil" with the picture of her anointing with Sacred Chrism. And a look back to January 20, 2008... You can click here for a look back at Kolbe's Baptism (and if you're wondering: yes, they were both Baptized in the same gown). We didn't really do anything special for him this year, but his godmother (my sis I mentioned above) gave him a call to wish him a happy day and assure him of her prayers. She also gave him this super-cool keyring Mass "toy" as part of his birthday present.
There is nothing more beautiful in this world (in my opinion) than seeing your precious son or daughter become a child of God through Baptism...the only eternal gift we can give our children.

Star of wonder, star of night

As we approach the Feast of the Epiphany, I thought I'd share the Christmas gift that Gemma (and I) made for her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, godparents, etc. I wanted something simple, where she could do most of the work, but that would still be a nice "keepsake". I found a recipe for Christmas ornament playdough in this book that I used quite a bit during the Advent season. I will say (if you already own this book) that the recipe itself needed a bit of tweaking. Here's the recipe, with my "tweakings" in (italics):

"Perfect Playdough"
2 cups baking soda (yep, you read that right)
1 cup flour
1/2-1 cup of water (start with about 1/4 cup but be ready to add more)

Mix the ingredients in a saucepan. Cook gently over medium heat, stirring often until it is the consistency of moist mashed potatoes. Don't let it get too dry. (The original recipe only called for 1/4 cup of water. I just don't see how this would ever be enough. I just kept slowly adding more until it reached the consistency mentioned above and it all worked out fine.)

Put dough out onto a plate and allow to cool. Don't let the kids touch it at this point, even though it looks ready. It's very hot! Cover it with a damp cloth and allow to cool to handling temperature (this didn't take too long).

Turn out onto counter and knead until smooth (this wasn't a big deal at all, it was already a great consistency).

Roll out to approximately 1/4 inch thick and cut as desired. (We used a star cookie cutter and had enough dough for roughly 14 stars.) Remember to cut hanging holes now if you're making tree decorations (I used the top of a pencil that I pulled the eraser out of to cut the holes.)

Bake at 325-degrees F. Bake the shapes until they are firm or hard to the touch and just barely beginning to brown on the underside. The shapes should stay white. (I baked ours for about 15 minutes because I was paranoid of overdoing them. They probably could have gone a bit longer though, as I had to let them "cure" a few days before they were really hard).

COOL (COMPLETELY, I left ours all night) IN THE OVEN. This is important-slow cooling avoids cracking.

Decorate as desired, finishing with a coat of varnish, acrylic, nail polish or white glue mixed with a little water. The point is to waterproof it so that moisture in the air doesn't make it go soft in the future. (We used yellow and gold acrylic paint and then a layer of acrylic glitter/glow-in-the-dark paint after that was completely dry, and they sealed up just fine.)

Gemma had fun using the cookie cutter to cut the stars out, and did a great job with the painting, it was right up her alley and I was amazed she was able to paint the fronts completely on her own with literally no assistance. I painted the edges and backs once the fronts were dry and then she painted the fronts with some glitter/glow-in-the-dark paint once the first layer of yellow/gold was dry. I used one of those metallic sharpies to write "Love, Gemma 2010" on the back of each one and some pretty red and silver twine I found looped through the holes made a nice "hanger" for the tree.

Gemma picked out some pink (imagine) gift bags at Target and we went through the list of people and she chose an ornament for each one, wrapped it in tissue paper, and put it in the bag (which she had already stuck personalized gift tags on all by herself). I found this poem online about the Christmas star and we glued it to the front of each bag.

A diamond shines no brighter than that lovely Christmas star.
It shines in all its brilliance; it's seen from near or far.
A symbol of the Christ child as He lay upon the hay,
It tell to all the waiting world a King was born that day.

O Bethlehem Star keep shining - give us faith and hope and love.
Keep our thoughts forever turning to the Savior up above.
Give us strength and hope and courage to do our best by far
And never falter in our faith as we watch that Christmas star.

And that's it! As we were working I used the opportunity to talk about giving gifts to those we love in honor of Jesus' birthday, and about the wisemen and their gifts, etc. It was a really fun project and I hope to find something equally successful for next year. Here are a few pictures of her work. She was very proud.

She has started doing this very forced, cheesy smile whenever I take her picture.
After wrapping them
Christmas morning (we kept one star for our tree)

Merry Christmas and Happy Epiphany!!

Christmas morning 2010

Christmas morning at our house was really nice. I'm still really wrestling with the whole Santa thing. I mean, I have no problem with Santa really, per se, especially when his story is told in the light of St. Nicholas...what I do have a problem with is the complete and utter commercialization of Christmas. The fact that to so many people, Santa IS what Christmas is all about. This bothers me. A lot. BUT, I'm not going to turn this post into a rant about Santa, I just wanted to give kind of a background so you'd know just how pleased I was with the sequence of events at our house Christmas morning.

We decided to go to Christmas morning Mass at our parish, that way Jesus was the first focus of the day, and "Santa" left his gifts while we were at Mass. It just worked out beautifully. Everyone was happy, everyone had fun, and the first thing Gemma talked about when she woke up Christmas morning was Happy Birthday Jesus.

She was very excited to finally light the white candle.
Putting baby Jesus in the manger.
Climbing on the table to blow the candles out (her favorite part), the last link from our chain is sitting on the wreath!
I posted quite the motley montage of pics of the kids in front of the tree a few days ago. Click here to check that out. And here's one of our family after Mass, all dressed up!
The presents were all arranged just so when we got home. It was fun and exciting for all of us. Well, Kolbe was pretty indifferent. He was just happy to have more wrapping paper to eat (he enjoyed it immensely on Christmas eve). We decided to do three gifts for each child, just as the wisemen brought three gifts to the Christ child. (plus a big gift for both of them and of course stocking gifts). For the three gifts we did an educational gift, a religious gift, and a fun toy. Gemma got some Melissa and Doug puzzles/pattern blocks, a new children's Bible and the Hideaway Hollow Cottage and furniture. Kolbe got a puzzle, a book about Jesus, and some balls to play with in the basement. And now for the pictures!

Stockings (thanks Aunt Lorrie!)
Gemma trying to figure out the trampoline, the "big" gift to both kids (hey Gemma, now you can bounce on this instead of your bed....)
Clarice was by her stocking, and Kolbe got a very soft teddy bear for his crib. She may or may not only be wearing underwear in this picture.
Opening presents
She thought the "mouse house" was pretty cool. It seems like a neat toy. Reminds me of some of the Fisher Price Little People toys I had as a child.
Number puzzle
Singing ("Hark the Herald Angels Sing", I believe)
It was a great morning. Like I said, I was just really pleased with the way everything went. We were able to go to Mass together as a family and then come home and relax and enjoy our morning together, open gifts, eat, just be leisurely and hang out as a family with nothing in particular to do. Doesn't happen very often. ;-D I have to share one more picture. This is Gemma after getting up from her nap. I'm still not quite sure what happened to her hair. Apparently she was dreaming too hard or something....
Next up, Christmas with my family...