As always, when I haven't done a coloring page in a while, I feel stiff and out of practice and I think it shows. But, truth be told, I could have worked for weeks on this one and still not done this beautiful image of Our Lady true justice. I just love the colors and the softness. Happy New Year to you all!
Ruth had a great idea and my brain just couldn't leave it alone. She came up with gifts to give to represent the 12 days of Christmas. I thought I would try to focus on incorporating the 12 Days of Christmas song into a menu plan. It's too late for this year but I wanted to record it here to give myself a better chance of remembering it next year. I tried to avoid desserts since we don't need any help in that department this time of year but some just couldn't be helped. Feel free to add your suggestions below:
Bookmarks! I made bookmarks for each child using personalized charms and black elastic cord. Proper instructions can be found here. Husband hand picked a joke for each person plus added a stick of Juicy Fruit to sweeten the surprise. The paper crowns were already tucked inside so once I tie up the open end, these babies are good to go!
I used an old St. Francis medal and a pretty cross that came from a broken key chain. Even the beads from the key chain made a nice one. I could see some of you amazingly skilled beaders out there really running with this idea! Merry Christmas!
Danielle Bean's recipe for homemade playdough in their favorite colors given to each child with a bundle of plastic cookie cutters in fun shapes. The red batch was scented with peppermint oil! Danielle, please tell your mom that her recipe is going to be a Christmas staple in our house from now on!
Homemade dolls for dollys.
Don't sick days usually follow snow days? Shortcake is down for the count with fever and an upset stomach and I am watching the others like they are ticking time bombs. My mom is on her way and the children are hoping they will get to play with her and not just have her hold a wet cloth to their forehead. So with that, I am signing off for this week to go clean bathrooms and do laundry and get ready to celebrate the birth of Our Lord however He might want me to. Take care and stay warm!
Husband is off for the rest of the week because he won't be off next week :( so we are declaring today a Snow Day. Real snow days do occur naturally here in Texas but we can't count on one every year so we are making our own. On the agenda:
1. Create our own snow storm in the windows. I made this one last night so the kids will get to work on their bedroom windows today. Warning: This project is so addictive you will find yourself looking at every window in your house and wondering if there are any 24 hour office supply stores. There aren't, just to let you know, but Wal-mart carries the 3/4 inch round labels and they are open 24 hours. I'm just sayin'.
2. We were so delighted by Joann's pictures and the simplicity of this project that we made our own last night so that they would be ready for Snow Day today. Some of us experimented with metallic pipe cleaners. The pink and red ones changed the color of the Borax solution but not the green or silver. Hmmmm?
Star boys and Lucias at every plate
Yarn doll St. Lucys for the girls
St. Lucy doing a jig?
Sunshine's sweet Lucy doll in her arms with a sweet roll on her plate! Mmmmmmm!
~The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe~
~Our table set and ready for the fiesta~
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, pray for us!
I couldn't decide between a picture of St. Lucy and a picture of a girl dressed for St. Lucy's Day so I am passing that indecision along to you. The first is based on Matthew Alderman's St. Lucy of Syracuse. This is a gorgeous image of St. Lucy. Go look at it and then spend some time looking at all of the other amazing art work over at The Catholic Illustrator's Guild. I really appreciated Mr. Alderman's depiction of St. Lucy without the dish of eyeballs. (See #1 here.) Plus, I don't think I could bring myself to draw eyeballs outside of their sockets. Ewwww. I can't believe I just typed that.
Christmas Carols~
1. Love 'em, hate 'em, tolerate 'em, or...? Love 'em!
2. Policy: none before Christmas, none before Thanksgiving, or...? None before Thanksgiving.
3. Favorite? Favorites, if you've got more than one? O Holy Night, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Silent Night...just to name a few.
4. Least favorite? Drives you batty/hate it/turn it off if it comes on the radio? The one about the kid buying shoes for his dying mother. Santa Baby, especially the Madonna version and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.
5. Caroling door to door in neighborhood? Ever done it/would do it? Wouldn't even consider it? Did it as a kid.
6. Funniest kids' rendition, if any? Veggie Tales version of the 12 Days of Christmas. It's dough, wrapped around...meat!
7. Most inappropriate carol ever heard in a church setting (Catholic or otherwise)? I don't remember which song they played, but one church programmed the outside bells to play Christmas songs as we were leaving Mass and the first one up was something Frosty the Snowman or Jingle Bells or something. Church bells ringing out Jingle Bells? It just doesn't work.
8. The one foreign language carol I know (or know best) is...? I used to know O Tannenbaum in German and Silent Night but these days it's Feliz Navidad.
9. Carol that perplexes you the most? Most of the really British ones like Walking in a Winter Wonderland... the whole Parson Brown snowman thing confuses me.
10. Carol your whole family will sing? I don't know but now I am going to have to find out!
How about you? Inquiring minds want to know!
I am going to post this now for anyone who might be celebrating the feast of St. Juan Diego today or so that you can print if off early for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Friday. We have plans to have a Mexican Fiesta, decorate a blue tablecloth with gold stars (I know it should be a green tablecloth but all of the green tablecloths were psychedelic), and make this craft. So here is Our Lady of Guadalupe to color or craft with as you choose.
And this afternoon we are delivering this basket of baked goods to my SIL tucked inside of a winter Quiltie for the sweet little girl she delivered last week. Dinner for a mom home with a wee one is lovely, but when you have little children to take care of along with that new baby, I have found that baked goods are usually missed the most (and 4 out of 5 toddlers agree!).
Shortcake made the baby hat you see in the picture above after we spent an afternoon with some amazing friends. A sweet girl (who is only 11 years old) taught us how to knit using a round loom and we have been going round and round and round ever since. Baby hats, dolly hats, Christmas presents and more! Thank you, friends, for introducing us to another avenue of creativity!
I love this picture of Our Lady but I don't know anything about the artist. If you do, please let me know. I did not include the background in my coloring version. It would have been too tedious and taken too much of my time. As you all know this is a very busy time of year for everyone but especially us moms! Maybe your kids can come up with a creative way to place her in a grotto or add one in the background. I'd love to see what they come up with! Have a lovely feast day!
Things are buzzing around here! You can read my post about our traditional cookies for St. Ambrose over at Catholic Cuisine. I posted these from last year since we probably won't make ours in time for me to get a good shot of them today. We are running a little behind over here do to a musical diversion but it was worth it. We spent our afternoon listening to some sweet singing from some family members who definitely did St. Ambrose proud!
In this post below, Kim F. recommended this resource for all your St. Nicholas coloring needs and boy was she right. Warning: you will spend hours and hours over there if you aren't careful! Set your timer!
Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...
So I was telling my MIL about our trip to Sea World and when I mentioned that they advertised "Holiday Shows" during the week of Thanksgiving she asked, "Which holiday would that be?" Really, who can blame her? In today's world where people refuse to sell Christmas trees or Christmas gifts, Christians feel like our holiday is the elephant in the living room. 
Everyone is celebrating it, but we're not allowed to talk about it. So, I was pleasantly pleased to be able to give my MIL a positive report regarding these holiday shows. They were Christmas shows! And they even said so!!!
Then we turned our attention to the JumboTron to see the wise men seeking the newborn King and to listen to the announcer talk about the miracle of the child born to save us all. Wow. It really was a beautiful show.
But, the dolphin show was a particular favorite.
Due to the heavy acrobatics and diving skills in this show, it was the same one you can see year round. There is no way a Santa hat would survive a 30 foot drop! There is a man who performs a funny water skit before the show starts and then acts as a "silly master of ceremonies" throughout. BigBoy dubbed him the Chicken Man since he pretended to be too scared to dive into the pool at one point.
BigBoy loved him! He wanted his picture taken with the Chicken Man afterwards so we made our way through the crowd in order to snap a shot. While they were smiling for the camera...
...this little baby beluga came up to the glass to say hello. BigBoy, when telling the story later says, "That's the baby beluga that wanted to be in my picture! I love him." We waved and signed "whale" at him (I am assuming "beluga" has to be fingerspelled) and even taught the Chicken Man how to sign whale (he asked).
