for FREE! So that will tack onto this:
and we will have made out like bandits! I'm still reeling from the shock of it and SO GLAD I didn't pick up the simple 8 track design for $30 that I was about to buy the day before we saw this deal.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
TRAINS!
Remember when I said we ordered a train set for Eliana because it was a really good deal?? Well, it arrived yesterday. I opened the outer box so I could wrap up the box with the train set in it and I discovered two boxes inside. Confused, I asked Leif about it. It turns out, that in addition to the 100 piece train set we ordered for $30 with free shipping, we also received this train station set:
for FREE! So that will tack onto this:
and we will have made out like bandits! I'm still reeling from the shock of it and SO GLAD I didn't pick up the simple 8 track design for $30 that I was about to buy the day before we saw this deal.
for FREE! So that will tack onto this:and we will have made out like bandits! I'm still reeling from the shock of it and SO GLAD I didn't pick up the simple 8 track design for $30 that I was about to buy the day before we saw this deal.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Santa Clause....
I didn't grow up believing in Santa. And I don't feel deprived. We really have no intention of teaching Eliana about Santa, either, though I would have liked to get a picture of her sitting on Santa's lap this year. But we missed that opportunity (by mere minutes) at Murdoch's the other day for a free photo, so we probably won't do it. It's not THAT big a deal, I just thought it would make for a cute picture. I have never heard a really convincing argument against teaching your kids about Santa Clause, because I have seen people do it without taking away from the focus of Christ. But today my friend Jaime posted an excellent reason behind their family's decision not to celebrate Santa Clause. It's not because Santa is evil, nor because Santa secularizes Christmas. It's because if you use your power as a parent to convince your children to believe a lie (that Santa is real, that he lives at the North Pole and brings kids gifts, etc.) then the time may come when they question the truth of other stories you have told them are true (that Christ is God's son and that he came to earth in the form of a baby, born of a virgin, and that his death has provided a way for us to be reconciled to God and be saved). Because if you lied about one, how will they know you didn't lie about the other? We need to be honest with our children and make sure that we act in a manner that is worthy of their trust.
Anyway, I am not nearly as eloquent as Jaime on the subject, so please read her post instead of just taking my summary of it. =D I appreciate friends who think through their parenting in light of Scripture and who are willing to post their thoughts online to spur the rest of us to deeper thought and more deliberate parenting. Thank you, Jaime!
Anyway, I am not nearly as eloquent as Jaime on the subject, so please read her post instead of just taking my summary of it. =D I appreciate friends who think through their parenting in light of Scripture and who are willing to post their thoughts online to spur the rest of us to deeper thought and more deliberate parenting. Thank you, Jaime!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Putting a little Holiday in the Everyday...
As I'm doing the Daily December this year, it occurs to me that I'm making an effort to make the every day things just a little more special this holiday season. It doesn't take a lot of effort or energy, but I think it makes the everyday a little more fun and turns our focus from the mundane to the season. It's the simple moments in life that are great. Yes, Christmas day is wonderful and beautiful and magical, but I'm not convinced it would be if we didn't take the time and effort to build the excitement throughout the season. Simple memories. We bake cookies. We take pictures. We send cards. We decorate the house. It's all the little things that add up to make this season so spectacular. So I thought I'd share a little of how I'm putting the holiday in our everyday this year, just to make things a little more special.
- Reading Christmas stories instead of our regular stories.
- Watching Christmas movies instead of our regular Word World, etc.
- Baking muffins (or cornbread, like we did tonight) into gingerbread men shapes (using a Wilton silicone pan).
- Playing Christmas music and dancing to it.
- Singing Christmas carols
- Making snow angels outside
- Making some Christmas cards (or Thank You cards) for grandparents and other family members.
- Talking about the Christmas story as you decorate the tree (the star or angel on top, why we give gifts, advent candles, etc.)
- Pointing out Christmas lights as you drive around town.
- Playing with holiday specific toys (stuffed snowmen, etc.)
- Making and decorating cookies together.
- Making baked goods together to give as gifts.
Friday, December 5, 2008
How's it going?
Well, it's been a few days since I took 2/3 of Eliana's toys away from her and put them up until later. Wanna know how it's going?
GREAT.
Her room looks empty, if you ask me. It made me realize that I really do need to finish the decorations I have half done to put on her wall. That would make the room look better. I moved the easel to the craft room. It has a place in there and she actually got to paint on it -- and LOVED it! I'm so excited for the crafts she's going to get to do down there now that I have a place I don't have to be so concerned about getting all dirtied up by toddler creativity!
Now that Eliana doesn't have as much clutter in her room it's amazing the creativity she has. She's been playing "Birthday Cake" a lot and has been playing with her activity bags sorting things by color and threading beads on pipe cleaner. She never played with those before! Plus, it takes just a couple minutes to clean up her room now instead of taking half an hour or more. Hooray!
The basement is tidier, too, now that I've moved out some of that stuff. I still need to clean up the rest of the family room and get her puppets arranged in a way that she can easily play with them, but it's good. She's playing with her Mega Blocks all the time down there!
So it's good. I'm really glad I took the time to separate out her toys. When she gets her Christmas gifts I'll put some of them aside so she can play with them later, too. Then there will be newness all through the year instead of just on one day!
GREAT.
Her room looks empty, if you ask me. It made me realize that I really do need to finish the decorations I have half done to put on her wall. That would make the room look better. I moved the easel to the craft room. It has a place in there and she actually got to paint on it -- and LOVED it! I'm so excited for the crafts she's going to get to do down there now that I have a place I don't have to be so concerned about getting all dirtied up by toddler creativity!
Now that Eliana doesn't have as much clutter in her room it's amazing the creativity she has. She's been playing "Birthday Cake" a lot and has been playing with her activity bags sorting things by color and threading beads on pipe cleaner. She never played with those before! Plus, it takes just a couple minutes to clean up her room now instead of taking half an hour or more. Hooray!
The basement is tidier, too, now that I've moved out some of that stuff. I still need to clean up the rest of the family room and get her puppets arranged in a way that she can easily play with them, but it's good. She's playing with her Mega Blocks all the time down there!
So it's good. I'm really glad I took the time to separate out her toys. When she gets her Christmas gifts I'll put some of them aside so she can play with them later, too. Then there will be newness all through the year instead of just on one day!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
S is for Star
The other day I was at Barnes and Noble looking for some Christmas / Winter books to read with Eliana. She was happily playing with the train set when I stumbled upon this little gem of a book:
I assumed that S is for Star would be just like all the other secular "____ is for _____" alphabet books published by this company. We have the "B is for Big Sky" book and it's cute, but it isn't anything spectacular. I figured the Christmas book would be the same way. You know, C is for Candy Cane, P is for Presents, F is for Frosty the Snowman.... It turns out, though, that this is a surprisingly good book for the Christmas season. It is pretty much an alphabet book centered on Christ's birth, which is awesome! Each page, in addition to the "_____ is for ________" statement includes scripture verses and tidbits of history that pertain to the focus for that letter. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of scripture verses throughout the book. The side information also makes the book more interesting for older children, making this a book that can be read as a family for years.
Like I said, pleasantly surprised. Not only that, but the book retails for under $7. It really makes me wish I had nieces and nephews - I'd buy a copy for each of them for Christmas this year. Instead, though, I'll just settle for the copy I bought for our household. =D
If you click here you can see some of the pages inside (I'm a big fan of the "surprise me!" button on the side bar for seeing what a book is like inside). But just to give you an idea of the way the letters are incorporated to give a picture of why we really celebrate Christmas, here is a sample...
A is for angels and archangels
B is for Baby Jesus
E is for Epiphany
I stands for Inn in Isreal
Joseph begins with the letter J
K stands for King
L is for Love
M is for the straw-filled Manger
S stands for Shepherds
W is for Wise Men
Zion starts with the letter Z
I love that the books draws in not only the nativity story, and cultural Christmas traditions, but also starts to give the big picture of Christmas, mentioning Christ as the King of Kings, born into King David's line and Christ returning again. It really is a good book and I can't recommend it enough if you're trying to find a good book to read with your kids this season.
I assumed that S is for Star would be just like all the other secular "____ is for _____" alphabet books published by this company. We have the "B is for Big Sky" book and it's cute, but it isn't anything spectacular. I figured the Christmas book would be the same way. You know, C is for Candy Cane, P is for Presents, F is for Frosty the Snowman.... It turns out, though, that this is a surprisingly good book for the Christmas season. It is pretty much an alphabet book centered on Christ's birth, which is awesome! Each page, in addition to the "_____ is for ________" statement includes scripture verses and tidbits of history that pertain to the focus for that letter. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of scripture verses throughout the book. The side information also makes the book more interesting for older children, making this a book that can be read as a family for years.
Like I said, pleasantly surprised. Not only that, but the book retails for under $7. It really makes me wish I had nieces and nephews - I'd buy a copy for each of them for Christmas this year. Instead, though, I'll just settle for the copy I bought for our household. =D
If you click here you can see some of the pages inside (I'm a big fan of the "surprise me!" button on the side bar for seeing what a book is like inside). But just to give you an idea of the way the letters are incorporated to give a picture of why we really celebrate Christmas, here is a sample...
A is for angels and archangels
B is for Baby Jesus
E is for Epiphany
I stands for Inn in Isreal
Joseph begins with the letter J
K stands for King
L is for Love
M is for the straw-filled Manger
S stands for Shepherds
W is for Wise Men
Zion starts with the letter Z
I love that the books draws in not only the nativity story, and cultural Christmas traditions, but also starts to give the big picture of Christmas, mentioning Christ as the King of Kings, born into King David's line and Christ returning again. It really is a good book and I can't recommend it enough if you're trying to find a good book to read with your kids this season.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Daily December
This year I am going to do Daily December activities with Eliana. We're going to spend time doing something for the holidays every day, and I'm going to do my best to take pictures and record what we're doing. I made a little Daily December album last month in which to record these memories so that we can look back on the things we did to celebrate Christmas this year.
And wouldn't you know it, but today is December 3 and I haven't yet recorded what we did on the 1st or the 2nd. The good news is that we DID something those days, though! Here's what we did:
December 1 - Drove around the subdivision looking at Christmas lights. It turns out that Eliana is a big fan of decorated houses and calls the houses with lights on them "castles". As in, "WOW! Look at that big castle over there!" It's cute.
December 2 - Eliana and I bought some Christmas books to read this season (including How the Grinch Stole Christmas and S is for Star) and we put up a new little Christmas tree in her room. It doesn't have any ornaments or a star on it yet, but it does have some red garland on it, which she picked out. I hope to use the Christmas tree this year to talk about the symbolism of the different decorations.
And today? Well, we'll have to see what we do today. She has friends coming over this afternoon, so we might bake cookies (in the shape of ginger bread men!) or we might make salt dough ornaments, or we might make cinnamon hard candy (in the shape of ginger bread men!) or we might play in the snow and learn to make snow angels or we might do something entirely different. We'll just have to see how the day goes. =D
And wouldn't you know it, but today is December 3 and I haven't yet recorded what we did on the 1st or the 2nd. The good news is that we DID something those days, though! Here's what we did:
December 1 - Drove around the subdivision looking at Christmas lights. It turns out that Eliana is a big fan of decorated houses and calls the houses with lights on them "castles". As in, "WOW! Look at that big castle over there!" It's cute.
December 2 - Eliana and I bought some Christmas books to read this season (including How the Grinch Stole Christmas and S is for Star) and we put up a new little Christmas tree in her room. It doesn't have any ornaments or a star on it yet, but it does have some red garland on it, which she picked out. I hope to use the Christmas tree this year to talk about the symbolism of the different decorations.
And today? Well, we'll have to see what we do today. She has friends coming over this afternoon, so we might bake cookies (in the shape of ginger bread men!) or we might make salt dough ornaments, or we might make cinnamon hard candy (in the shape of ginger bread men!) or we might play in the snow and learn to make snow angels or we might do something entirely different. We'll just have to see how the day goes. =D
Trains....
Ha ha! This is going to be funny post coming right after the last one, but I promise I'm not crazy. =D This morning we ordered this train set:
for Eliana to play with on her train table. It's the third part of her Little People / Cars / Trains rotation. Want to know the best part about this particular train set?? It was $29.99 with free shipping!! I have been looking at other train sets and for $30 all you get is a little 8 track with 2 train cars. So this set is a great deal! I'm pretty excited about it, especially since Eliana LOVES playing with the train sets at the Children's Museum, Barnes and Noble, and Giggles toy store. The set can connect into other brands of wooden train sets, too, which is nice. The reviews are pretty good on this particular train set from this particular website (there were 66 reviews) so I'm excited to see the set when it actually arrives. I assume we'll give it to Eliana for Christmas and then put it away until the middle of January or sometime in February when it's time to switch out the toys in the basement again. I know she is getting a Little People house from Mommom and Poppy, so I want her to play with that on the table first. Plus, her Christmas toys get to be new and fresh then when she doesn't get to play with them all at once.
for Eliana to play with on her train table. It's the third part of her Little People / Cars / Trains rotation. Want to know the best part about this particular train set?? It was $29.99 with free shipping!! I have been looking at other train sets and for $30 all you get is a little 8 track with 2 train cars. So this set is a great deal! I'm pretty excited about it, especially since Eliana LOVES playing with the train sets at the Children's Museum, Barnes and Noble, and Giggles toy store. The set can connect into other brands of wooden train sets, too, which is nice. The reviews are pretty good on this particular train set from this particular website (there were 66 reviews) so I'm excited to see the set when it actually arrives. I assume we'll give it to Eliana for Christmas and then put it away until the middle of January or sometime in February when it's time to switch out the toys in the basement again. I know she is getting a Little People house from Mommom and Poppy, so I want her to play with that on the table first. Plus, her Christmas toys get to be new and fresh then when she doesn't get to play with them all at once.
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