Dance, Presentation, and visitors

The girls had their dance performance on January 21st.  My parents came to watch.  We had a fun weekend and they did a great job!

 On February 2nd the Catholic Church celebrated the Feast of the Presentation.  We read the Bible reading of the Presentation which was 40 days after Jesus' birth and have some foods to symbolize parts of the story.  The pretzels symbolize Simeon's praying arms and the toothpicks stand for swords (since I couldn't find any little party swords) piercing Mary's heart (as Simeon tells her will happen to her).  We happen to put these on our Valentines heart shaped tray.  Black olives represent Anna because she was a widow and they traditionally wore black.  The Feast of the Presentation is sometimes called Candlemas (because of Simeon saying Jesus would be a light of revelation to the Gentiles) so we also made candles out of cookies stuck with a rolled wafer cookie and a marshmallow on top.  I got these ideas from some Catholic blogs who do a more in depth version but we usually just do simplified versions.  Last year our friends used dove shaped cookie cutters to make dove sandwiches but they were sick this year so we didn't do a bigger party.

 My sister brought her kids for the weekend this weekend to visit.  The kids love playing with Martin and Grace.  We will hopefully see them one more time before my sister has her new baby in March.

Christmas Part 2

 I am clearly having issues with the new blogger format.  If anyone can give me any tips on dragging pictures, I would appreciate the help!!  Here are a few pictures of early December to backtrack.  We made a cardboard castle while studying castles.  We started advent with our doughnut advent wreath tradition.  We started the Jesse Tree telling the family history of Jesus from Adam and Eve through the Bible to the coming of Jesus.  We had snacks for some of the ornaments we put on the tree like Adam's sparkling cider for the story of Adam and Eve.

 We celebrated St. Nicholas day and started our Nativity with just animals this year.  For St. Nicholas day, the kids got gold coins (because St. Nicholas left gold in secret for people who needed money), candy canes for the bishop's crozier (because he was a bishop in the 500's).   They also got notes, sticker nativities, and a little play nativity.

We celebrated early with my family this year.  Here is Grace opening her gift from us which was a small diaper bag my talented friend made for her. My brother and his wife from San Diego were there, my brother and his wife from Charleston, and my sister's family.  One brother that just moved from Chicago to Seattle was not there but we skyped while opening presents.

These pictures are of the nativity at church which is too big to get a picture of.  Brianna is in front of the elephant and wise men.  The castle is slowly getting colored.  The girls were angels and Sam was a sheep at the Christmas pageant at church.  They always enjoy that. Before going to church, we went to Heath's parents for a Christmas Eve dinner and presents.  The kids have so much fun with their cousins.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. My parents spent Christmas with us which was a huge help and made it even more fun. The girls got a special Christmas visit from their best friends that moved to northern Ohio in October.

They got a cardboard castle from Heath's sister which has been hours of entertainment.

Brianna only asked for elephants this year and all 3 of her santa gifts were elephants. The kids were all kind to Santa this year and he spent very little on any of them. The most expensive gift was the FAO Schwarz elephant Brianna has which was only 24.99. Leah got a lego castle from my aunt and uncle. No one even knew that we have been studying castles in history this year.

Leah got this large duck, duck pillow pet, and fur real duck. This big duck was less than $15!! Alex got a lego tractor from my aunt and uncle.

Katelyn had been saving for this American Girl doll since the summer and finally earned enough to be surprised with her on Christmas Day. I didn't think she was going to have enough but we had a little last minute Christmas Eve money from Great Grandparents. All of the other kids emptied out their piggy banks and gave her some because they really wanted her to get it. Those moments make parenting so rewarding, especially when I didn't even suggest they help Kate.

They got some notecards in their stockings and Sam got a Playmobil St. Nicholas which he loves!!

Here are our pictures after Christmas Eve mass.

Sam didn't feel like posing but Alex did!



They also made cookies with Grandma.