Christmas Visit

We are so blessed to have several friends who live in our small town that also homeschool.

This year for our Christmas Party we first went to a local assisted living home and sang Christmas carols, played the piano and visited with the residents. We all loved it so much!

One of the residents mentioned how they love this time of year because people come and visit. This saddened me because I know I am guilty of thinking of these types of ministries only around the holidays!

We, as a group, have decided that we would make this a regular outing for our children. We plan to go back and play games and do crafts with the residents throughout the coming year!

12's

Didn't everyone get a 12/12/12 at 12:12 picture? 

We did and because we were on vacation, we were able to get all 6 of us in the picture!

Cantata 2012

The kids had the great privilege to sing in the church cantata tonight. S, M and B are in the children's choir and E is in the youth choir.

Their choirs joined the adult choir in singing a beautiful song for the cantata and the children's choir did a song on their own. It was wonderful! I am so thankful they have the opportunity to learn music and share their praise to the awesome God we serve!

Movies with the Cousins

Being a family of 6, we do not go to the movies very often. Honestly, it is only during the summer when they have $2 movies which includes popcorn and a drink!

We were so excited when we heard about a FREE movie day including popcorn and drinks - the only cost being canned food for our local food bank! It was wonderful to be on a Saturday morning which allowed daddy to come along too!

My sister and her kids also went so the kids were able to see their cousins too!

Fun times - Great memories - isn't that what life is about???

The Tree 2012

We found a beautiful, tall and FAT Christmas tree at our friend's Nursery! Love it, it is just perfect!

Tree Lighting Ceremony 2012

The kids had the privilege to sing at the Tree lighting ceremony in our small town. They, along with the adult choir, sang one of the songs that they will be singing on Sunday Night in the cantata.

Names of God ornaments

This week in Bible we have been studying the names of God. We colored these little ornaments and hung them on my branch tree.

I think it is a perfect way to keep God at the center of all that do this Christmas season, a constant reminder of who He is and ALL He has done for us!

Visit with Santa

Thankfully M still wants to sit on Santa's lap.

My older ones think that it is so "babyish" to see Santa. Thankfully their daddy asked them to please do it for mom :)

Since our friends were also there, I asked if they all would go see Santa. Again, there was some resistance by the boys, but they finally agreed since they were doing it together with their friends  :)

Planet Notebooks

We are learning about the Planets and other Astronomy related things so we decided to do a notebook of sorts. The kids enjoyed doing school in a different manner today and I enjoyed watching their creativity shine!