Advent 2013 - Day 16
The book for Day 16 was The Little Match Girl. Simply stated - this book is a treasure.
This story is about a young girl who has to sell matches to earn money for her family. If she comes home with no money her father will beat her. She is walking through the streets with no shoes on because they had fallen off earlier. You can almost feel the cold when you look at the pictures. Finally she is too cold to go another step so she sits down in a corner. She dares to strike a match for a bit of heat. She starts seeing amazing things when the matches are lit. First she sees a warm stove - then it disappears when the match burns out. Next she sees a lovely table full of warm, delicious food.
When she lights the third match she sees a wonderful Christmas tree.
She notices a falling star in the sky. Her dear old grandma used to tell her that meant someone was dying. She lights another match and this time she sees her grandma. She wants to go with her grandma because the girl knows she will disappear when the match burns out. In a last attempt to keep her grandma there, she lights all the rest of the matches. Her grandma reaches out for her and carries her to heaven with God.
The last page in the book shows the sweet girl, frozen to death in the night. It is about this point when one of the kids always asks if that means she is dead. It is about this point in the book that I try my hardest NOT to cry. It is ALWAYS this point that I wish there was more we could do for the poor and hungry.
This day's fun activity was to watch Miracle on 34th Street. The kids watched it later in the evening. I still have not watched the movie, but I really intend to. There always seems to be something to do to keep me busy in the evenings.
Advent 2013 - Day 17
I have no picture of the book we read that day. Believe it or not it has disappeared. That most likely means some child thought it was a fun book and wanted to read it again. They probably left it in whatever corner they were in. I have yet to locate that spot so you will have to use your imagination. The book was called Jingle Bells. It is about a bear family who, along with their friends, help Santa deliver the presents on Christmas Eve. They have supper with Santa and Mrs. Claus and then head home singing "Jingle Bells."
This day's activity was suppose to be having a Christmas tea and listening to Christmas music. Well - something called laundry got in the way. Also two sweet girls who were just that much more needy as well. Both of those leave little time for Mom to be hosting a Christmas tea.
Advent 2013 - Day 18
Our Advent calendar is looking quite full now.
Today's book was The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree. This is another one of the new books I bought. The story takes place in Appalachian Mountains. I loved the fact that the book was written as someone from the Appalachian Mountains would say it.
"We shall have a balsam Christmas tree, my pretty young'un," said Papa. "The balsam grows up the rocky craigs where only a venturesome man may go. The balsam is a perfect tree. It grows up high, hear to heaven."
Isn't that just the sweetest? I have to admit I tried my best accent, but it sounded more like a butchered version than "best." The story is about a young girl whose family is in charge of getting the Christmas tree for the church. Early in the spring the father and daughter find the perfect tree.
Then the father is called away to fight in a war across the sea. All year long the mother and daughter work hard to have enough food to eat. Come Christmas time there is no money for a new dress for the daughter to play the Christmas angel for the play.
Her dear mother cut up her wedding dress to make an angel's dress for the girl. The mother also made a matching angel doll for the little girl as a Christmas present. The mother and daughter climb up to the craig and cut down the perfect Christmas tree and surprise the church. Not many expected them to be able to provide the tree with the father gone to war.
The boys were tickled when St. Nick gave some of the children (and adults) lumps of coal for being bad that year.
After the Christmas play the little girl had a great surprise because her father was home from the war.
Today's activity was to decorate the Christmas tree. Today was also my 35th birthday. I told my mother I wasn't going to do any cleaning on my birthday. Well, you know how I am. I never do anything half way and I never do it the easy way.
Here is what we started with. See that massive dark spot on the floor by the couch? Yah, how could you miss it, right? Well, it finally irritated me enough that I decided it needed to be cleaned. Darren said he would shampoo carpets while he was home after the babies were born, but you know how that didn't go as planned. I figured he could probably do that during Christmas break. Well, smart me remembers you can't clean carpets with a Christmas tree in the way. So I decided to clean the carpets in the living room. Yup, 'cause I'm that crazy. Then I hauled in the Christmas tree from the shop (where it was defrosting), set it up with Blase's help, and started decorating.
This is what the corner looked like just before bed. We still need to put ornaments on the tree. Cormac did a GREAT job of picking the perfect Christmas tree for us. Such a lovely shaped tree compared to years past. Oh and the smell is wonderful too.
I did notice that someone was messing with the nativity set tonight. I moved it down onto the fire place for Christmas. I guess Baby Jesus isn't there yet so the sheep are still taking advantage of the manger. Gosh, I love my kids and their creativity.
I have to show you this picture though it has nothing to do with Christmas. Brech came with me to the doctor's appointment for the girls on Monday. Afterwards we went shopping for a few things, including Christmas dresses for the girls. We saw this black bow tie and he HAD TO HAVE IT, please. So I bought him this cute little tie. He has NOT taken it off since. He sleeps with it on, he eats with it on, and does every other thing with this bow tie on. He's a keeper!! (Gianna is being a bit of handful lately - bet you didn't gather that from the picture.)
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