Advent 2013 - Day 13
The Last Straw was the book for Day 13. This is a story about an old camel who was given the honor of carrying the gifts the Wise Men were taking to the new King. This honor went to his head and he told the younger camels that he was as strong as ten horses.
The book goes on with all different animals and people meeting the camel (whose name is Hoshmakaka) along the way to the new King. They all had something they wanted to have Hoshmakaka carry to the King for them. He was getting quite tired and overloaded, but continued on because his pride wouldn't let him give up in front of the other camels.
The very last gift was from a young boy who wanted to give the new King a piece of straw for His bed. It was all the child had to give. Hoshmakaka was very, very tired and very, very overloaded by this point, but he carried that straw anyway.
The story ends with Hoshmakaka falling down to his knees from exhaustion in the stable where the new King was born. He thought that the Wise Men were mocking him by kneeling down as well. The Wise Men were not mocking him, but following his example and kneeling before the King. The sweetest moment was went Jesus reached out and touched Hoshmakaka and took away all his pain and aches as a reward for carrying all those gifts to Him. The last lines of the story say:
"Hoshmakaka whispered to the baby, 'Hosanna from Hoshmakaka. Accept these gifts kindly. They come from far and wide, brought by a beast who once acted blindly.'
From that time on there was no burden, great or small, that Hoshmakaka would not gladly carry."
The boys and I then had a wonderful talk about how we are a lot like that silly camel. We brag about how much we can do. We also talked about how Hoshmakaka complained the whole time he was carrying all those gifts. How many times had we complained when we had many jobs to do in a day? How many times had we reluctantly agreed to help someone and then complained under our breaths? Hoshmakaka learned how important it was to do the task given us. He learned how Jesus will reward us for the good we do. We talked about how Hoshmakaka had his pains taken away. When we do good works and help others here on earth, Jesus will take our pain away and reward us in heaven.
This day's fun activity was probably the most exciting and well-liked up to now. We drank hot chocolate with candy canes as stirrers.
This is what Stephen's looked like when he first pulled it out.
After awhile it ended up looking like this.
Everyone, except Rex who does not like peppermint, had a great time and have begged for more hot chocolate with candy canes.
Advent 2013 - Day 14
The Nutcracker was Saturday's book. We actually didn't make it all the way through the book. We had to stop to eat supper. While we ate supper we watched a version of The Nutcracker on Netflix. I think the kids all believe that The Nutcracker book was based off of the movie Barbie and The Nutcracker. They were not pleased to see that it was a ballet. I tolerated their not-so-thrilled comments only as long as it took to eat and then I turned it off. I was enjoying it, but obviously it was too "girly" for the boys and Darren. I guess that's what I get for trying to expose them to a little culture. I suppose if it was done in camo with ice fishing scenes it most likely would have gone over better. The next morning Blase did say he would finish watching it with me sometime.
The book had some of the most beautiful pictures I have seen of the story.
I thought the pictures were perfect.
I honestly had never read The Nutcracker story before so it was a treat for me.
The book also came with a CD that has a reading of the story with the music from the ballet. I think the boys were disappointed that this was one of the few new books I bought. I am determined to get them interested in some arts and music! Maybe my next attempt will be more successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment