Meeting Santa

Santa rode in on a helicopter and all the children stood in amazement. That was the plan and that was what we were told happened, but we were running late out the door (Saturday mornings are harsh for us to get out the door). By the time we got there Santa had landed and a line to meet him was forming. Luckily our children didn't know the difference and was thrilled to death to just see and then get to sit inside the helicopter. (they were the hospital ones). We had hot cocoa while we waited in line to meet Santa and Mrs Clause. And while waiting we also met a little girl who was born the exact same day as our twins, but at the local hospital. Granted our girls are older they were born at 1am and this little's grandma said it was after 9am.

Al was so thrilled to meet Santa that he didn't say a word. He was just thrilled to be there. The girls handled Santa fine, they didn't cry, although they did give him some funny looks like they didn't know what to think of him. But I think the fact that Al was obviously excited to be there told the girls this wasn't suppose to be a scary person.

That evening we went to the Christmas light parade. Great day, very tired children.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Yes better late than never. Here is our Christmas card and our family newsletter.

Christmas Puzzles (possible Singing Time)

When I was asked to sub the other Sunday I had an idea and thought it would be fun to make the Christmas songs into brain teasers. I didn't have it ready and I did find some on the internet

http://jokelibrary.net/xOtherAtoM/b_to_e/c4-puzzle/puzzles.html

But they weren't in a format ready for Primary. So I did something else with the children.
But it was still on my mind. I played on my photoshop and came up with the following.
Yes some are almost exactly from the above website. However many are not and there are a number of primary songs. Can you figure them out?

Even if you're not a Primary teach I hope you can enjoy these.

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1. Angels We have Heard on High

2. Away in a Manger

3. Christmas Bells

4. Far Far Away

5. The First Noel

6. Joy to the World

7. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

8. Oh Come All Ye Faithful

9. Once Within a Lowly Stable

10. Picture a Christmas

11. Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus

12. Shepherd's Carol

13. Silent Night

14. Stars Where Gleaming

15. When Joseph Went to Bethlehem

If you're going to use them in Primary, you don't have to use all of them. Just use which ones you want. I also thought they might be fun to put on a wall for a ward party and let people guess.

Download each one by Saving the image onto your computer 

OR

click

HERE TO DOWNLOAD AS A ZIP

for all the pictures at once.

IF anyone has issues with the zip file PLEASE let me know
This is the first time I've done a zip for others to download.

Christmas Songs for Singing Time

I so thought I had blogged about these already I made them back in 2008.
I am the sub for Singing Time on Sunday since Thanksgiving weekend our chorister is going to still be out of town. She said to pick a Christmas song and teach it to the children.
She appologized that she didn't have any of the visuals I had made because when our ward was split all that stuff had to go to the other ward. So she has nothing. I thought hey I made them once I'll make them again. So I got on my blog to look them up so I could have something to look at and I couldn't find them. I had to go through our old photos from our old hard drive to find them.

First:

I made a Nativity scene from construction paper and then had it laminated. To give you an idea of size 

Joseph is about 9 inches tall. The brown part of him is all one piece, just cut and drawn on.

I used it for "Once within a Lowly Stable", "Shepherd's Carol" and the Nativity Song.
I pointed with a stick at the character in that part of the song.

I used it for "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem". I had a path that lead to it on the chalkboard and a "workbench" on the far side of the path.

I also used it by putting stickies on it, had the pieces on the table, children picked a piece and then we placed it on the board created our Nativity picture as we sang different carols.

Next:

Joy to the World

"Joy to the world"

"The Lord has come" ---use picture from library of the 2nd coming, nativity would work too

"Let Earth receive her King"

"Let every heart Prepare him room"

"And Saints and Angels Sing...."

all just made out of construction paper and markers.

Third:
Far Far Away

Each verse was a page. Not too thrilled with my pages, a little too busy. If I was to do it again I'd probably do 1 verse to 2 pages, with less words written on the pages.

We then did the chorus in Sign Language.

Here is the link to my youtube video of the chorus

I love teaching Christmas songs to the children.
If you're looking for something really different. You'd need to get permision from your Primary President, but last year my mom and I wrote a Christmas Children Song called 

Counting Christmas

click above and you can download the song.

These are the words:

ONE little baby sleeps on the hay in a manger far away.

TWO earthly parents watch Him sleep as their night long vigil they keep.

THREE wise men follow the light of a star shining bright

Bringing gold and frankincense and myrrh as they travel through the night.

FOUR shepherds hear the angels sing above, and they go to witness God's Love.

FIVE lowly animals make not a sound as the shepherds gather around.

I wrote it with the idea in mind of singing it with children and counting the 5 on their hands.

Have fun singing Christmas Songs!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 

    Life at our House is going well. 2010 has been good to us. Cory is still at his job and I'm is still the Primary Chorister, and it was a blessed day when Alistair started going to nursery. We went on our much anticipated Mediterranean Cruise, with Cory’s parents, brother and cousin, while Al got Grandma time with Grandma Sowards. We had a fantastic trip, we went to Rome, Egypt, Istanbul, Kusadasi Turkey, Athens, and Naples. It was the trip of a lifetime. We loved all 2 ½ weeks of it.
We pray that your families are doing well and that you can see the blessings of the Lord on your households. We are grateful for the friendships and the love that we share with each one of you.

Love and Happy New Years

Ward Party and Seeing Santa

 Our ward party was last week. There was a short program first, then was dinner, then came Santa Clause. Al didn't handle the wait for dinner very well. I should have though about that before leaving and have fed him, but I'm just not a mother mode like that.

And as with every child their first time sitting on Santa's lap. Oh Fun.

Trimming Our Tree

Last Monday night we decorated our tree for FHE.

 Al kept trying to put ornaments on the tree

 and then take them back off again.

 Helping daddy.

 Look mama the tree is done.

Singing Time Christmas Pageant

A couple years ago, the Sunday before Christmas, we used the song "The Nativity Song" CSB page 52.  We had a combined Sharing and Singing time. We did all the verses and had children come up and dress up as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, everything in the song. We made a stable out of a sheep with across the top with a poll on each side. It worked really well in SR primary, but the song was hard for the JR primary and we never got to finish due to time.  If you choose to do this I would suggest having a copy of the words given to the teachers and maybe the oldest children who can read music.

What are we doing this year?

We are going to do another combined Singing and Sharing Time. But we are going to do it more like a Christmas Pageant. Instead of using "The Nativity Song" we are going to have a different song either from the Children's Songbook or from the Hymn book. We are going to talk about each character, read the scripture that talks about them, and then sing a song about them.

As follows:

Mary- Mother of Jesus, Luke 1: 27-31: The Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she had been chosen, blessed, to be the Mother of her Savior, Jesus (find what verses you actually want to read, maybe have the children act it out). Luke 2:19 "Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart"  Song: "Mary's Lullaby" CSB pg 44

Joseph- Husband of Mary, Luke 2: 1-4: Joseph had to be taxed and go to Bethlehem because that is where his ancestors were from. He had to take Mary with him since she was his wife. Luke 2:7 : Joseph was unable to find an Inn for them to stay in because Bethlehem was too busy, but he was able to find a stable/barn for them to stay in. Song: "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem" CSB pg 38. 

Baby Jesus- Luke 2: 11-12, 16: Not only was Mary told by an angel that her baby was the Son of God, but Angels testified of this to the Shepherds. Jesus is the Son of God, Our Savior and Redeemer. He started this journey on Earth just as every one of us did, being born to earthly parents. He too had to learn and grow to be prepared for his mission on this Earth. Song: "Away in a Manger" CSB pg 42.

Stable- Luke 2:7, There are many different types of stables. We don't know what type Jesus was born in, it was possibly a cave that was being used as a barn. But it was a barn with animals and they used a Manger, or the animals feed troff as a crib. Song: "Once Within a Lowly Stable" CSB 41.

Shepherds- Luke 2: 8-17, Why the Shepherds? They were old in the fields and on the hills round about the city working and watching their sheep. The angels appeared to them, testified of Christ, told them where to find the Baby, and then filled the sky with singing praising God. They shepherds went, they saw, and they then testified of all they had seen and heard. Song: "Stars Were Gleaming" CSB pg 37, "Shepherd's Carol" CSB pg 40

Angels- Luke 1: 28, An Angel came to Mary bring her the news that she was to be the Mother of the Son of God; Matt 1:20, An angel appeared to Joseph to testify to him of the Baby that Mary carried; Luke 2: 8- 14, Angels appeared unto the Shepherds testifying of Christ and Singing praises to God. Song: "Far Far Away" Hymn 212, "Angels we have Heard on High" Hymn 203, "Stars Were Gleaming" CSB pg 37.

Wise Men- Matt 2: 1-12, Where the wise men were from we do not know. What we do know is they came from the east and knew the prophecy of the new star, they were watching was waiting for it to be fulfilled. What made them wise? -they were kings, rulers in their own lands, but more importantly they were wise because they knew of Christ and did whatever was necessary to follow the star to seek their God. "With Wondering Awe" Hymn 210, "The Nativity Song" vrs 4 CSB pg 52-53.

Star-bMatt 2: 10 "When They saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy"; Helaman 2: 5, in the Book of Mormon, Samuel the Lamanite Prophet prophesied that a new star would appear as a sign that Jesus had been born. Song: "There was Starlight on the Hillside" CSB pg 40, "With Wondering Awe" Hymn 210, "Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus" CSB pg 36.

To close- Sing "He Sent His Son" CSB pg 34, Testify of Christ's birth and his role in the Plan of Salvation. Sing: "Silent Night" Hymn 201, or any other Christmas Song that will help bring in the Spirit. 

Nativity For Singing Time

A friend of mine gave me this link these printable Nativity characters are awesome.

Printable Nativity Characters, use toliet paper rolls to make them stand. I'm going to use them tomorrow, I'll have a song placed on each or refer to my Christmas pageant lesson, this would work for this. Great thing about this is you don't need to risk your nice Nativity set being broken taking it to church. 

Lights Parade Evening activity

 Last Saturday was the lights parade. We decided to make an evening of it. We went to dinner at the Pizza Hut Bistro then set ourselves up on the street. Half the town was out to see the parade.That's not quite right. 1/3 was watching the parade, 1/3 was in the parade, and the last 1/3 of the town was at home not bothering with it.

It reminds me of two different memories:
1-  Growing up we'd sometimes go to Colorado for the 24th Celebration (24th of July, Pioneer day, for those of you that aren't LDS it is the day set aside to celebrate the Mormon Pioneers arriving in the Salt Lake Valley. In the San Luis Valley, where my dad's family is all from, its a huge deal, the whole town comes out for the celebration. Having the whole town out on the street to watch the parade reminded me of everyone being out to see the parade in Colorado.
2- It reminded me of being on my mission, one year during the holiday seasons, the ward missionaries in the Niceville ward made a float to enter in the local parades. As the missionaries in the area, we walked in the parade with the float.  It was so much fun.

I didn't know if Al was old enough to enjoy the parade but we were going to try and see. As we sat and waited for the parade to start Al was super unhappy. But as soon as the parade was in full bloom he was riveted! All the way until the moment it had had enough excitement and fell asleep in daddy's arms. I'm glad we went.

My Top 10 Favorite Christmas Movies/Shows

I love to watch Christmas movies, I am a Christmas movie junkie. I have a very large collection of them. Cartoons, puppets, live actions- everything. It was actually really hard to narrow down to just ten. In the process I left out some great ones like- 'Its a Wonderful Life', 'White Christmas', 'A Charlie Brown Christmas', and many others. I love 'Christmas Carol' movies, and watch multiple every year, but I didn't want to list all of them. I love all these too, watch them every year- but they just didn't make my top ten of the day. Some of it is I want to share favorites that mean something to me and that you might not know about.

• 10- Stalking Santa (2006): This is just fun. there is no seriousness about it. It takes all the major paranormal conspiracies and makes them all about Santa.

• 9- In the Good Old Summertime (1949): I was trying to leave off the list movies that just happen to take place around Christmas (Meet Me in Saint Louis, Serendipity, While You Were Sleeping, Little Women...) but this particular film made the list because it always makes me all happy about Christmas. Yes the title is deceiving. The film does begin the the spring but you follow the characters through the year until the climax on Christmas Eve. If you haven't see it, you may have seen its modern remake, 'You Got Mail'.
• 8- The Nativity Story (2006): There are many great short films showing the events of surrounding the real meaning of Christmas. But when it comes to a full length movie, this one is the best.
• 7- Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy (1986): This movie is the original 'Toy Story' movie. As a child we loved this movie. We were in awe at it and kept trying to see if we could catch our toys being 'alive'. Why is the movie so special? Because it contains real magic.
• 6-Elf (2003): I was on my mission when this movie came out. As a missionary I heard and knew nothing about it-yet my family kept quoting it to me in letters and then after I got home they quoted it all the time. If you haven't caught on my family quotes movies, there is normally one movie that most of the quotes come from and until a new movie comes out that takes the cake, that one gets all the quotes (order in time: 'Chicken Run', 'Elf', 'Napoleon Dynamite', 'Meet the Robinsons'). I made a point of seeing this movie so I could laugh and quote it. Its a dang funny movie, and again just plain fun.
  
• 5- Miracle on 34th Street (1947): I do enjoy both versions of this story. But if I had to pick one that I enjoy more it is the Maureen O'Hara. I think the black and white of the original makes it all that more nostalgic.
  
• 4- Noelle (2007): I know I've wrote a review on this movie before (December of last year). I'm a fan of independent films, especially ones that are done really well. This one is done well. It moves a little slow, but the message is so heart warming. It is just a beautiful story.
• 3- Muppet Family Christmas (1987): Again with the Muppets. I just love the Muppets. I'm about as much of a Muppet junkie as I am a Christmas movie junkie. This one is chaulk full of Holiday songs, jokes and fun. Can anything be more fun than the being at home with the Muppets.
• 2- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1983): My family loves the book. We read it every year. It is a tradition. This movie isn't word for word of the book, but it certainly is completely true to it. Its a story of a church group, that has a family of rowdy mean kids come in and take the main roles of the Christmas program. Too adorable.
• 1- The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992): I love the Muppets and I love A Christmas Carol. Wow the best of both worlds. Plus Michael Caine is the best Scrooge. A Christmas Carol hasn't been as much fun, witty, and inspiring since Dickens wrote it himself. Best ever-that's why its my number one.

Merry Christmas and I hope you and yours can enjoy some great Holiday films.