Twelve Days of Christmas

We are doing a Secret Santa exchange in our ward. Cory had the idea that we do a literal 12 days of Christmas. Not the numbers but something to do with the song. I thought it was a fun idea, however I was skeptical on whether we could find something for each day. I went to a few stores, not that I have a lot of choices to shop at here in Sierra Vista, but I was feeling really down on the idea when I went to Target. I found these ballerina shoes Christmas ornament and then a swan ornament and I knew I could figure this out.

1^st day : A partridge in a pear tree

a bowl or basket of pears

2^nd day: Two turtle doves

a dove ornament

3^rd day: Two turtle doves

a roasted chicken from the grocery store

4^th day: Four calling birds

a set of cards that had 4 birds in the picture

5^th day: Five golden rings

the stacking toy with 5 rubber rings to stack (for babies, everyone had one growing up)

another idea would be onion rings

6^th day: Six geese a-laying

Silly Putty eggs

7^th day: Seven swans a-swimming

a swan ornament

8^th day: Eight maids a-milking

a card game called ‘Déjà MOOO’

9^th day: Nine ladies dancing

a pair of ballerina shoe ornament

10^th day: Ten lords a-leaping

a frog that is a crown on

11^th day: Eleven pipers piping

a child’s recorder instrument

12^th day: Twelve drummers drumming

a drumming Nutcracker Doll

So we’ve been really excited about doing it. Right now we’re only on day 6, and I really hope they don’t read my blog.

Merry Christmas

More Christmas Singing Time

Joy to the World

I realized the last two weeks, as I have taught a new song each week, that the way I teach songs doesn’t allow me to involve many of the children. So this week to make it a little different and trying to involve more children by putting all my picture on the big Popsicle sticks. I also learned from my visuals for the verses for ‘Far Far Away’ that I needed to break up my pictures to smaller groups. 'Far Far Away' would have worked better- if they were bigger, I made them 8 1/2 by 11 paper size.

Joy to the World

The Lord has come (picture of Christ’s second coming)

Let Earth receive Her King

Let every Heart prepare Him room

And Saints (I discussed who are Saints, then used a poster of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve.)

And Angels sing (I was really proud of my choir of angels, I made both male and female angels and I was able to make them look like angels without having wings.)

The JR Primary knew a few of the words here and there, but they got it really well after just a few times. SR Primary already knew the whole first verse, so my visuals were less effective only because they weren’t needed. They begged me to learn the second verse. Since I had not prepared for this, I used some chalk and wrote the second verse on the board. I just erased words as we went along. They got it down really well.

As I wrote in my previous blog that I was also going to do ‘Christmas Bells’. I think I will do this one and ‘The Shepherd’s Carol’ the coming week. I know that the SR primary already knows ‘Christmas Bells’, I felt that since they are both rounds, the two would complement each other. I am frustrated that I only have so many weeks left before Christmas. I have five more songs I wanted to teach: ‘Stars Were Gleaming’ (CS 37), ‘Away in a Manger’ (CS 42), ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ (hymn 209), plus the two I mentioned earlier. I just wish I had more time. The Sunday before Christmas we are going to do ‘the Nativity’ song as a Sharing time/ Singing time. We’ll have the children dress up and act out the song.

Christmas songs are the best songs all year long.

Great Christmas Movie

Last year, just after Christmas, Cory and I went to see an independent film I had heard of. For any of you that don’t know, I have a think for independent films. They are often so much more meaningful. The film we say was called Noëlle. It is about a Catholic priest who is sent to a small New England town to make the final choice if the perish needs to be closed. He finds that the town needs the perish because they need their souls healed. He also finds that his own soul is in need of healing. I left with such a good feeling, I think I may have even cried. Cory, having been raised Catholic, said there was much more very Catholic undercurrents in the story line than me the little Mormon girl caught on to. But I don’t feel that changed that fact that this is a movie of good report, full of what the “Spirit of Christmas” is.If you have the opportunity to watch I highly encourage you to. It is such a great movie. I don’t know where it is available. I have found it on Amazon.com, but that is the only place. I love Christmas movies. Too bad there are so many out there that aren’t worth anything. This one is worth it all.