7QT- Continuing Christmas during the 12 days!

We have been having a lot of fun celebrating the 12 days of Christmas!  We are taking the time to do some fun Christmas activities, listening to Christmas music, hanging out as a family watching Christmas movies and celebrating the feast days and family birthdays during this liturgical season!

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A 12 Days of Christmas Birthday

Our oldest son turned 5 years old on December 28th, and we had a fun day as a family and a great Green Bay Packer's birthday party for our biggest Packer fan!  Even though he had just received gifts on Christmas he was excited to get some special "big boy" gifts on his birthday.  He got his first set of REAL Lego's from his great grandparents and has been playing with them almost every minute since.  Does anyone have a good organizational system for Legos or ways to keep them away from little hands?  This is new in our house!

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Celebrating the Holy Family

I love the Feast of the Holy Family as it is such a great time to focus and appreciate family, which seems to really be lacking in our culture these days!  There was a lovely homily that we heard at mass about how the Holy Family had real struggles and hardships just like we do, and it is how they handled them with grace and conviction that we should learn from and model.  I also LOVED how Scott Hahn spoke in his book Joy to the World, that I read during Advent, about how Christmas is all about FAMILY and also about Joseph's role in the family (which is usually not focused on).  Although Joseph is silent in the Bible he obviously had a significant role in helping to raise Jesus during his formative years and always worked hard for his family.  Reflecting more on Joseph's role as a father has really helped me to appreciate and respect my husband more with his role in our family. 

 

We have this Holy Water Font of the Holy Family in our main living space between our kitchen and family room.  I love that it is a constant reminder to bless ourselves and those who come to our home.  Even our 1 1/2 year old says "Wawa" (for Water) every time he passes by it, because he wants to make the sign of the cross like we all do as we go by!



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Fun Christmas Activities

 

We went to a fun Christmas exhibit of Ginger Bread Houses at the Mormon Trail Center here in our town.  Our boys had a great time looking at all of the ginger bread houses and even doing a fun scavenger hunt to find different pieces around the exhibit.  We then went home and made our own Ginger Bread House!  I love doing these fun Christmas activities to help us continue celebrating during the 12 days of Christmas!

 

 

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12 Days of Christmas Tree

I really enjoy having different trees in our home with different purposes during Advent and Christmas.  We had a big Christmas tree up in our family room this Christmas and then put up an Advent tree that had purple, pink and silver ornaments, in our formal living room where we also display our nativity set.  We also used our Advent tree to also display our Advent Saint Ornaments from Catholic Icing! 

Now we have a little tree that we also use for our Jesse Tree for our 12 Days of Christmas ornaments.  This little act of putting up a new ornament each day really helps our children understand that the season continues!

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New Year - New Saint

We decided on our new Family Saint for the year as we brought in the new year!  This year we will be studying St Elizabeth Ann Seton and also be adding some special resources for myself, our couples prayer time and homeschooling to learn more about the saints throughout the year!

 

 

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New Year and Mary, Mother of God Feast Celebration

We are not really the type to go out and "ring in the new year",  so we had a nice little family celebration in our home New Years Eve with the kids and then put them to bed to have some adult time!  We started out the New Year by going to mass on the Feast Day for the Solemnity of Mary as a family.  I have truly developed a special relationship with Mary over the past few years, especially since becoming a mother myself.  I find myself praying to her and relying on her strength and grace often throughout my days.  I love that we start the New Year celebrating a Marian Feast day.

New Years Toast with Sparkling Cider!

 

We love our prayer pillow from the Heart of A Child Ministry of Mary saying "Hail Mary full of grace", which has an adorable pocket to hold either a Rosary or prayer cards with intentions.  This beautiful ministry was started right here in Nebraska and 100% of their proceeds from these pillows go back to pro-life organizations! 

 

 

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Traveling Wise men

Our wise men are traveling toward the nativity scene as Epiphany is nearing.  We also have been talking a lot about the wise men and the people who traveled to see Baby Jesus through many of our Advent/Christmas books.  Our favorite books about the wise men are The Last Straw, Visiting the Visitors, and a great book that we found at the library called The Little Boy's Christmas Gift (which we purchased for our book list for next year!)  We are getting excited for celebrating the Epiphany on January 6th!

 

The Melissa and Doug Nativity Set

 

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