Advent in our Home

 

I want to remember our family time this Advent, so this post is really just for me (but you are still welcome to read it. :) ).

First of all, a shot of our “Thankfulness Tree” before I took it down to put up the Jesse Tree:

Putting the first ornament on the Jesse Tree:

Daddy reading the first Jesse Tree story (the creation of the world):

Our Advent wreath (which obviously is going to need new candles if we don’t want to send the whole wreath up in flames with candle #2 next week):

Our little winter carousel – M had a great time helping to put this together, and carefully set all the little people in their spots.  He spends a lot of time in the dark with this, watching the lights and mirrors as the carousel goes around:

Our Advent calendar – this is our first year with this; it was given to us by a cousin who didn’t want it for her family any longer.  Hm.  I’m not sure about the whole Noah’s Ark thing for Advent.  Noah’s Ark is one of the Jesse Tree stories, but still… the flood, the animals, the ark, the rainbow… I like them all, but I think I’d prefer a manger scene or something a bit more Christmassy.  This may not make it into next year’s Advent.

We will buy a tree soon (we get a real one), and I just realized I need to get out our nativity set.  Normally we set the tree up a week and a half or so before Christmas, so it’s still in good shape during the 12 days of Christmas, which begin on Christmas day, and end on January 5th.  I so dislike hearing about people celebrating the 12 days of Christmas before Christmas even begins, hee hee.  Ah well, to each his own (honestly it doesn’t bother me that much, but I do wonder why they seem to be in such a hurry to get it over with). 

January 6th, by the way, is the day after the 12th day of Christmas and is Epiphany – when we celebrate the coming of the wise men and their gifts.  It’s fun to play this out with our nativity set, having the wise men move a little closer to the star and the stable each day.  After all the waiting and hoping during Advent, it feels good to celebrate Christmas for a nice, extended period of time.  I’ll save a little gift to give to M on Epiphany, as the wise men finally end their journey and find the stable and the sweet baby.  We may also use the day to offer gifts to some nearby charities (we do this before Christmas also, but it’s nice to have something special and loving to do on Epiphany in honor of the wise men’s gifts to baby Jesus).

On another note, I see I’m going to have to figure out this new camera business.  Apparently I need to change a bunch of settings every time I take a photo.  It is sensitive to the type and level of lighting, and has about a billion settings.  Maybe I’m not cut out for the fancy photography stuff. Hopefully the pictures will improve as I get more used to it!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Preschool Art Project and Craft – Coffee Filter Leaf Mobile

 
We love watercolor paints, and once in a while I like to make liquid watercolors with our regular tempera.  Simply thin the paint out with water, or use liquid starch for a shiny finish, until the paint is as watery as you want it.
 I know I’ve said this a million times… my paint palette of choice is still a muffin tin with an applesauce cup in each well!

Coffee filters, paper towels, or even loosely woven fabric (think muslin or any woven cotton) work great with liquid watercolors.  We decided to use coffee filters this time, and instead of using a pipette to drip the paints, or a paintbrush, we folded our filters up and dipped each corner into the paints.  This created a fun tie-dyed effect. 




M and his cousin S had so much fun with this that we ended up with over 30 tie-dyed coffee filters.  
What does one do with 30 tie-dyed coffee filters??
Well, thankfully I was in the middle of reading this post of Jolanthe’s, where she shared her beautiful tissue paper leaf mobile.  I stole her idea and used what we had available – colorful coffee filters. :)

We did not use all 30+ of them, so if there are any more creative ideas for these babies, let me know!

I drew a few leaves on several of the filters and cut them out.
An older child could do the drawing and cutting themselves.  I admit, this turned into a Mostly-Mama Craft, but I enjoyed it and I love the end result.

Punch a hole or use a needle and some string or yarn to thread a length of string through each leaf.  Tie them in varying lengths along a dowel rod.   I have a ton of dowel rods in my craft collection, although I’m not quite sure why.  If you don’t, you could easily use some popsicle sticks glued together or even a pipe cleaner, or get thrifty and decorate a paper towel tube to use (those things are handy to have around, aren’t they?).
 

Tie another length of string to the dowel for hanging and hang it in front of a sunny window. 

   

M loves his new leaf mobile!

Have a beautiful day! :)