Christmas in France

Christmas Around the World

I did something great today!   I let the kids each pick a country to study and they presented to me and the other two kids!  

Dillon picked France and did a wonderful job sharing about it.

Here are a few tidbits from his studies:

1.  Nativity scenes are made from clay, not wood.  They also include a butcher,  a baker,  a policeman,  and a priest.

2.  Merry Christmas in french is 'Joyeux Noël.'

3.  There is a custom that the yule log and candles are left burning all night christmas eve in case Mary and Baby Jesus come by.  Food and drink are left out too.

4.  The main christmas meal is eaten early Christmas morning after people come back from the midnight church service.  There are 13 different desserts.

5.  The children leave their shoes by the fire place on Christmas eve and on the morning they find the shoes filled with goodies. They also find fruit and nuts hung in the Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas in New Zealand

Christmas Around the World

In New Zealand, Christmas comes in the middle of the summer so it is less about snow and sleigh bells and more about sun, sand, and barbecues.  You will find people at the beach, the park, and having barbeques.  We devided to have a picnic in the livingroom by the CHristmas tree to celebrate "a kiwi Christmas."  We even listen to some "kiwi" Christmas tunes.  :)

The Potutukawa is New Zealand's Christmas tree.  The pictures we saw were beautiful!  Green foliage and beautiful red blooms.

Desserts are very popular.  Many still have a hot fruit pudding with custard and ice cream but cold desserts are popular also.  Pavlova seems to be quite popular.

I think a "Kiwi Christmas" is one I'd love to experience.  I could get use to the sand and the sun on December 25!

MERI KIRIHIMETE!

(Merry Christmas in Maori)

Christmas in India

Christmas Around the World

There are not many Christians in India either.  Only about 2.3% of the population.  We found that because many of these are Catholic, midnight mass is very important.  Their churches are decorated with many poinsettia flowers and candles (thus our table decorations!) and the feasts follow the mass.  

Instead of decorating an evergreen tree like we do, they decorate a banana or mango tree!  How fun!  Wish I had one of those!  :)

In southern India they often put small oil burning clay lamps on the flat roofs of their homes to show their neighbors that Jesus is the light of the world.

"Subh krisamas"

Merry Christmas in Hindi

Cookies

We decided to share cookies this holiday season!  So today for school we did home ec, math, and science mainly, with a break for PE.  The kids' Advent Calendar said "It's Baking Day...all day long!"  So that's what we did.  

These will go to shut-ins, neighbors, our favorite business employees, committee members, friends, church members, club members, teachers, and our kids leaders!

Happy Baking!

Parking Lot

As we were leaving the Dollar Tree last night this man, who was behind us in line, asked if we would wait just a minute while he checked out.  He wanted to give the kids something.  He told the kids that he is Santa's helper and that he had something for them in his truck.  They never know what to say to people like this, but we just smiled and let him tell his story.  :)  He gave them a little gift and then proceeded to sing them a song out in the parking lot.  There are good people everywhere!  

Holiday Lights

We went "light looking" (as the kids call it) last night!  It's always so much fun to see the displays people have.  I love lights.  Not so much that I want the job of setting them up, but I sure do enjoy other people's displays.  We ended at a home that you could walk through the yard looking at all the displays.  There was a tree decorated for every taste.  There was deer naming.  Santa comes on the weeknds.  Buses bring people out to this house.  They've been doing it for 40 years and their light bill is about 600$ a month.  It was fun to see!  The kids were amazed!

Balcony

Merry Christmas from the church balcony!

Birthday

Someone's had a birthday, she's so glad....

Yep, it beats the alternative!  :)  I'm thankful for every year the Lord blesses me with. 

I love this gift.  I've wanted a lamp like this for quite some time.  It reminds me of my childhood because we had one that we used.  We'll use ours on Friday nights.

Christmas in China

Christmas Around the World

What fun it has been studying how different countries celebrate Christmas.  In China, there are few that celebrate Christmas (1%) compared to the population, but you still see festivities around.  I find it interesting that many of the plastic trees and decorations are made in China, but the people making them might not know what they are for!

My children decided to rename themselves as Chinese children! Today they were Shoo-ying, Yen-chi, and Tien-min. I had them make name tags so I could remember. Elijah's name tag said "10 men" which is exactly how it sounds!

A tradition that is becoming popular, on Christmas Eve, is giving apples.  Many stores have apples wrapped up in colored paper for sale.  People give apples on Christmas Eve because in Chinese Christmas Eve is called 'Ping An Ye' (which means quiet or silent night) and the word for apple in Chinese is 'Ping Guo' which sounds similar.

We read that they celebrate Chinese New Year at the same time that they celebrate Christmas.  They set off lots of fireworks, including sparklers.  We just happened to go to Tennessee for Thanksgiving where they have huge fireworks stores year round.  Perfect!   

They also celebrate with Chinese Paper Lanterns.  Lots of lanterns! 

Kung Hei Shing Taan!

(Merry Christmas)

Christmas in Norway

Christmas Around the World

It's extremely cold in Norway at Christmas time!  Good for sledding and skiing and such.  My boys would like it there.  Me?  I'd rather try Australia or some place in the southern hemisphere sometime.  :)  The beach at Christmas time sounds fun!

One of the Christmas treats in Norway is called Good Grud.  There is suppose to be 2 dots over the letter u, but my computer won't do that.  It's a dessert or pudding type of rice.  The rice is cooked in two quarts of milk at a low temperature.  I can imagine it ends up much more creamy than we experienced just cooking it on the stove.  We also added way less sugar (like 1 T instead of 1 C) because it was sweet already!  Their tradition is to hide an almond in one of the servings and whoever gets the almonds wins a piece of candy!  I see on the internet that there is a red berry sauce people put over it also, but our book didn't say that.  

Here is a link in case you'd like to try making Good Grud.  Also called Norwedian Rice Pudding Dessert.  

Chaeli's serving had the almond!

We also made some really neat woven paper heart baskets that are popular in Norway.  It took us quite some time to figure out how to weave them so they ended up as baskets, but finally Chaeli was able to do it and show the rest of us.  Now they just want to keep making these.  Our paper baskets will end up on our Christmas tree as ornaments.  

Here is a link for the woven paper heart baskets if you'd like to make them!

God jul (goo-yul) from Norway!

Christmas in Germany

During the month of December we are studying "Christmas Around the World."  I think it's as much fun for me as it is the kids!  :)  I love this kind of stuff.  We add more than just Christmas to it so we refresh ourselves on other country facts also.  Here's Germany!

Muesli is a favorite German breakfast.

Potatoes and sausage are also very prominent foods.  Their sausages, however, are more white than what we are use to. 

Chaeli named this little guy Frederick Adelbert Tinnefeld.  The last two names she got from two different German church members.  :)

German Christmas stars are seen all over Germany as ornaments and decorations.  This was pretty tricky but we figured it out!

Here is the link if you want to try making a German Paper Star - “Froebel Sterne”

"Frohe Weihnachten"

Grandparents

Grandmother and Granddad with their 5 grandchildren.  

Elijah, Camden, Dillon, Chaeli, and McKayla

One Year Old

Chaeli, Dillon, Elijah...each one year old!

Where does the time go?

My Little Wiseman

Sabbath school in TN was the start of the Christmas season. It was a sweet little program based on the book 'This is the Star.'  The teacher was amazing and it was such a fun Sabbath school!

Grandma B

We love to see this little lady when we come to TN!   She is my grandma and she is a top priority! She's lived 93 years and is doing fairly well!

Thanksgiving Activities

Thanksgiving was a relaxing, fun day!  We cooked,  ate, played games,  and hung out.

My favorite dressing of all time.  A recipe my mom use to make when I was a kid.

A yummy new recipe of baked roots!

I'd say we had plenty of good food!  It was an amazing meal!

The natives came to eat with us!  :) 

At the end of the day we went over to check out Uncle Jeff's new home.  It's beautiful and suits him well.  :)

Friends

Long time friends! 

Lindsey and I go way back to high school where we attended a boarding academy together.  Then our families worked together before kids. We've lived together with kids. And it seems everytime we can get together we pick up right where we left off. 

Lots of laughs and hugs. Tons of fun in our short 2 hours together!

Elijah and Caelum (the red head) are 11 months apart in age.  Dillon and Brenner are exactly 1 month apart.  Not sure how we managed to have the same gender kids so close in age!

Chaeli and Aile are 10 days apart in age.

And laughs were had by all...  :)