Christmas Activities for the kids

I've been searching for ideas to help make the Nativity and Christ-center activities fun for the kids this year. I asked friends, I consulted Pinterest -- I gathered and gleaned and prayed a lot.  Finally, I came up with an idea for a seven day journey leading up to Christ's birth.  There's nothing special about the number 7 and activities can be added or taken away depending on how many days you want it to last. 

It begins by meeting the guide, a wise man (not necessarily one of the three wise men), who will be giving the children various tasks and activities to do to help him as he searches for very special gift.  Every morning he leaves items out for the children and they have all day to complete them.  

Here is an example of Day 1 

We start with the little introduction card which kind of explains the purpose for the series of activities.  I did my best to be cool and rhyme-y which was more for me than for the children. 

Along with the introduction card is a scroll with the day's assignment.  It explains what the children will be learning and what activities they need to do.  

 Here is the text for what I wrote in the scroll for Day 1:

Let me introduce myself!  I am a wise man.  What is a wise man?  Well, I’ll tell you!   A wise man looks for knowledge, he loves to learn.  Do you love to learn?  He reads books, he writes down what he is learning, he practices what he has learned.  Do you read books?  Do you write things down?  Do you practice what you learn?  That’s wonderful!  I think you must be wise man too!  Or should I say wise girl or boy?

Now, long ago, there were three wise men who were very wise and knew a lot! They were named Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar.  Their story is very important.  They first took a lot of time learning and studying about Jesus Christ.   They learned about the signs of His birth and everything about Him.  Later, they set out on an important journey, just like you and me!

So here is your assignment.  I want you to learn about wise men.  Read and study and write just like wise men.  Dress up and feel just like a wise man (or girl, or boy) if you want!  So, what should you read?  Start by reading about the three wise men I was just telling you about.  You can find their story in the Bible.  The Bible is a very important book that many wise men study today.   
Good luck!  I will be back tomorrow to give you another assignment.  Work hard!  I know you will do great!

For the activities, I had a bin on the floor filled with items that could be used for dress up and scriptures to help the kids read about the wise men.

Day 1 was a huge success.  Throughout the day Jane would dress up and write out on scrolls.  She'd roll them up and give them to us and visiting friends.  We looked at the scriptures together and found where it mentions the wise men.  As the kids get older we'll be able to focus more on this latter part and find out fun facts about the three wise men.

As for the rest of the days, I have each one laid out below.  I collected various activities from Pinterest or other Internet resources to augment some of the days -- like the "Follow that Star Game" and "Shepherd's Maze" which came from http://www.thisreadingmama.com.   If you would like more information and more details about each day, leave a comment and I'll fill you in as I go.

Day 1 – Meet the wise man who is your guide.  He will be telling you about various parts of an important story.  He first tells of three other wise men who lived long ago and studied a lot about the coming of Jesus Christ, the son of God.  We learn the names of these wise men, what they did, how they dressed…

Activities/Materials: Wise men “costumes” to dress up like wise men.  Books to “study”, paper to “write” scrolls.  For older children, have them research the three wise men and who they were, where they were from, and other interesting facts about wise men.

Day 2 – What were the signs of Christ’s coming?  The three wise men studied and found what to look for so that they would know when Christ came.  They studied the stars and they studied the scriptures.  Now it's your turn to be like the wise men and look for the signs of Christ's birth.

Activities/Materials:  For older children, spend time studying the scriptures and find verses which tell of the signs of the birth of Jesus Christ.  For LDS families, include the Book of Mormon in your scripture search.  For younger children explain that one of the major signs of Christ's birth was a special star that would shine brightly in the sky.  For the main activity you'll need a dark bed sheet, tape, and paper stars.  Have the children decorate and cut out the stars, making one star extra special.  Stick stars onto the bed sheet.  Once they are all stuck on the bed sheet, create a place where you can stretch out the sheet and lay under it, looking for the special star.  Additional activities might include *Follow that Star game or other games related to the wise men following a star to get to the baby Jesus.

Day 3 – What gifts are good enough for a king?  The wise men had to think about what gifts were suitable to give the baby Jesus, the son of God.  They decided to give three very precious things.  What precious things can we give baby Jesus?

Activities/Materials: Discuss the three gifts from the wise men.  What made each gift special? Have the children think about what kinds of things God would like us to give Him. For the activity, you'll need a box, gift wrap, and a few "prompt" items to put into the box.  Have the children think about and add items of their own. Have the children put these items in a box.  Items might include paper with words expressing characteristics like "patience" or actions like "I will share with others".  It might be a nice picture the kids draw or items that the children value such as a loved toy or treat.  After all the items are placed in the box, wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree.  (And if you're at my house, don't worry if the box gets opened up and re-wrapped by the kids a few times -- or not re-wrapped.)  

Day 4 – Mary and Joseph were very special people.  An angel came to Mary and told her that she would be the mother of the son of God.  An angel also visited Joseph and told him that Mary would be blessed and have God’s son.  Both Mary and Joseph had a lot of faith.  Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem because the Romans, who were the rulers at the time, wanted to count all of the people and have them pay a tax.  Mary travelled on a donkey a long way to Bethlehem.  Her husband Joseph helped her and took care of her because she would deliver the baby Jesus soon.

Activities/Materials:  Tell the story of Mary and Joseph.  For older children add in more details about culture relating to marriage at that time.  Discuss why it required so much faith for Mary and Joseph to trust in God and obey Him.  Activities might include having the children pack up for a long journey to Bethlehem.  Have them think about all the things they might need.  Load it all up and make a small trek around the house.  Additional activities might include coloring pages, dressing up like Mary and Joseph, etc.

Day 5 –  When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, the innkeepers were very busy.  They had many people staying at their inns and they had no room for Joseph and Mary.   Finally, one innkeeper found space for them in the stable with his animals.  How can we save a better place for Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus in our own lives?

Activities/Materials: Have magazines with a lot of pictures for the children to use.  Also print out a picture of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus and set it aside.  Instruct the children cut them out and paste any of the magazine pictures onto a piece of paper.  When they are done, present the picture of Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus.   Ask if there is space on the page to fit the picture.  If there is, evaluate the location.  Is it the best place?  Then bring out a fresh piece of paper and put the picture of Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus in the center.  Then talk about what things we can do to help us leave room for Jesus Christ.  Include ideas like the scriptures, nature scenes, family pictures or pictures of families, service and helping others, etc.  Have the children decorate around the new page with pictures of these things.

Day 6 – Shepherds were watching over their sheep when an angel came and told them that the baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem and that they should go and see the baby.  They saw more angels singing and praising God.   They were amazed!  They went and looked for the baby Jesus.  But how would they know what he looked like?  The angel told them that the baby would be in a stable with animals and that he would be laying in a manger where animals eat, and that he would be wrapped in a simple cloth perfect for a newborn baby.
Take the time to learn more about Shepherds and the stable where Christ was born.

Activities/Materials –  Prepare a puzzle of a picture of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus.  On the back of each piece or select pieces, write scripture versus that apply.  Create a treasure hunt to find pieces to the puzzle.  Have the children put the puzzle together and reveal the picture. Explain that the shepherds were important witnesses of the birth of the Savior.  But, they had to look for the Savior just like in the treasure hunt.  We should be like the shepherds and search for Jesus Christ.  Additional activities would include * Shepherd maze printout,  Counting sheep printout, etc.

Day 7 – Wise men seek him, shepherds seek him, we should seek for Jesus too.  The baby Jesus is the greatest gift that we can receive because of what his birth, life, death, and resurrection mean.  Give the lasting message.

Activities/Materials:  Take time to review all of the steps and activities completed over the last few days. As a final activity have the children put together their own nativity.  Make sure to include each character.  Some ideas for materials can include a * Paper nativity set printout, toilet paper roll nativity characters, etc.  You can use any of your own nativity sets too as you discuss and review parts of the nativity.  Additional activities may include the *Nativity game or Find the missing character (take away a character while the child's eyes are closed and have them guess which one is missing).

I hope this gives you some of your own ideas too!  Feel free to share and add your thoughts and activities to ours!

And for my next trick....

One afternoon Jane, Harry, and I are sitting down to lunch and I see that Harry needs some water.  I fill a cup with a little water and set it on his highchair tray.  He looks at it, takes a sip, and then starts looking around for something.  He slips his hand to his side, feels around a little, and pulls out another cup from his seat.  It reminds me of the scene from "Elf" when Buddy pulls out a small bottle of maple syrup from inside his sleeve. Anyway, Harry then uses the second cup to pour water between the two.  It was just so funny how he found the second cup and knew exactly what he wanted to do with it that I did my best to capture a few pictures of his cute little trick.

Harry produces his second cup.

Harry enjoys the sport of water pouring.

Harry cleans up afterward.

Halloween!

This year for Halloween I wanted to make it extra fun.  I decided to make up little witches that would leave things behind for Jane, either little treats, games, or activities.  But the witches were scared away by children who were not nice or screamed too much.  You had to be gentle and kind if you wanted the witches to visit.  Kind of different from what Halloween usually is, but we had a lot of fun.

We also got to host this year's children's Halloween party!  Local friends came and I created stations around the house for kids to go through some obstacle or do some activity.  Then we played a few games and read stories.  I really enjoyed putting it all together and appreciated the contributions and help from the other moms.

As for our costumes this year..... a big "thanks!" goes to Aunt Sharole and Uncle Toby!  They passed on some of the costumes their children wore and that's exactly what we used.  Harry dressed up as a pumpkin and Jane was a witch.  Spooktacular if you ask me, especially since I didn't have to buy or make anything (except for Jane's witch-hat barrette)!

In addition to the Halloween party we hosted, the embassy put on a Halloween party as well.  I volunteered as a face painter and got to do a range of fun things like dragons, skeletons, an airplane, and butterflies.

Here are a few picture highlights from our Halloween holiday!

In our costumes for Halloween.

Jane plays the cake walk at the embassy Halloween party

Jane is so silly whenever I try to get her to pose for a picture.

Jane and Harry before our little Halloween party.  They are standing in front of the Haunted Pumpkin Patch station.

The kids playing a game - "don't-let-the-balloons-touch-the-floor". It seemed to keep them busy for a while!  I need to come up with a better name though....

My sign to the Spider's Lair.

Kids inside the lair, trying to find the black widow spider in the upper right-hand corner.  Make sure you don't touch the randomly placed little spiders or black spiderwebs!

The Witch's Cauldron station, bean bag toss, where kids got to add "ingredients" to three cauldrons.  I had little pots of  bean bags labelled as items like bat wings, frog eyes, and worms. 

The Haunted Pumpkin Patch where kids decorate a ghost, put on a blindfold and place their ghost somewhere in the pumpkin patch.

Decoration hightlights

Beautiful Kazakh Wedding

We attended a beautiful Kazakh wedding back in September 2012.  It was simply amazing!  We got to enjoy Kazakh culture up close and so soon after our arrival.  As you can see it's taken me quite a long time to catch up to posting about this, but it's still worth sharing.  Most of the delay was because I made sure all of the people who appear in these pictures are okay with their appearance on our family blog.  I had also forgotten to bring our camera, so I gathered pictures taken from a variety of sources.  Thanks to everyone for sharing and allowing us to tell about this experience.

The wedding couple.  Just look at that gorgeous dress!

First, I should explain that we were attending a party given by the bride for her friends and extended family.  After the wedding ceremony took place there would be another reception for the groom and his extended family.  Throughout the celebration we had a friend explaining the various elements of the reception since most of it was conducted in Kazakh.  At this point, Nils and I were equal in our understanding what was going on.  The program was conducted by a Master of Ceremonies, a well-dressed young man in a navy blue shiny suit.  He would call up groups of guests and allow them time to publicly shared with the couple their advice and good wishes.  Mixed among the well-wishers' words, the evening included singers and dancers who performed traditional dances and modern songs.  We also played a few games, one in which Nils was called upon to participate as a "camel" where the emcee asked him to pantomime riding a camel and then produce a "camel sound" for the couple.  Other animals included a horse, a bull, and a donkey.  There was a small dance competition between couples selected randomly by the emcee.  Two of the contestants were family members of the bride and it became quickly clear that her family has a talent for dancing!

The Emcee demonstrating how to ride a horse... or was it the donkey? 

Nils, receiving his instructions and giving responses to various questions.

You can see behind us the beautifully decorated platform where the wedding party sat.

 The food was very delicious.  Upon arrival the tables had a wide variety of hors d'oeuvres including pickled herring, salmon, carrot salad, and vegetables and vinaigrette.  Once the wedding party arrived and were seated, and after a few toasts, the servers brought out the traditional Kazakh feast of Besbarmak, boiled horse with noodles and onions.  They also brought out huge pitchers of milk - mare's milk that is.  Because mare's milk is so strong, the only way to drink it is fermented.  Nils and I tried some.  It's definitely an acquired taste.

As we left the sister of the bride gave us parting gifts and explained that traditionally you also send guests home with a package of leftovers from the dinner.  We had to leave early because of the children's bedtime, but I was quite impressed with the hospitality and generosity surrounding their wedding.

Jane had a great time dancing and attracting lots of attention.

These hats were the gift for each of the guys.  The ladies received a beautiful scarf.

Owl Shirt Project

For a friend's baby shower, I decided to attempt to make a little 12-month T-shirt.  I had a pattern and figured it couldn't be that hard, especially with the help of my new serger.  Turns out I had to make it twice because I didn't follow the instructions very closely.   So after much time and persistence, here's the result.  Now I understand why people just buy clothes!

Nils did a great job complimenting my work and helping me feel good about all the effort that went into it, in spite of the flaws.  Then he made a really good suggestion to create more woodland creatures to decorate the children's room.  Hmmm... I may just have to get to work on that....

Adventures in India - Delhi

Our trip to India back in February was amazing.  Because we took over 1,000 pictures (between our camera and Maren's), I've been working to organize our trip into logical segments.

The format for our India trip is going to be slightly different.  Since pictures say a 1,000 words (hmm... 1,000 pictures times 1,000 words would be....) the majority of our story-telling will come from our picture albums and the captions made to particular photos.  Just click on the links below for the different parts of our Delhi tour.   Once you're on the webpage with the photo album, click on the first photo and you'll see the pictures and comments, as well as have the option to view it as a slide show.

The streets of Delhi spoke a lot about the people's energy and how well they could cram things in.  Included in these pictures is the outside of a Hindu Temple where we were not allowed to take pictures.  We'll show pictures of other temples we visited later in our tour which look similar.

The Jama Masjid Mosque was one of the first places we visited after arriving into Delhi.

The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial was the highlight of the trip for Nils.

The Qutb Complex included several ancient memorials and monuments. Click here for more information on the Qutb complex.

Humayun's Tomb resembles the Taj Majal without all the people.

We spent the end of our tour in Delhi as well.  We managed to visit the Red Fort and the Zoo.  Hoping to see a tiger in captivity since we had missed being able to see one in the wild, we spent most of the afternoon at the zoo.  We still didn't get to see a tiger, even a caged tiger!  Ah, well.

As you can see there's a lot, and this is just Delhi.  I'll work on organizing the other parts of our trip and hope to share those with you soon.  At the end I'll give my lessons learned and other little anecdotes that didn't make it in with the pictures. 

Everybody helping

This was just so cute, I had to share.  It's so fun when everyone works together, even if you have to do it over again... :)

My little fairy

A while ago, I made fairy wings for Jane.  They didn't last very long, and I hadn't quite figured out the mechanics of attaching them comfortably.  This morning she found them on the play shelf and decided she wanted to put them on and be a fairy.  I found some soft ribbon and managed to secure them so we could run around the house and play.  She looked so cute!  Here's a little picture, adjusted for artistic effect.

J and H

Harry playing with his new piggy bank from Grandmama and G-Dad

Harry enjoying the playground

Jane, sporting her new outfit from Paca, Ceci, and Aunt Maren

Jane at the dinner table, exhausted after a full day of play

Happy Easter!

For Easter this year, we had a lot of fun activities to attend.  My friend Jan put together an Easter party at her house and coordinated an Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids in our "neighborhood".  Maren got to hide some of the Easter Eggs and some of the spots were pretty tricky.   There was also an activity at the embassy and later a gathering of some of Jane's friends.  Needless to say, Jane brought PLENTY of candy home with her and didn't go to sleep until after midnight last night.  So, did we give our children Easter baskets this year?  No.  We did not.  

We were trying to get Harry to go for the egg (see there at the corner of the step).  He seemed more interested in climbing...

Maren and I made this little basket for Jane.  I made sure it was "small" so she couldn't fit as much into it.  

Nice open space for the Easter Egg Hunt!  The kids had a great time and it was so cute to watch the older children help the younger children find eggs.

At Jan's house, wrapping up the party with the parachute.  All the moms did a great job contributing games, crafts, and treats to make the party really fun!

Easter Sunday seemed like quite a stressful day for a few of us at church since we had a potluck and musical program.  Luckily, Maren made three splendid dishes so I didn't have to worry about cooking anything for the potluck.  We all had fun and my duet went well, thanks to Nils helping me last night with the verse in Russian.   When we got home, we made sure to take a few pictures.

I managed to finish sewing a dress for Jane and a matching skirt for myself!  I didn't think to make them until Thursday.  Luckily I already had all the material.

Birthdays

We've been traveling around India, Nepal, and the UAE (more on that later).  Since we were traveling when Jane and Harry had their birthdays, we managed a little celebration as a family once we got home. No time to plan a big party.  Ah, well.

I'd been working on a princess dress for Jane, which I finished just in time for her birthday celebration.  As we were getting ready for the party, I remembered a little "pea" costume I'd received from a friend a few years ago.  And then it hit me... The Princess and the Pea!  Here are a few pictures of the kids on their "birthday".  For anyone wondering, they weren't born on the same day but three days apart.

Harry, getting a look as I make the frosting.  He's getting really good at climbing.  He'll be walking soon! And sorry, I can't find a picture of the cake. 

Jane in her dress!  I've had the dark pink material and some of the trimming for a long time.  Glad I finally made something out of it!

Jane and Harry playing with Harry's present.

Cute, isn't it?  Maren was able to capture this picture.  Pretty hard with such wiggly kids!

Caucasus Christmas

On a whim, we decided to make a quick holiday trip to the Caucasus region and visit Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. We also got to see a little bit of the Ukraine on our way home. Below are a few anecdotes of our adventure.

Arrival into Tbilisi

• We arrived minus one suitcase, which we had to retrieve from the airport three days later. Not to worry, I had packed extra clothes for the kids and underwear and pajamas for everyone into our carry-on luggage. Nils and I just wore the same thing for three days - thank you dark jeans and brown long-sleeved shirt. 
• The one checked bag that did arrive, the kids' car seats, we checked at the train station so we wouldn't have to carry it around. Finding where you can leave luggage was a bit scary as we had to wind around dark stairwells and underground passages before finding the hole in the wall (literally) storage service. We gave them our bag and $7. We got a small piece of paper with a number scribbled on it - a matching scribbled paper stapled to our bag. 
• Purchased tickets to Baku, Azerbaijan for the following evening. First class sleeper car, baby. 
• Beautiful city! Click here for Tbilisi pictures.

Night train to Baku

• This is the life! Private cabin, portable DVD player, and simple groceries. 
• Apparently, I look Azeri because at the border crossing into Azerbaijan, the guard looked at me and through non-verbal cues (and some verbals ones that I didn't understand), asked if I was. It's amazing what you can understand without understanding the words. Anyway, maybe I need to look a little deeper into my genealogy.

Arrival into Baku

• We hadn't been able to secure return tickets to Tbilisi ahead, so upon arrival we went straight to the ticket office to purchase return tickets. Apparently everyone had holiday plans in Tbilisi because at first they told us it was all sold out. Then, after two hours, nowhere to sit down!, a lot of negotiation and some misunderstanding, we were able to get third class sleeper seats on the very last car, in the very back, near the bathroom. Kudos go to Nils on that one. Whew!
• Intending to learn the metro system, we set off on our own toward the old city center. Our best efforts were foiled by a "helpful" teenager who took us to our stop without explaining how to get back. When I asked him how he could tell which way to go he laughed and said, "because I live here." Yes, thank you, but how can I know which way to go? Have you follow me around for two days?
• We forgot to take our hotel address/information with us (thinking we could just retrace our steps on the metro), so it took extra time, money, and the taxi driving stopping ever few meters to ask around before we made it back to our hotel. As he drove off we found out it wasn't actually our hotel. Ours was another block away and around the corner. Sigh....
• Another gorgeous city. Click here for more pictures. 

Night train back to Tbilisi

• As luck would have it, we ended up in the same train car with some famous Azeri people. I didn't catch all of their names, but one is a singer, Shole Sefereliyeva. You can see her music videos on youtube (warning, nice singing but excessive smeared mascara). She and the others work together on a radio / TV show (?) which you can see on chatbox.az. Given that I can't read the language I wasn't able to navigate very far. But they were all very nice sleeper-car-mates and were great with the kids!
• Jane was quite popular with everyone on the train car. We let her walk around a little and she came back with her pockets and both hands filled with candy. That girl can work it!
• See the bed above Nils' head? That's where he slept. He's sitting on my bed that I got to share with Jane and Harry. Let's just say Jane wasn't able to do her usual thrashing during the night.

Rental car drive down to Yerevan, Armenia

• We had a two-hour delay on the train, which somehow caused another two-hour delay in getting our rental car. We didn't start driving until roughly 4:00 pm. We made a quick stop at the airport to get our other bag and grab a bite at Burger King.  From there we started on the path to Yerevan.... or so the sign said... and then didn't say... and then said again... and then disappeared again... where are we???  Three hours later and we're still in Tbilisi asking around for directions. Getting directions was hilarious since most of the people would suggest going "that way" and to ask someone else once we got "there". We didn't find the right road until 9:00 pm (because of much fervent prayer and a mighty miracle) and we still had the whole way to go!
• Arrived in Yerevan at 3:00 am. Determined not to sleep in the car, Nills rang and rang the doorbell of our "hotel". A sleepy man answered and pointed us to our hotel which was through a gate and down a few stairs. Oops. Sorry sleepy Dr. Without Borders. 
• Nice hotel, excellent breakfast, and even better price. The shower was a little crowded though, having to share space with the hot water heater. No matter. At least the shower was warm... HOT... warm... COLD... warm again.
• Went to church in Yerevan. It took another miracle to find it, but we did. Armenian is a cool sounding language, even if we couldn't understand it.
• What a beautifully decorated city for the holidays! A lot of colorful lights! More pictures here.

Heading back to Georgia

• Beautiful uneventful drive, until we got 40 km from our hotel and we hit a road that was closed. Apparently the National Park is closed during the Winter. When we called our hotel, the man gave Nils an earful of how fortunate we were to be going to their hotel for New Year's Eve, and that we must have heard about their party, and it is going to be so amazing, so much food, and music, and dancing.... It was hard for Nils to convince the man we weren't coming because the road was closed. 
• Spent New Year's Eve in Akhaltsikhe (anyone wanna try to guess how to pronounce that?? Beats me). Lots of exploding firecrackers and fireworks. Only one restaurant open, which wasn't very kid-friendly, so we took our dinner to go and returned to the hotel for a quiet evening. We crashed around 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm and Nils woke up again at midnight to watch the fireworks display. It would have been almost romantic if I had been able to wake from my slumber, but I remained in dream-land even with all the loud exploding sounds. 
• Visited the outside of the Rabati Fortress (shown above). Pretty cool, huh?
• More pictures here.

Last stop - Kiev, Ukraine

• Our main objective was to visit the temple. Such a lovely place! Some people from Moscow were visiting that day too, including one of Nils' friends.
• Thanks to the hospitality of the patrons' lodge, Nils and I took turns babysitting the children so we could go inside.
• More pictures here.

All in all, a marvelous trip! We got to see a lot and meet some very nice people.

We flew an overnight flight back to Astana and when we got home Nils had to go straight to work. I didn't get to sleep either. By the time Nils got home I felt half-crazed and in the haze of my memory, I recall him suggesting a road trip from Astana to somewhere in Africa. Ha! For now, we're looking forward to our next trip happening next month to India and Nepal.