A Wonderful Christmas!

Well hello again folks after a most wonderful Christmas!!  And hoping that you all had a most joyous and blessed Christmas Season also!

Also, I cant promise that I'll be managing to post as regularly as before Christmas...I've been finding myself swept into a extremely busy couple of weeks here with all kinds of new and exciting projects cropping up...such as making my very first Montessori Preschool activities for my little daughter, plans for switching to making homemade baby food for Vicki, rather than store-bought, and now that I have my Christmas Kitchen Aid - plans to start making large batches of meals to fill and stock the freezer with ready-to-defrost-and-eat homemade meals, renovating the greenhouse with my husband in order to prepare for our very extensive vegetable gardening plans for the New Year in order to live off our own homemade canned goods for at least a portion of the winter.....yeah...LOTS going on around here!...And so I will probably be shifting to posting once a month, rather than once a week.

But at least the good side will be that when I do get around to sitting down here, it will be to compile a really good full post on the activities of the latest few weeks!

God Bless You All Dear Readers!

Your Sister In Christ,

Mrs Allen

Christmas Approaches!

- I just recently snapped this photo of Rose just in from a snowmobile ride!  She's been having a wonderful time out in the snow lately! 

As the days inch closer and closer to Christmas, she now has a very big motivation to always be a good girl and do as she's told - ''Because if I'm a good girl and do what Mama says then Baby Jesus and Santa Claus will be sooo pleased with me, and bring me presents!''  - This is the phrase we've been constantly hearing when Daddy asks her if she's been a good girl today!  Sooo cute!  

And next year, when Vicki is almost two, she'll be able to chime in with this explanation too! *chuckle!*


Wishing you and yours a wonderful Season of Anticipation!


Your Sister in Christ,
Mrs Allen

Wrapping, Wrapping, Wrapping Christmas Presents!

 

Well its been a little while since I last posted - I've been 
feeling right on the brink of a really bad winter flu, and a horrible ear-ache the last couple of days, and so, even though we still managed a Christmas Shopping Trip together, I didnt manage to get photos for a christmas shopping post, and then since I've been feeling so sick, I didnt even feel up to doing all the christmas wrapping of all the gifts we'd got (which includes the tremendous challenge of figuring out a way to keep my two little ones distracted for a long enough period of time to even begin to get it somewhat accomplished!), so my husband very kindly wrapped nearly all of them for me, so that has been a huge relief!! - It was a LOT of wrapping!

Speaking of getting colds and flus and winter cold weather - Last week my husband successfully got a pipe built into the house, to fill the house with the heat (and WINTER SMELL!!!) of Wood Stove Heat! 

And when it's working at it's peak - which is very tricky, because we're discovering that different types of wood have very different strengths - its toasty-cozy in here!  I love watching my husband trudging in with his arms full of neatly chopped little logs of wood!  I dont know why, I just think hand-cut little logs of wood look sooo cute and quaint!!!  And so Back-To-The-Land-ish!! *chuckle*

And because seeing that, is such a picture of the Farmer he's going to be in a few years, once we add egg chickens and meat chickens and ducks (and, yes, a Shetland Pony!!) to our vegetable garden!!  I'm sooo looking forward to that! (Only when Rose is big enough to help - in two or three years - because we learnt our lesson last time, about trying to raise farm animals with no children old enough to help! - It was not a success!)

I've included some photos with this post, of the absolutely wonderful day we just had at the childrens' grandparents house.  We had a fabulous time helping to decorate the Christmas Tree and singing Bible Songs from our Wee Sings Bible Songs Book!

Alrightie, I'll wrap up here folks,

Keep WARM!

Your Sister in Christ,

Mrs Allen

Building the Childrens' Library

 This is a picture of one of the original Winnie-The-Pooh books that recently arrived in the mail for Rose and Victoria.  I've been very slowly (painstakingly slowly!!), been able to order a few Childrens' Books, bit by bit, to slowly build up our dream Childrens' Library!  And please keep fingers crossed with me that a few gorgeous Christmas titles, (from the List I posted a little while ago), that I'm ordering in a few days will arrive safely in the mail before Christmas!

Outdoor Nativity Scene!

Here's the huge glow-in-the-dark Outdoor Nativity Scene that my husband just erected in the front garden a few days ago!!  Didn't he do a wonderful job?!  And thats our little Rose gazing in wonder at the Nativity Figures that are almost taller than she is!! (I have such vivid memories of the utter excitement I always experienced, growing up, at seeing our amazingly decorated Nativity Scenes at our parish!)

This is going to make for magical memories, as she grows up!

Wishing you all a continuing Blessed Advent, and may St Nicholas Bless you all in this exciting Season!!


Your Sister in Christ,
Mrs Allen

Second Week of Advent

 

Just thought I'd share a picture of Rose's Advent Calendar that her Gramma surprised her with!  She looks forward to her little chocolate suprises so much each day!  

Advent Calendars are such a wonderful way to show children how  exciting it is to be counting down the days towards the Birth of Baby Jesus!  

Like most of you, I have many memories of the exciting anticipation of opening each Little Door of the Calendar each day!  It's truly a not-to-be-missed part of childhood!


We're planning on going out to get our Christmas Tree on the 16th or so.  We have used a real tree each Christmas up to now, but this year we decided to go for a fake one, mainly to eliminate any dangers associated with pine needles and toddlers!  

So look out for our next post when I'm hoping to show you our completely decorated Tree next week!!  

I think the little girls will have lots and lots of fun decorating it with us!  I'm definetly looking forward to this upcoming 'Decorating Season'!

Hope your'e all enjoying a blessed Advent

Your Sister in Christ,
Mrs Allen

Books For Advent and Christmas Season!

Greetings in this First Week of Advent, Feast of St Francis Xavier

I have many memories, as a child, of books at particular seasons of the year, that I found so enchanting that they've stayed vividly in my memory...along with the childlike joy, excitement and wonder that were evoked when first discovering each new little world of discovery.  One that especially leaps to mind at this time of year is 'The Night Before Christmas' - almost more for the warm, magical and fuzzy-feelings-paintings than for the actual story!


While recently checking my favorite blogs, I've recently been finding some utterly delightful book titles, that these mothers having been sharing with us mothers.  I've been finding many to save up for, to get for my little girls, that I wanted to share with you all!  Of course the prices for these books on amazon are high right now, since we're in the midst of the Season, so, since I've only just discovered most of these new delights, I'll have to wait until later in the New Year to purchase them..sigh!

Alrightie, here's the List of these utterly lovely Advent and Christmas Season Young Childrens' Books!  The pictures of the front covers are far more exciting to look at, than just the titles - so hop and skip over to Amazon, just to enjoy some window shopping, at least for starters! *chuckle!*

1 Winter Wonderland by National Geographic
2 The Candymaker's Gift
3 The Twelve Days of Christmas by Spirin
4 The Night Before Christmas by Moore
5 Creation by Spirin
6 We Three Kings by Spirin
7 Advent Storybook
8 The Jesse Tree
9 Snowmen At Christmas
10 A Wish To Be A Christmas Tree
11 Lucia Saint of Light
12 St Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
13 Good King Wenceslas
14 My Penguin Osbert: Midi Edition
15 Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons
16 The Living Nativity
17 The Little Shepard Girl: A Christmas Story
18 Humphrey's First Christmas
19 Kirsten's Surprise: A Christmas Story
20 Lucia, Saint of Light

..If you do succeed in bringing home any of these treasures, I can promise you will find yourselves enjoying an Advent and Christmas every bit as exciting and warming as when we were children!


Enjoy with all your hearts!!


Your Sister in Christ,
Mrs Allen