Advent Day 12 (and some bears)

Today we had a bit of serendipity for our Advent book of the day. This is one of Karma Wilson’s Bear series. The book itself is very cute, about a bear who tries to stay up for Christmas and how his friends help him. Like all the books in the series the text told in a smooth, rolling rhyme and the illustrations by Jane Chapman are great.

It was especially great to have the boys pull this one out today because I’ve been reading all the other books in the series this week with David for his school time.

Bear Snores On is the first book in the series (although it doesn’t matter what order you read these in). Bear is hibernating when the other animals in the forest sneak into his den to get away from a winter storm. They accidentally wake him up and are at first scared by his cries and roars, only to realize he is sad that he missed the party. This is the first of the books I read to John several years ago and we both loved it then and still love it now. The others are Bear Wants More, Bear’s New Friend, Bear Feels Scared,  and Bear Feels Sick. They are all fabulous. They fall in the rare category of being equally enjoyed by me, John and David.

I’ve been reading the Karma Wilson series to David this week because last week we used this other  great bear themed book by Michael Rosen as our Before Five in a Row book of the week.  This was one of David’s favorite books already and we had a fun time with it. We’ve made several bear dens with blankets and pillows and gone on many bear hunts ourselves. But no worries, no bears (real or imaginary) were harmed.

Advent Day 11

We had a classic for today’s book. One of the great things about having kids is that you get to experience well-loved books again through their eyes. John remembered this one and said “OH, it’s one of my favorites.” David didn’t remember it from last year but afterwards immediately wanted to “play the mean guy that steals Christmas”. And for me the words I’ve heard over and over again for countless Christmases were new again when reading it to them.

And that’s what makes it a classic.

Seriously Good Brownies

If you like chocolate you’ll like these brownies. The recipe was given to me by a friend who reads this blog so hopefully she won’t mind me sharing. She’s an excellent cook, in fact, H. and I both agree that one of the highlights of having a baby each time has been having her bring us a meal afterwards.

She gave the brownie recipe to me awhile ago because we’d once had a discussion about how we both had never found a brownie recipe better than what came from a box, so just usually used the box.  She then found this one and passed it on. I put it in my recipe box but never made the brownies until for some reason I thought of it yesterday.  It’s better than a box. Way better.

Brownies

In a large bowl microwave to melt:

1 cup butter (took a little less than 2 minutes in my microwave).

Stir in:

3 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
4 eggs, one at a time

Sift over top:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa (Hershey’s Special Dark is what she recommended and what I used. Also be sure to pack it down a bit.)
1 tsp salt

Stir well to blend. Then add:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (Or even better according to her is chopped bittersweet chocolate. I used the semisweet chips and it was darn good.)

Spread in  a 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. I baked mine 35 minutes and when I took them out they seemed very soft in the middle but after cooling were about perfect. It makes a very fudgy brownie in the middle but with a nice crisp crust and crisp edges.

Enjoy! The only downside to these is that you’ll eat too many and you won’t want to share.

Advent Day 10

We had tea time today and I let the boys pick out extra Christmas books from our shelf. Every time we do tea time I am reminded how good it is to do and how I should do it more often. A snack (today a special treat of brownies) keeps them going until dinner and the special time reading together late in the afternoon always seems to recharge us all.

There is nothing objectionable about this straightforward telling of the Christmas story but also nothing really extraordinary. I like the use of Biblical language but I’d rather read directly from the Bible. The illustrations are fine but tend more towards classic children’s book renderings of the Holy Family, including the standard blond blue-eyed Jesus as a toddler on the last page. There are so many better books out there that I’m not sure this one will stay in our rotation.

I like Eileen Spinelli a lot and I like this book of hers. It tells one by one of the animals and humans that brave a blizzard to come to Christmas Eve service at a small church. The predictable nature of the words is good for little ones and creates a gentle rhythm that carries the story along. The ending is very nice: a poor stranger arrives at the church and with that the book states “Christmas came”.

Eve Bunting is another great children’s author and this is a sweet story that both boys enjoyed. A small cricket comes inside a warm house to get away from the cold. It hides in the Christmas tree where a Dad and little girl hear it singing. The Dad tells the girl that angels sing in the voices of crickets and both the cricket and girl are amazed by this. The book ends with all three singing together.

You have to have a little silly to go along with the sweet and serious. David is a big fan of Rosemary Wells’ characters Max and Ruby. He at first insisted this was Max but I told him it was Max’s friend and he was ok with that. I would have been happy letting him think it was Max but John is at that stage where he has to always be right and I knew he wouldn’t let us get through the book using the wrong name.This is a great book about a bunny who is the youngest in the family and gets overlooked on Christmas by his older siblings. In the end he gets the last laugh and they all want to play with him and the special present he discovers under the tree. I’m sure younger siblings everywhere love this book.

More silliness, from Bernard Waber in the form of the lovable crocodile Lyle. The story here actually has very little to do with Christmas other than it’s supposed to be Christmas time but it’s cute and fun. The boys both like Lyle.

I’m having fun online today

Babywearing and Beyonce: This video at Marvelous Kiddo made my day.

Win something cool: Mary at Owlhaven is having a giveaway of a Sony Pocket Reader.

Because I hear legwarmers are cool again: Have you seen the literal music videos on You Tube? I think they are hilarious.  I think this version of Total Eclipse of the Heart is pee- in-your-pants funny. Seeing what passed as cool in the 80’s is funny enough but the literal words being sung just make it that much better.

They like me. They really like me: This has got to be the best confirmation of shipping email I’ve ever received:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, December 7, 2009.
We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Advent Day 9

This book by Marin Waddell is simple, sweet and  best suited for the littlest children. David was much more interested than John in this one. A Kind Ox welcomes one by one animals into the stable who are looking for a place to stay. The refrain when each animal comes to the stable is “There’s always room for a little one.” Finally, the last animal is Tired Donkey with Mary on his back. The book ends with the animals gathered around the Christ Child in the manger.

Advent Day 8

A few years ago John went through a dinosaur phase. During that time we discovered this  series of books by Ian Whybrow about Harry and his bucketful of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs are alive to Harry although appear to everyone else as just toys. The books are simple and sweet (and the one about Harry and the Dinosaurs going to the dentist was great in helping with John’s first dentist visit). The books have also been made into a TV show and there are new books “from the TV show”. The original books are much better, in my opinion.

In this Christmas book in the series, the dinosaurs (and Harry) wish for  a baby duckling for Christmas but know they might not get one because there isn’t room for one at their house. In the end they get a baby pterodactyl which they decide is even better than a duckling. This is one of those Christmas books that obviously has nothing really to do with Christmas but it’s a sweet read that most kids will enjoy, and will be especially treasured if you have a dinosaur lover.

Reading Calvin

This year I’ve been reading through Calvin’s Institutes. Princeton Theological Seminary has offered free online daily readings in celebration of Calvin’s 500th birthday which was this year. I’ve always wanted to read the Institutes and thought this would be a way I would actually do it.

For the most part it’s been a very good thing. I have a better understanding of the basic tenets of the Reformed faith. At times, he gets a big bogged down in the minutiae of a theological argument, often something that was very specific to the time in which he was writing. The past few weeks have been about the sacrament of Communion and at times it’s been a little tough to read as he’s been driving home certain points over and over again.

But then I’ll come across a gem like this one and am glad I stuck with it.

38. The Lord’s Supper implies mutual love

Thirdly, the Lord also intended the Supper to be a kind of exhortation for us, which can more forcefully than any other means quicken and inspire us both to purity and holiness of life, and to love, peace, and concord. For the Lord so communicates his body to us there that he is made completely one with us and we with him. Now, since he has only one body, of which he makes us all partakers, it is necessary that all of us also be made one body by such participation. The bread shown in the Sacrament represents this unity. As it is made of many grains so mixed together that one cannot be distinguished from another, so it is fitting that in the same way we should be joined and bound together by such great agreement of minds that no sort of disagreement or division may intrude. I prefer to explain it in Paul’s words: “The cup of blessing which we bless is a communicating of the blood of Christ; and the bread of blessing which we break is a participation in the body of Christ. . . . Therefore . . . we . . .are all one body, for we partake of one bread” [I Cor. 10:16-17, cf. Vg.]. We shall benefit very much from the Sacrament if this thought is impressed and engraved upon our minds: that none of the brethren can be injured, despised, rejected, abused, or in any way offended by us, without at the same time, injuring, despising, and abusing Christ by the wrongs we do; that we cannot disagree with our brethren without at the same time disagreeing with Christ; that we cannot love Christ without loving him in the brethren; that we ought to take the same care of our brethren’s bodies as we take of our own; for they are members of our body; and that, as no part of our body is touched by any feeling of pain which is not spread among all the rest, so we ought not to allow a brother to be affected by any evil, without being touched with compassion for him. Accordingly, Augustine with good reason frequently calls this Sacrament “the bond of love.” For what sharper goad could there be to arouse mutual love among us than when Christ, giving himself to us, not only invites us by his own example to pledge and give ourselves to one another, but inasmuch as he makes himself common to all, also makes all of us one in himself. (Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion 4: 17: 38)

I’m not sure I’ll ever look at Communion the same way again. And that’s why I keep reading.

Advent: Jesse Tree

One of the Advent traditions that has grown to be a favorite in our house is the Jesse Tree.  The idea of the Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11:1, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” (NIV translation). Jesse was the father of David and Jesus was a descendant of David through Joseph. The Jesse Tree is a simple way of looking at Jesus’s “family tree”. Each day in Advent we hang an ornament on the tree and read a passage in the Bible that tells the story of the promise of Christ starting with Genesis and creation.

We typically read from the Bible and do some Scripture memory work at breakfast anyway, so during Advent the Jesse Tree becomes our breakfast reading. We’ve also tried it at night, but nighttime tends to be more chaotic around here and breakfast works better. It doesn’t really matter when you do it, it’s whatever works for your family.

There are many ways to do a Jesse Tree. You need something to be the tree, some kind of ornaments and a plan for readings/devotions. For the tree itself, there are many options. I’ve seen pictures of people using a tree branch and hanging the ornaments from it. That can make a very simple and beautiful tree. I’ve seen people who make a felt or other wall hanging that holds the ornaments. I’ve seen people use a miniature tree. We use a tree shaped ornament holder that we used to use as our sole Christmas tree when we were first married and living in a small condominium.

For the ornaments you can spend a lot of money or none at all. You can buy them or make them.  It helps to have some plan of readings/devotion so you know what ornaments you will need. I have seen pictures of absolutely beautiful or creative handmade ornaments. I’m showed you mine at the beginning of this post so you can see that you don’t have to do that. I made ours out of construction paper a few years ago with lofty intentions of making some nicer more permanent ones over the course of the next year. Didn’t happen. Last year I felt a vague sense of guilt about this as I pulled out the slightly shabby paper ornaments. But this year I realized the kids don’t care at all what the ornaments look like. I might like to have some pretty ones, but it doesn’t make it any less special to them to have the paper ones. So, for now that’s what we have. I still would like to make some nicer ones but my point is that it’s better to do it less than perfectly than to not do it at all.

I use this site for our readings and ornaments. I like that the readings are usually fairly short so that a 6 yr old and 3 yr old can stay interested. There is a Scripture reading for each day and a brief reading that gives a little insight into the Scripture reading. The site has patterns for ornaments that you can print out and use for free. I used these as guidelines for the ones I made. There are many other resources online if you are interested in starting this tradition for your family. The key is to find something that appeals to you and that will work.

For us, this tradition has really helped the boys (and us) see the Bible as a continuous story. It helps us see Christmas not just as a nice story about the birth of a baby but in the context of the rest of the Bible.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him- the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.(Isiah 11: 1-3, NIV)

Advent Day 7

In addition to the Advent/Christmas books I wrapped for the boys to choose daily, I have a shelf of other seasonal books. I pull those out on days when we have a little extra time. Today is a snowy day good for playing outside and also for coming inside and being warm and cozy. Without a lot of other things planned, I took the opportunity to pull out some of those extra books.

Olivia Helps With Christmas is another in Ian Falconer’s series of stories about a precocious girl pig. They are funny and clever and endearing.

Gail Gibbons is absolutely one of my favorite authors of non-fiction picture books for kids. She is able to explain just about anything in a simple but not over-simple way that kids can understand. And she has the ability to make just about any subject interesting. I find that I almost always learn a new fact or two when reading one of her books, even though they are aimed at young kids. I like this book of hers on Christmas because she focuses on Christmas being about Christ. She talks about many of the other symbols associated with Christmas (trees, lights, angels, presents) but almost always relates them back to Christ. She does talk about Santa but does so in a very nice way where if your kids believe in Santa this book won’t shake their belief but she doesn’t really come out and say Santa is true. (We don’t “do” Santa with our kids and while I don’t mind books that have him as a character sometimes I think he can be overemphasized.)

I really like this book by Jane O’Connor. Honestly, I probably like it more than my boys but that’s ok. They were interested while I was reading it but not as captivated as they are by some books. The book tells the story of a family living in a snow globe. As the story unfolds, the actions of the family in the snow globe are mirrored by the actions of the big family living in the house outside the globe. I think it’s cute and creative. It was fun to read today with the snow falling outside.

Although you can’t really go wrong with Eric Carle books, I have to say I don’t think this one is as good as most of his. It’s the story of a farmer who has five animals and one night dreams of snow falling and covering them all. In the end, he wakes to fine it has really snowed and it is Christmas and he puts presents for his animals under the tree. It’s simple, like most Carle books but somehow is lacking something. John even said when I finished “Is that all?” David was excited by the button you can push at the end that plays music, but otherwise this book is just ok.