Truth in The Tinsel and Fun FREE Supplemental Activities and Ideas

Every year for the last 3, my family has used the Truth in the Tinsel curriculum during Advent.  I prefer to guide my family’s focus toward the true reason for the season (as cliche as that sounds…) instead of Santa and Snowmen and Reindeer.  We do plenty of all that, too, but I want the kids to grow up seeing past the consumerism and see what we are truly celebrating.  

When I was searching for activities do with my kids initially, I was super overwhelmed with the amount of time and effort I was going to have to put forth while taking care of two toddlers and working full time (plus blogging and other side projects).  I didn’t want to screw it up and not get the point across and I definitely didn’t want them to be bored, but I didn’t think I had the time to devote to preparation, research, gathering materials AND doing the activities with the kids.

Truth in the Tinsel was literally and answer to my prayers.  Everything I needed to successfully relay the Christmas story to my kids with lessons and activities was all laid out step-by-step.  But the next best thing is the flexibility that the lessons offer!  You can follow the day by day Advent calendar with a lesson and craft for each day of December OR follow the abbreviated schedule that hits on all the major points (this is great for busy schedules!), OR leave out the crafts and work through the Printable Ornaments OR have you church Sunday School follow along together with the class curriculum!  There is something for every age and time commitment level.

I have also been following along with the author on social media and there is tons of collaboration among other bloggers so the ideas are endless.  I wanted to share some with you :)

Pink Paper Peppermints has created a Free Printable Ornament Album.  This is such an awesome idea, especially for those of us with some older kids or have done it for a few years.  We love to remake the ornaments and use them as our tree decorations, but this gives us one more option.

Educating Laytons has instruction on making LEGO Advent Pieces!

Mama Jenn has created Free Printable Advent Pieces to Coordinate with TitT.

I love this Musical Accompaniment Recommendation List from What Did We Do All Day?

How about a journaling page for your older ones?  (So awesome)  By Not Consumed

Advent Tracing Cards created by All Our Days

I highly recommend Truth in the Tinsel if you are looking for a fun way to celebrate Advent with your children!

2014 Holiday Gift Guide

Today I am over on my blog Local Girl at ChesterCounty-Pa.com talking about my Holiday Gift Ideas for Toddlers, Kids and Teens.

To read more, go here :)

      

Truth in The Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands

So, for the last 3 years (this year included) Truth in the Tinsel has been a staple at my house during the Christmas season.

In 2011, I went in search of an Advent curriculum for my then 3 and 4 year olds becuase I was seeing the signs of Santa taking over.  I had originally not wanted to have Santa be apart of our Christmas celebrations, but that's a different story...

I needed something that laid out the Christmas story for me in an easy to teach format with activities planned out.  I was a working mother of two young children with very little time to make up my own lessons and I didn't want that to be the excuse for just not doing anything.

Now I am a busy working mom of a 6,(4 days shy of) 5 and (very nearly) 2 year old with another on the way.  Life hasn't gotten less chaotic and my "free" time is non-existent.  Throw in first grader homework and preschool projects and the never ending volunteer opportunites in this season and I am truly, truly thankful that I purchased this ebook when I did.

The kids are already asking when the Advent calendar will make it's way out of storage and when we can start making our Christmas projects.  It doesn't matter that they have done the lessons before because every year they are at a new developmental stage.  Some lessons are easier for the older ones and sometimes it's perfect for all ages, but it works for all of them every year :)  I love that they love it!

Something that is also nice?  There are different lesson plans.  You can choose to do an activity each day of december or use the abbreviated version so that even busy, busy families can learn the story in it's entirety but not have to do a craft every day of the week.

We will most likely be using the abbriviated lesson plans and work on the weekends becuase getting through dinner, homeowork and bed time routines takes every second of our time after I get home from work.  And that is the beauty of it.

If you are intersted in finding an easy to use but highly effective tool in teaching your children about the true meaning of Christmas, I highly recommend Truth in the Tinsel, which also happens to be availalbe as a classroom curriculum!    


                                     

Speeding Through the Holidays

We are coming up on the holiday season.  I think Saturday it officially starts the Thanksgiving/Christmas rush.  I can tell that the media is just barely holding back the flood of holiday commercials and sales, with only a few slipping by so far.

Part of me is like "HOLD ON!"  I want to enjoy each holiday for what it is and take my time with each one.

On the other hand, I am a planner and I AM thinking about how what we are doing for Thanksgiving and Gifts and activities for Christmas.

The holiday stress of deciding who to spend time with has gotten easier after nearly 10 years of marriage.  We have a pattern now that seems to work for everyone.  We are very fortunate to have nearly all of our family within driving distance - it's something that we are working hard to keep. However, it makes it a little crazy when you try to be everywhere for every holiday.  I am really glad we have worked  most of that out.

I also don't really cook.  I'm support for anyone who does.  I'm the table setter, table clearer, organizer, etc...  One day, my roll will change and we will probably pay dearly for it, so I am enjoying my time just eating and cleaning at this point ;)

I do bake, but it's only as much as I can handle that given year and how much I can get done with our schedule and kids everywhere.  This year, I think baked goods are going to be one of my main gifts since it can be done inexpensively, so I need to plan my time and budget accordingly.

Having so much family in the area makes Christmas very "big" for the kids.  They tend to get more stuff than we can decide what to do with in the aftermath so we have asked that it be limited some.  Especially since this is the first year that Booboo will really understand what is happening, I don't want another one with grandiose ideas of what Christmas can amount to.  I want the kids to enjoy it, but also focus on what it's really about.

I am kind of happy the Toys R Us wish book came this weekend, ya know? And Kmart's and something from Target...  It felt wrong at first, but I got a really good idea of what the kids are interested in this year and I can start looking out for the best price and selection now.

Did I mention we also have multiple birthdays and our 10th anniversary in there with the holidays?

My husband I don't really exchange gifts for our birthdays or anniversary, we usually combine all three into a date night at a nice restaurant or something.

But it's a biggie for Dude, he's going to be 5!

Every year it's tough to schedule his birthday party because he was born the week before Thanksgiving.  It feels like too much to ask people to travel twice in one week and buy gifts or make food.  We are having something for him, definitely, but it won't be the whole family this year.  I have huge Momma guilt over it, as I do every year.

I knew someone years ago who also happened to share her birthday with Thanksgiving.  She said it always kind of hurt that the holiday overtook her birthday celebration.  One year she was actually presented with a giant turkey shaped cake as her birthday cake and she said it was the worst birthday ever.  She actually cried afterwards.  That story has stayed with me for nearly 20 years and I will not let that ever be Dude's feelings about his importance in our lives.

He has told me, thanks to the catalogs in the mail, exactly what he wants this year.  This is the first time he has had something so specific in mind and I want to be able to come through for him.

I know that most of this was rambling and I actually sat down to write with a whole different purpose.  This is what came out, lol.  Thanks for letting me ramble :)


   

     

Merry Christmas To All!

Free Christmas Printables

I know it's late, but I also know that I am not the only one still gathering things to decorate and wrap (maybe even shop...) I thought that maybe someone else could use these, too ;)

Gift Tags

Decoration/Ornaments

Noel Banner

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

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Vegan Christmas Menu Options 2013

I must be honest.  I will not be celebrating Christmas with a wholly plant based menu.  We eat Christmas Eve Dinner with my Husband's family, Christmas Brunch with my family and then back to my Husband's family for Christmas Dinner.  There is a pretty similar menu for each meal every year as they have become tradition.  So, for the holiday, I will be indulging.  Many of you will hold strong, so I wanted to give you some options if you are still trying to figure out what you will be making .

Vegan Christmas Menu Ideas:

Vegan Stuffing
Vegan Pumpkin Pie
Vegan Egg Nog
Toasted Pecan Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
Warm Coconut Milk with Mulling Spices
Vegan Breakfast Drop Biscuits
Vegan Spiced Squash Bisque
Vegan Christmas Cranberry Slaw
Another Vegan Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Parsnips and Carrots
Maple Cinnamon Root Vegetable Bake
Rotelle with Asparagus and Mushroom Sauce
Bowties with Tomato-Rosemary Currant Sauce
Vegan German Chocolate Cake
Vegan Pumpkin Cheese Cake
Vegan Coconut Cream Pie
Vegan Double Crust Spiced Apple Pie

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If you are looking for further inspiration for recipes and menu planning visit Orgjunkie.com and MeasuringFlower.com

Free Printable Vintage Christmas Gift Tags

Yesterday, I realized that my son's last day of preschool before Christmas is TODAY and I had not gotten any gifts for his teachers. It was a mad dash to select something thoughtful and then eat dinner and then go to dance practice and then get the kids home and in bed. Then I discovered that I didn't have suitable cards to put with the gifts, so I whipped up these cute little tags for the gift bags.

 I thought maybe you could use these as school will more likely end for your kids this coming week.

 Enjoy these as gift tags or labels :)

 Red and Green

Red and Green with Snow

It's not too late to celebrate Advent with your Kids!

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In Need of a Snow Day

Finding myself being moody and tired these days.  I know it's a combination of various stressors in my life, but com'on!  It's not 24/7, but I find myself in a funk and with no real event to pinpoint my emotions.  I am super thankful for the snow yesterday.  Yes, it's a pain today, but I NEEDED a snow day.  God knew that and he delivered.

Pretty much the whole county is having some sort of winter storm action so most of you can relate to winter hitting hard this week.  I was dreading the storm yesterday because the one on Sunday was a disaster.  They were making a big deal about a couple of expected inches that I was sure wouldn't really happen and then we got stuck at a holiday party that was a disaster.  Ended up with close to 9 inches of snow!

So when I got up yesterday I was planning on packing up the kids, taking them to Grandma's and heading to work.  I was just praying I could get there before the snow started and that it would be over and the roads cleared by the time I got done.  I hemmed and hawed about the situation for a while before making the decision to leave, but as luck would have it, the snow started before we were ready to go and was so heavy already that I made the call that we were not going anywhere.

It was just what we needed as a family.

I could take some time and breath while also doing 5 loads of laundry that would be 10 by next week and no time to do anything about it until then.  It was nice to get some things accomplished and have time to do crafts, play in the snow and bake cookies :)  Nemo also ate pizza crust for the first time.  I love being there when he does things for the first time, even if it's a minor event.

We are expecting an ice storm this weekend that I am praying passes us by, but yesterday was good.

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My Favorite Christmas Stories

At Christmas time, I go through all of our books and pull together all of the Christmas/Winter themed ones to keep in one central location where the kids will look at them most often and choose them for their bedtime stories.

We have lots of Christmas books, but I have three favorites:

Tonight You Are My Baby Board Book: Mary's Christmas Gift (Harperblessings)

This is the story of Mary's night after giving birth to Jesus.  She cradles him and talks to him about how he will be King one day, but in that moment she was treasuring her time as his mother.  My kids love the pictures (they are beautiful!) and the story, but it really pulls on a mother's heart.  The first time I read it, it nearly made me cry - to see this story from the point of view of a mother who knows that her son is not hers and is meant for great things.  She's proud, joyful and sad all at the same time.

Night Before Christmas board book: The Classic Edition 

Something about this book is nostalgic for me.  It's just a classic and it brings the magic of Christmas night and Santa to life.  We always read this on Christmas Eve before bed when I was little and we do the same with my kids.  We actually started a few nights ago because Little Man wanted it for his bedtime story.

The Polar Express

I never appreciated this book when I was younger - EVERYTHING was about trains at our house once my brothers were into it.  Train tables, train books, train decor, etc...

But I have gotten over that and now I love this book!  I am a sucker for artwork and this book is gorgeous!  My son loves trains (surprise, surprise) and the movie is on rotation year round.  I like the movie, but the book is a classic and I wish I had given it a chance way back when.

What are your favorite holiday books?  Does your family have a favorite?

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