Thursday, December 1, 2016

Preparing our Hearts ~ Our Advent reading selections for 2016

It’s Advent season and we are loving every minute of it! I am a few days late in getting this posted but I love sitting down with the children each night and reading from our Jesse Tree Advent devotional. Today I want to share with you our reading list for the next 28 days of Advent.

This idea of reading children’s books is not my own but that of Jessica who blogs at Shower of Roses. She has even made homemade labels to put on the outside of the wrapping paper. I didn’t use ribbon this year but I do love the look of the solid brown kraft paper. The wrapped books are stored on our tiny bookcase next to our big tree this year.

Each night after reading from our Jesse Tree Devotional one child gets to unwrap the book and then I read it aloud. The same child then puts the Jesse Tree ornament onto our Advent tree in our front library.

Here are the 28 books that I have wrapped up for the 2016 Advent bookshelf. The books that we don’t have in our personal collection are marked with an (L) because I found them at our local library.

November 27: {1st Sunday of Advent}The Story of Christmas

November 28: The Gift of the Magi

November 29: Little Blue Truck’s Christmas

November 30: Waiting for Christmas (L)

December 1: How Many Miles to Bethlehem?

December 2: The Remarkable Christmas of the Cobbler’s Sons

December 3: The Christmas Tree Alphabet Book

December 4: {2nd Sunday of Advent} The Gift of the Christmas Cookie (L)

December 5: The Legend of the Candy Cane

December 6: {St. Nicholas Day} Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins

December 7: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

December 8: The Legend of the Christmas Rose (L)

December 9: The Sweet Smell of Christmas

December 10: The Pine Tree Parable

December 11: {3rd Sunday of Advent/Gaudete Sunday} An orange for Frankie (L)

December 12: The Polar Express

December 13: Lucia: Saint of Light

December 14: The Christmas Bird

December 15: The Christmas Story

December 16: Nine Days to Christmas (L)

December 17: The Stable Where Jesus Was Born (L)

December 18: {4th Sunday of Advent / O Adonai} If He Had Not Come

December 19: The legend of the poinsettia (L)

December 20: The first Christmas stocking (L)

December 21: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

December 22: Guess Who’s Coming To Santa’s for Dinner?

December 23: O Holy Night

December 24: The Night Before Christmas

We are also incorporating Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas {not an affliate link} into our Morning Time Recitations. I LOVE this book! Each day in December you read the pages for the day and count down to the days of Christmas. Each story ties into Jesus' family tree and everyday you will begin to unwrap the greatest Gift as you trace the family line and heritage of our own forever family, within the family of God.

Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—

yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root...

In that day the heir to David’s throne

will be a banner of salvation to all the world.

The nations will rally to him,

and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.

~ Isaiah 11:1,10 {NLT}

Do you have any special plans for Advent this year? I would love to hear about your family traditions.

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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Wordless Wednesday

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Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Wordless Wednesday

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Pick up Kwik Stixs at Target

If you are heading out shopping for a little person this weekend I have the perfect gift solution for you! What if I told you there was such a thing as no mess painting? That's right, no cups, smocks, brushes, or a single drop of water needed to paint a masterpiece for your budding Picasso.

This year give the gift of creativity with a set of Kwik Stix paint sticks and watch your little artist bloom. For the last few weeks Micah, my two year old, has been keeping himself busy creating masterpieces and doing art "cool" as he calls it with the help of Kwik Stix Metalix and Kwik Stix Neons from the The Pencil Grip, Inc. . Each of these 6 packs contain colors that are so vibrant and the paint is contained in a tube roughly the size of a glue stick. This size is perfect for little hands to grasp.

Let me tell you these no mess paint sticks have since changed the way we paint! With a fast drying and non-toxic formula, the colors dry in just 90 seconds after coming in contact with your paper, cardboard, wood, or even canvas media. Just pop the cap off, twist the stick to make the paint rise up and you are ready for hours of fun painting.

They are extremely affordable at just $5.99 a set and they are now availbe at Target! So while you are out shopping this weekend be sure to pick up a set or two! I know we are because they make the perfect gift for Secret Santa/Sisters exchanges.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Wordless Wednesday

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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Chara Games: Commissioned ~ a TOS review

Do you love playing board games at your house? We sure do! We've been playing the new game Commissioned from Chara Games during a few of our family game nights. Let me tell you a little about it because you are in for a real treat.

Chara Games LLC was founded by Katherine & Patrick Lysaght in 2014. Together they desired to design and publish innovative and fun tabletop games with Christian themes. Chara is the Biblical Greek word for “unshakeable joy”. They want to help you and your family experience joy through their relationships with God and other people through playing games to help build and foster relationships through shared, joyful experiences.

Commisioned is a cooperative game for ages 14 and up that focuses on the history of the early Christian church through the eyes of the Apostles. As you play along while spreading the gospel and planting churches throughout the land you will truely expeirence joy as you learn about the gospel. This was our first experience playing a cooperative game but it was actually quite fun because everything and everyone works together with a common goal of everyone succeeding and winning. With a lot of patience and help my 10 year old was able to play along too, but it did take a bit of learning.

To begin playing, each player takes on the role as an Apostle who each have different strengths and weaknesses along with special gifts that come in handy as you play. As you use the skills of your Apostle you work as team to help the other Apostiles in the game grow the Church of Christ. Also along the way you collect the books of the New Testament and experience some of the trials had by the true Apostles during this time period.

This is not a game you just pull off the shelf and play. It is detailed and you will need to read the instructions thoroughly along with watching the helpful instructional video. But don't let that deter you from investing in this game! Once you know how to play it will be a game that you play over and over again! In the game box you receive:

• 1 double sided game board

• 5 double sided scenario cards

• 6 unique player boards

• 96 faith cards

• 27 trial cards

• 4 wood missionary meeples

• 75 wood church member cubes

• 1 wood elder's staff

• 6 wood player pawns

• 30 double sided stop tokens

• 5 double sided extinguish tokens

• 1 converted city leader's token

• 1 Roman Legion token

• 1 8-sided die

• 1 rule book

• 1 Theme Appendix

Overall, this is a great game that we have enjoyed! I would love to take the time over Thanksgiving break and play again when my oldest is home from University and play as teams so my younger girls can possibly get in on the action. If you are looking for a quality game to add to your game closet then look no further that Commissioned!

Check out the banner below and read what my CrewMates thought of this game.