December 1st!

Well, it is December 1st, and though I had already begun some things for Christmas, today did mean the first gifts went under the tree, the first ornament was put on the advent tree, and the first Christmas book was unwrapped and read together as a family.  More on all these traditions of ours later - I hope to post every day of December with something fun going on to prepare for the big day!  We are preparing to welcome the baby lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths, who the angels told the shepherds about as they were in the fields watching their "clocks by night," as my three year old friend says.  
My husband just wrote a fun piece about our family greeting his brother at the airport his first time home after beginning college.  There was much anticipation by us and by our children, as they spoke of his arrival, and how we would stay up late to meet him at the airport.  We didn't have to do this - his parents were picking him up, so there was no real reason for us to go to the trouble.  But the kids made a big sign, we stayed up late, and as we ran through the airport (his plane arrived early) to meet him, they were holding up "Welcome Home Jacob," complete with a backward J, just in time to surprise him.  My husband's point in his writing, was how much more excitement and anticipation we ought to have over the arrival of our savior - Christ, who came so that we might have LIFE!!!  
It is true that as we wrap the gifts, light the Advent candles, unpack the Christmas decor and read Christmas stories, we preserve traditions in our family which serve to aid our children in their anticipation of this precious One.  We train them to love that which is true and beautiful, that they may pass on to their children and their children's children, not only the annual gingerbread house decorating party, but the love for Christ that we have because He first loved us.


Our oldest daughter spent the day with her Nonie last week, and they made these adorable Christmas ornaments out of old Christmas cards.  Of course the next day, she wanted to make as many as we could from our old Christmas cards!  Now, I love receiving and sending picture cards, but this craft definitely makes one note the lack of beautiful illustrations and papers in our mailboxes nowadays!  (of course the ones she made with Nonie were vintage Christmas cards found at a garage sale)  We found a few to use...

We used a coffee cup as a circle to trace.

Then practiced our cutting skills.  As you can see, some of us were not too worried about making complete circles, but this did cause a few difficulties later...  (look, Amanda!  I'm recycling!)

Once we had 12 circles, it was time to start putting them together!

She told me to make 5 lines measuring 2 inches each.  I would venture to guess that this measurement really depends on the size of your circle, but I'm not a math major, so we just kind of made it work.  The point is that the lines should meet, like this: 

Then we folded the circles on the lines, which was easy to do, since my pencil line was deep enough that it scored the paper.

Next came the glue.  We glued two and three sides at a time, until there were 6 circles together...

She insisted that gluing two sets of 6 was what she and Nonie had done, and therefore the best way.  Notice the clothespins in the picture - necessary for holding the pieces together for a few minutes while the glue dries.

We glued a piece of knotted yarn in between one of the circles, so there would be something to hang our (rather large) ornament from...

And WooHoo!  So fun!  We made three and hung them in the doorway between our living and dining rooms.  Pretty fun, don't you think?