Posted in Books and Reading, Learning on Dec 13th, 2009
A lovely, chilly December Saturday – the icy weather kept us in the house, delving once again into the world of Greek Mythology. We made mugs of hot mint tea, and listened to Daddy read from our current Percy Jackson book.
It’s wonderful to share a passion with your children – there’s not much we [...]
Posted in Books and Reading, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Playing/ Free Exploration on Dec 12th, 2009
The dolls hosted a little Christmas tea party for their sparrow, cardinal and swan friends yesterday morning. Pretend mint tea, fruitcake, gingerbread, and bird seed were served under the Christmas tree.
The girls were inspired by my favorite childhood Christmas book – Tasha Tudor’s, A Doll’s Christmas. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. [...]
Posted in Books and Reading, Crafting, Giving, Moderation and Economy on Dec 9th, 2009
The weather here has been bitterly, bitterly cold (we are eagerly anticipating our annual Christmas trip to Florida next weekend!!). The past few days, we’ve built a big fort out of chairs and blankets in the living room. We’ve been spending our mornings snuggled under it, reading Christmas stories (like this collection of short stories, [...]
Posted in O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Uncategorized on Dec 6th, 2009
Yesterday evening, we strung popcorn and cranberries and decorated our little Christmas tree. We have quite a collection of bird ornaments, and as we hung them by candlelight (dark at 5pm!) I was reminded of Oliver Herford’s little poem, I Heard a Bird Sing –
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical [...]
Posted in Crafting, Giving, Moderation and Economy, O Come, O Come Emmanuel on Dec 5th, 2009
The girls are reaching an age where they really enjoy being able to participate in making Christmas gifts. So, for their cousins (ages 5 1/2 and 3 1/2), we put together little paper-crafting kits, so Aasha and Ruby can enjoy an afternoon of Christmas crafting.
This is a very frugal gift, costing us less than $1 [...]
Posted in From my kitchen, Locally grown on Dec 4th, 2009
It’s no secret that pie is our dessert of choice here at the Baker house. At the holidays I try to bake a pie at least a 3 or 4 times a week, rotating between nut and custard and fruit pies. And, in my opinion, at the holidays, no fruit pie is complete without the [...]
Posted in Changing Seasons, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Uncategorized on Dec 3rd, 2009
My apologies on being absent for a bit – we’re once again struggling with sick kids, especially Firecracker, who has had multiple trips to the doctor and the ER in the past few weeks because the colds are wreaking havoc on her asthma.
That, plus my first time hosting Thanksgiving for extended family, and now scrambling [...]