7 Quick Takes

1 - The words of this song are so beautiful, and they remind me of the Bible story of when God passed by Moses, quiet as a whispering wind.  I love our good God.

2 - Let's talk a minute about the Advent series.  It is so good!  Oh my gosh - I am loving this and I'm so grateful to everyone who has said yes!  I can't wait to read the rest of them, and I know you feel the same way.  I've gotten so many comments, emails, and messages about how much people are enjoying the posts - what an honor and a delight for me to facilitate it!

3 - Yesterday we had a St. Nick party.  For some reason I decided I had all the talents of a pre-school teacher.  Dudes, I created a timeline for the party.  I think it worked rather well, though.  First, the kids came and did a miter craft, since we were celebrating St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra.

JF with his finished miter.  So cute!

Next we tried to gather the kids in the living room for a story.  I was going to read a book about St. Nick but L asked me to read Twas the Night Before Christmas.  I gave in and then tried following up with the St. Nick book but Ben was acting dumb, climbing all over me and somehow got hurt.  While all that was going on the jolly old saint was in the dining room, filling all the kids' shoes with treats.

L with her stuffed shoes. 
On seeing pictures of girls with miters one dad asked if it was a heresy party. 

Next was snack time, followed by regular, old play.  It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad so many of my friends were able to make it.  Before everyone left I had wanted to end with a simple prayer, asking St. Nick to pray for us as we continue to prepare for Jesus' birthday, but I forgot.  Oh well!

Yay for candycane cookies, grapes, clementines, chocolate coins, and chocolate covered pretzels!

4 - New post up at Ignitum Today.  It's a bunch of Advent music.  Go give it a listen and let me know if I missed anything: A Playlist for the Next Few Weeks.

5 - This year we're doing something new, though inconsistently, and I really like it.  Every day, or almost every day, I let each of the kids pick a Christmas card from the small pile we've gotten so far.  We then say a special prayer for just those people.  I feel like it gives another purpose to the cards, which would just sit around otherwise.

6 - On a related note, I LOVE getting Christmas cards!  Really!  I have a dream of having a big frame with some kind of roping that I can hang my cards from, hanging in my living room. 

Kinda like this but not quite so fancy.
Image source.

I've noticed that not as many people send us cards as we used to get.  There's three probable reasons for this.  1) I've burned some bridges, unknowingly.  2) They don't send cards any more. 3) They never got a card from us so we were taken off their list.  If #3 is the reason you may consider taking us off your card list this year, please let me tell you that we are just too poor to send out cards.  I would love, love, love to send them out!  I would especially love to hire Kathryn Whitaker to make our cards.  She sent me one of hers and it is a-ma-zing!  Wow!  But we can't afford the cards and stamps, or I choose to not afford them.  There's a lot of expenses this time of year and something had to go, so Christmas cards went.  Maybe some day I can send them again!

7 - Lastly, I want you to know that Kathleen at The Boring Blog is one of the best kept secrets in the blogosphere.  If you don't already read her, please do yourself a favor and check her out.

7.5 - I LOVE JIMMY FALLON!!!!!

As always, thanks to Jen for hosting!