Exploring Christmastide!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day and that you are now enjoying the Christmas Season. Though the stores may tell us that it's all over and done for, now is the time to enjoy the real Gift of Christmas. (For some lovely thoughts on this subject, I highly recommend Creighton University's  Celebrating the Christmas Season.) 

Since Advent can be packed with parties and other obligations, I have started leaving some of the fun activities like baking cookies until after Christmas Day. It's much more fun when we have some free time and Mom is not stressed. : ) 

Today, my kids and I baked some delicious Pepparkakor, Swedish spice cookies, together. We always use this recipe from Anne, a Swede who blogs about food - it's amazing!

You can see one of the Wise Men here and a camel.
Our Baby Jesus cookie cutter is missing,
so the kids sculpted one using a star as the manger (in the middle).
I'm secretly glad that we couldn't find that cookie cutter!

If you are have ideas for Christmastide, please share them with us - old or new posts! I have decided to keep this link up until Ephiphany.

If you participate, please link back to Explore and Express. Feel free to grab the button below or in the side bar. 

By participating in the link party, you give me permission to share your photos in weekly highlights.

Please do not link giveaways or advertisements for commercial items. Thanks!

Exploring Advent and Christmas continues!

I have so enjoyed all of the great ideas that have been posted on this link-up party! It's been like opening up a present each time someone has entered a post. Here are some of the things that have caught my eye since returning from Holland.

April from April's Homemaking shared this beautiful Star of Bethlehem ornament that she made out of discs cut from last year's Christmas tree! It is definitely on my list for next year's Advent Club crafts.

Hillary from Featherglen shared her St. Nicholas story that she told at the Advent Club she organized for the children in her life. She also has lots of other ideas in the post about how to bring St. Nicholas to life!

Hanna at Like Mama - Like Daughter has a treasure chest of Christmas ideas at her blog. I especially liked this thumbprint Christmas tree for the younger ones. Such tactile fun - in fact, I think I might like to try it myself!

Kat from Mom on the go in Holy Toledo also has a ton of great St. Nicholas ideas. My favorite was this cut and paste puzzle for preschoolers.

Mama from You know what Mama . . . has been telling different Bible stories for each day of Advent. Below is a beautiful watercolor placemat that she used for the Creation Story.

Lacy from Catholic Icing posted this amazingly simple and delicious Baby Jesus cookie idea. I already showed it to my son and we are planning on doing it at our Christmas Eve Brunch!

And last, but not least, Storyteller from Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way shared about how she picked out some very meaningful gifts, like the Advent Magnet Set below,  for her godchildren.

(Linked up to Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions)

Please keep sharing your ideas for Advent and Christmas with us! 

I'll be posting each week until New Year's. We all love to have a pool of ideas to gather from, so please share old or new posts. 

If you participate, please link back to Explore and Express. Feel free to grab the button below or in the side bar. 

By participating in the link party, you give me permission to share your photos in weekly highlights.

Please do not link giveaways or advertisements for commercial items. Thanks!

Christmas Eve / Heiligabend 2011

In Germany, the crescendo to the holiday festivities is Christmas Eve. In Berlin on this day, called "Heiligabend" ("Holy Evening" in German), people gather with family and friends for a special meal and opening presents. And many people also attend Christmas services at church even if they aren't that interested in religion the rest of the year.


Our church plant's tradition is to have a special Christmas Brunch together and then go to a local hospital to sing Christmas carols for the patients. This year after the meal, the adults gathered together for a short time of worship and I had a special service for the children. Since the other kids in our project were away for the holidays, it was just my two kids and me.


I had saved an orange crate a couple of weeks ago with the idea of turning it into a manger. Frontier Dreams has a lovely post about growing grass for the manger that I want to try next year. However, I started too late this year, so I have to admit that I used the nesting grass we buy for our hamster instead.:) I made a simple altar in the kitchen with nativity figures, the Christ Candle and the Godly Play Christmas board and placed the manger on the floor in front of it.


My daughter immediately wanted to know why it was empty and offered to get one of her dolls to put in it.  I told her it was empty on purpose and reminded her that Advent was a time of preparing our hearts to receive God's gift of Jesus. Today we would receive God's gift new and fresh in our lives and I didn't want to put a specific "face" on that gift. 


At the same time, we would also think about what we wanted to give Jesus as a gift. I then gave each of us some modeling clay and told the kids that we would make something out of clay that we want to give Jesus. It was a very informal, sweet moment with my children and God.

Some of our gifts for Jesus.

My daughter working on her gifts for Jesus. 

This was our third year in a row to sing at the hospital and it has come to be one of my favorite parts of Christmas. The patients are usually elderly and the familiar songs bring comfort to them as they spend Christmas Eve in strange place. Each year we have seen men and women moved to tears as we sing. We take our kids along and that it is an added blessing for the patients to see happy, healthy children. 

Our singing group.

My son is old enough to read the words to the songs now!

Our family Christmas portrait.

Being Americans, my kids have to wait until Christmas Day to open their presents. They don't seem to mind even though all their friends get to open theirs on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is then a very relaxed day of being together, playing games and eating good food. (My husband and I bake a goose each year.)


And in Germany, we get two days for Christmas.  Dec. 26 is also an official holiday and most businesses are closed as well.  Everyone spends the day with family and resting from the previous stress. It's a great tradition and I think that every country should have two days for Christmas!


We spent our second Christmas day by taking a stroll in the park, playing games, learning with my daughter to knit (she got knitting needles and a how-to book for Christmas) and watching "A Christmas Carol".

Hope the next few days are peaceful for you as we count down to 2012!