On the Seventh Day of Christmas

The Zoomlians give to you: the latest 12 Days of Christmas!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

The Zoomlians give to you: The Bethlehemian Rhapsody!

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

The Zoomlians give to you: A Masterpiece!

On the Fourth Day of Christmas

The Zoomlians give to you: Singing Hedgehogs!

On the Third Day of Christmas

I Saw Three Ships, and the Zoomlians wanted to give them to you!

On the Second Day of Christmas

The Zoomlians give to you: The Lego Christmas Story!

On the First Day of Christmas

The Zoomlians give to you: Christmas greetings!

Poem of the Week: The House of Christmas

The House of Christmas

by GK Chesterton (1874–1936)

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

HT: Journey with Jesus

Poem of the Week: Nativity

Nativity

By John Donne

 

Immensity, cloistered in thy dear womb,

Now leaves his well-beloved imprisonment,

There he hath made himself to his intent

Weak enough, now into our world to come;

But Oh, for thee, for him, hath th' inn no room?

Yet lay him in this stall, and from the Orient,

Stars, and wise men will travel to prevent

Th' effect of Herod's jealous general doom;

See'st thou, my Soul, with thy faith's eyes, how he

Which fills all place, yet none holds him, doth lie?

Was not his pity towards thee wondrous high,

That would have need to be pitied by thee?

Kiss him, and with him into Egypt go,

With his kind mother, who partakes thy woe.

 

HT: Hymns and Carols of Christmas

Poem of the Week: More Advent

The Wicked Fairy at the Manger

My gift for the child:
No wife, kids, home;
No money sense. Unemployable.
Friends, yes. But the wrong sort -
The workshy, women, wogs,
Petty infringers of the law, persons
With notifiable diseases,
Poll tax collectors, tarts;
The bottom rung.

........His end?
I think we'll make it
Public, prolonged, painful.

Right, said the baby. That was roughly
What we had in mind.

U. A. Fanthorpe ('Christmas Poems - BC:AD', Peterloo Poets) 

HT: ReSource

7 Complicated Advent Preps

So, it's farewell to The Glorious Turkey and all the gourds and pumpkins, and hello to all the Advent stuff!

The thing to keep in mind is that we have now been doing the Advent thing with kids for 20 years.  In the beginning, I was looking for Advent stuff to do that would be meaningful, helpful, and fun.


Now we have the weight of Tradition, as well as the "need" to have 6 small things to do each day so each kid can do an Advent thing each day. Also, I've done it so long, it's easy for me.

Do what I did: if it looks like fun, and not too much work, try it.  If it doesn't, smile and nod.

This is what it looks like for us.


Kid 1: Open a door on the Advent House.  Inside, there are 6 pieces of candy, and a Playmobil Advent piece to put in the stable.

Yeah, the sheep is in the attic.  The kid decides where to put it.





Kid 2: Find and place the Jesse Tree ornament while I read the scripture passages.

You can find all sorts of sources for Jesse Tree scripture and ornaments.  My set are from an ornament swap organized years ago by my friend Jolene - this means I have a set of cool and creative ornaments while only having had to come up with one good idea.

As they've broken or gotten lost, we've been replacing them with shrinky dinks.  Not as cool, but doable.




Kid 3: Opens the day's flap on the paper calendar.

I thought we would reuse last year's 3D calendar, pictured here on the fish tank, but, at the last minute, they decided to go with a round one I had on hand.


Kid 4: Lights and blows out the Advent candles and does the felt calendar.

Back in the day, it was just blowing out the candles, you know, before we trusted the kids with producing fire!




Kid 5: Chooses a book to unwrap.

We have way to many Advent and Christmas books, so I just wrap 25 of our favorites in tissue paper.  The rest are loose in the other box.

Most are religious, but some are secular, and you never quite know what you are picking!

I've found it's a good way to make sure we actually get to all of them.  As an extra bonus, it's good training for how to politely receive and unwrap gifts, as well as what to do with the paper afterwards...
Kid 6: Chooses and places an ornament.

This is one of the favorite Advent tasks!

They aren't tree ornaments, they are decorations.  It's a lovely, no stress way to decorate, and I love it that the house gets slowly more decorated as Advent goes on!



Kid 7: Well, there is no 7 to do another task, but we all do little acts of love and kindness to soften our hearts for Baby Jesus' arrival.

That's our crib (next to Love, our parakeet!), and we put a piece of hay in every time we pray, sacrifice, or make  little act of love.

Extra bonus: If you don't have time for a complicated Advent, here's yesterday's Easy Advent Prep:
A Christmas Kit

More Advent stuff with Kelly and the Quick Takers (sounds like a band...).