JustJessie

Don't you wish you lived with me?

Candle Funk

As I've mentioned before, we are trying to give nice, homemade gifts to a lot of our friends this Christmas.  Naturally I want the kids to be involved in the making process as much as possible, and this ice candle craft from one of our favorite magazines seemed like the perfect opportunity for Grayson and me.  They are called ice candles because you mix crushed ice with your melted wax to give your finished product a pretty, lacy look.

  So, step one was to melt the wax and add crayon pieces to get the desired color.  No problem.  At the same time, the kids used cooking oil to grease the inside of two empty oatmeal containers.  Then we poured a half inch of wax into the containers and stuck a taper candle (cut to size) in it for our wick.

   For the next step we needed crushed ice, which we don't have in our freezer.  After much trial and error, we decided the best method for crushing ice was to fill a ziploc bag and give Grayson a hammer!  The boy had a blast.  How often do you get permission to go nuts with a hammer inside the house?!  So, once the ice was pulverized obliterated nicely crushed, we layered it two inches at a time inside our mould, covering each layer with melted wax.  All that was left was to wait for the ice to melt, and our beautiful candles to be revealed.  At least that was the plan.

This is what our candles were supposed to look like.  Notice the lovely even color and small, evenly spaced holes?  Well, here's what came out of our mould:

Notice by contrast the gaping chasms in our wax, and the odd variations in color?  Not to mention the very purpleness of it all.  I know Grayson would be heartbroken if I suggested trashing these candles for a better gift.  After all, he worked pretty hard on them.  So, Grandmothers be warned.  This is part of your Christmas from us.  Start practicing your delighted smiles and surprise now, please.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

My word well is dry, so we'll just call this Wordless Thursday.

Christmas Carol a'la Grayson

"On the first day of Christmas in a tangerine,

A pop tart in a pear tree."

The Candle of Joy

Sunday night, we lit the second candle of Advent, the candle of joy.  We spent time remembering what the candle of waiting represented.  We talked again of how long Mary and Joseph waited for the baby to be born.  Then we talked about how Grayson and Grant brought joy to all our family and friends when they were born.  Before I could make the next point, Grayson blurted out, "Yeah, but Jesus brought Joy to the WHOLE WORLD!"  And there it was.  He already understood the significance of the second candle.

We read part of the Christmas story from Luke 2, then imagined the joy of Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds the night the angels filled the sky.  Then we prayed together, and thanked God for sending His son to bring the joy of salvation into our lives. 

Here is our nativity so far.  The creche came from a rummage sale, but the figures were painted by my mom when I was a little girl.

Uncle Penpal

This is a copy of the letter Grayson wrote to his Uncle who moved to Florida recently.  Uncle was thrilled one day when  Grayson called him to talk, just because he missed him, and he asked Grayson if he'd be his penpal.  I'm sure Uncle Penpal knew how happy this would make Grayson.  What he didn't know was how much easier he was making things for me.  You see, getting Grayson to sit down and practice handwriting is absolute torture for everyone involved.  It usually includes much huffing, whining, squirming, and occasionally the threat of bodily harm (just kidding... sort of).

The Monday after the circus, he couldn't wait to write this letter.  We have an art book that had step-by-step instructions for the tiger, which happened to be his favorite animal at the circus.  He hunkered down over his letter, and only let me help him to spell "circus" and "you".    It was a very proud moment as his mom and his teacher, to sit and read his finished letter.  Sure, it's spelled very phonetically correct, and there are long vowel marks over the e's.  It looks perfect to me!

Snippets part 4

Grayson has been on a roll lately.  I can't remember them all, but here are a few things he's cracked me up with:

Grayson to Kayla:  So you're playing hard-to-get-ball, huh?

Grayson to me:  How did you know that was going to happen?  Are you sidekick?

Grayson:  I can't drink milk in that cup.  It's been contavenated by juice!

This bit took place this morning as I was making my coffee in the kitchen, and Grant was rummaging around in the utensil drawer.

"Hmmm... Lemma see... (picks up a measuring cup) uuuh... nope.  Not dat one...  Hmmm.. How 'booouuuut DIS one! (picks up a whisk)...uuuh, nopers.  I know!  Dis one!  Das it! (holds up a handheld strainer).  Dat de one help do da cookin' breaktist!  Yay! Mah did it!"  Cue dance routine involving shaking hips and stirring with a strainer while singing "Mah diiiid it, Mah diiid it!"

Then there was yesterday as we were all in our rocketship (the couch) blasting through space.  At least Grayson and I were blasting through it.  Grant was eating his way through.

Me: Look guys!  We're passing the moon!  See the craters?

Grant:  MY EAT IT! Nom nom nom.

Me:  Uh oh, Grant ate the moon.  Watch out for those stars!

Grant:  OH, OK!  MY EAT 'EM!  nom nom nom.  DAT GOO-OOO-OOD!

Me:  Okay, Grant, here comes Jupiter.  You can eat that one, it's made of Jello.

Grant:  (can you guess?)  Mmmm,  dat one good too. 

Grayson:  Mom, look!  I saved a baby alien!  It was on Jupiter, and it started floating away when Grant ate it's home.  Look, Grant, see the baby?

Grant: NOM NOM NOM!  Dat baby YUMMMMY!

With Grant, it's not so much what he says, but how he says it.  I'm never sure if that comes across in these posts, but I hope so.  My boys keep me laughing, and I hope we have shared that with you!

Karl the Elf

We get kinda tired of the storybooks we have at home, and those darn library fines can get pretty outrageous (really, they ought to name a wing of that place in our honor).  So sometimes Jeff and I make up stories for our boys.  There's a running saga about Sir Grayson the Brave of Heart and Sir Grant the Gallant and True.  They've saved innumerable townships and imaginary princesses.  Their names are celebrated among kings and sultans.  But wait, that's a story for another post!  After we put up our Christmas tree this year, I snuggled in with Grayson on the couch and told him a new story about Karl the Elf.

Karl is an elf hatched (yes, hatched) by a fairy in the woods.  His first story was about the adventures that led him to the North Pole where all the other elves live.  He travels the world looking for someone like him, and in the end, he not only finds Santa's workshop, but a love interest as well.

I was worried Grayson would think the story too juvenile or silly, but he absolutely loved it.  He spent the entire next day dressed in "elf clothes" with some ears he made and attached to his Santa hat. 

I did not intend for Karl to become such a fixture in our home, but sometimes if a thing works, you just run with it!  And anyway, who could resist an elf this handsome?

Karl has had many adventures to date, and may (after the Christmas craziness) make his way into storybook form for Christmas future.

"Cannonball!"

The Candle of Waiting

I posted about  a week ago about trying to keep Christmas simple this year.  It is almost inevitable that the kids will be lured by the deluge of commercials aimed at their tender little minds, but we've begun a new tradition in our home to readjust our focus each night.  Kind of resetting our Christmas compass. 

I never celebrated Advent growing up.  In fact, I never heard of such a thing until I read about it in a novel as an adult.  The more I learned about it, the more I wanted to celebrate it with my family.  What a wonderful way to keep our focus on Jesus this Christmas!

   

So, on Sunday we celebrated the first Sunday of Advent, and lit the "Candle of Waiting."  We talked about how long Mary had to wait to see Jesus after Gabriel gave her the good news.  We closed our eyes and tried to imagine how afraid she must have been and how excited.  We play acted the passage from the Bible, with Grayson being Gabriel, and me being Mary.  It was perfect (though a little long for Grant!).

Grayson loves singing Christmas carols together, Grant loves the candles and the fire, Jeff and I love sitting in peace with our family and knowing that this year, above all else, our boys will remember Jesus and his perfect gift of love.