Thursday, December 24, 2009

Cookies

Remember the Christmas cookie making party last week? The cookies went to kids in the township who attend a children's club run by our friend Sarah. I hear that they LOVED them!

Dinner prep

Our housemates' family and several friends are coming over tonight for Christmas eve dinner. My job was cookies and candy. You will spy buckeyes, swedish wafers, and snicker doodles.
While I was at it, I made some africa shaped mint chocolates for friends in the township:
I also made a couple of jello salads, but they have no whip cream on top yet, so I didn't take any pics. Here is a little peek at the tables:
More pics to come soon. Merry Christmas!!

Christmas decor

Here is some Christmas decor I've made/ been working on:



Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Cookie Party

Yesterday, we had all the All Nations kids over (well, as many as could come), and we made and decorated gingerbread men! The kids had lots of fun.
At the end, they each picked out two cookies to take home with them and the rest are being given away today to some children in need.

"Okay Mom, leave me alone, and let me eat my cookie!"

Who Needs Santa?

So it is the modern phenomenon and tradition to have your child’s picture taken with Santa in the mall. Well, Saturday we took Jubilee to the mall to get her picture take not with a man in a red suite, but someone even better- Snow White! Santa was there too, but Snow White definitely wins out!! One of the malls here has a Disney Magic area set up until the end of December. We colored pictures of Disney characters, played with play dough, made a treasure chest in Fairy Hollow, and met Snow White. The look on Jubilee’s face when it was time to meet the princess was the most excitement I have ever seen in her!! She was shy when we got up to the stage, but she gave Snow White a hug and later posed for a picture with her. Then we did some mall wandering; after that, they showed the new Tinker Bell movie on a huge projector. We only saw the second half of the movie, but Jubilee LOVED it. Thanks Disney Magic, you certainly gave one little girl a magical day.

Monday, December 14, 2009

A sad moment for a Mama

I cut Jubilee’s hair for the first time. It was getting quite uneven and difficult to keep looking nice; it was time for a little snip. Here she is, precut:

She was super good (I let her watch a movie while I cut). She didn’t really seem to mind or notice the difference when she was finished. I nearly cried, but it does look super cute, so I recovered quickly.

A few Christmas activities

Sunday Jubi and I made some red and green play dough. Then she happily smooshed, rolled and cut out Christmas shapes with cookie cutters while I did some sewing. She had loads of fun. I was wishing I had some peppermint extract to put in to make the dough smell Christmasy.


Also, a few days ago, we made a paper mache Christmas tree, painted it green, and put foam stickers and shiny stickers on to decorate.

Why Sea of Lilies

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader they sail to the very end of the earth. Before they get there, the sea is suddenly covered in white. The white is an abundance of lilies. “There seemed no end to the lilies. Day after day from all the miles and leagues of flowers there rose a smell which Lucy found very hard to describe; sweet – yes, but not at all sleepy or overpowering, a fresh, wild, lonely smell that seemed to get into your brain and make you feel that you could go up mountains at a run or wrestle with an elephant.” - C. S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
This is the sea before a way into Aslan’s country. This is where I want to live. Just on the brink of heaven. Where the fragrance of Father is so strong that it “gets into my brain”, filling me with energy for life that is unexplainable. May we all find our “Sea of Lilies”.