Festive Christmas Kitchen: Gingerbread Houses and Chocolate Covered Pretzels~

We made some fun treats yesterday that I'd loooooooove

to share with you.

Creating these festive goodies is just plain fun all season long!

We played lots of Christmas music while concocting  the

gingerbread houses and  I read another two chapters
 from this absolutely wonderful advent book.

The kids really enjoy sneaking in a little  Advent reading, whether that title or our 

Jesse Tree book, when we have a little down time or  "quiet" time.

More of our advent traditions are shared here and here, if you have a minute and you missed them this December!

~Gingerbread Houses~

They are really graham cracker/candy houses, because in 

the past, we've had no luck with actual gingerbread houses

 or this type of crafty Christmas house .

But these are always a hit and they're super easy.

VERY affordable too, if you get the items on sale or generic brands.

Walmart and Walgreens have huge candy sales throughout the season....!

I start buying Thanksgiving weekend little by little for our house making day.

Here's what we started with~

 Candy and house "decorations" ~

*A piece of cardboard about 8x10 or so.

*A small container of milk, 

thoroughly washed out and then stapled closed.

Both covered in aluminum foil.

House "building" fun~

The candy is "glued" to the houses with frosting for very individual looks.

The candy houses, finished~

And as lovely centerpieces~

After the gingerbread house clean up, we made chocolate covered pretzels.

They're fun, festive and super easy!~

Also, another frugal decorative treat for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day!

~Chocolate Covered Pretzels~

Here's what you need:

*melting chocolate. We use these.

*a bag of your fave pretzels.

*also, sprinkles, for added zip and color!

Here's how:

 Melt choco wafers and drop pretzels in.....

  Add sprinkles if you like and.....

 The finished product is super festive and yummy too! Couldn't be easier!

We also have wrapped each of these as gifts.

They look lovely with green or red cello and curled ribbon!

Hope you enjoyed!

We have a bit to do to prepare for Santa's arrival tonight.....

So I'll close here with a hearty MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Thank you for stopping in!

It has been a blessing getting to know you this year through the blogosphere, friends!

As always, I appreciate the time you've spent here at my home on the web!

Don't forget to subscribe to Campfires and Cleats

 by scrolling to the subscribe button at the  top left sidebar.

I'd love to stay in touch regularly!

Or, join us on Facebook.

Oh, and IF you are shopping at amazon this Christmas season,

would you consider clicking through my link?

Here it is:

http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&tag=campfandcleat-20

In this way, I will receive a teeny tiny portion of the purchase.

If YOU are an amazon affiliate, please send me

your link and I will do the same!

THANK YOU!

 Friends, as always,  

thank you for stopping over and 

spending some of your precious time 

here at my home on the web!

Have you signed up to receive my posts in your email inbox?

   If not, just enter your email address here

so we can be in touch regularly!

Enter your email address:

You might wish to follow on Facebook as well.....

Until next time,

~Chris

...and BTW:

REALLY!!

Post dividers and general cutesies,

courtesy of Shabby Blogs 

Sunday Snippets~ O Antiphon Celebrations, Belief in Santa, My Little Guy's Birthday and Top 10 Posts of the Year! 12/22/13

Hi friends and welcome to Sunday Snippets.
I am loving the weekly hop in which  bloggers
 link up their Catholic-related posts at RAnn's blog!
Please click over to RAnn for more in the Carnival of Catholic Posts!

Here are my snippets to share for this week:

Celebrating the O Antiphons:

 Resources for Simple and Meaningful Activities  

The Santa Debate and Honesty:

How Belief in Santa Enriches our Celebration of Christmas

How Can My Baby Be 11?

A Photojournal of Smiles Through the Years

Top 10 Posts and "Mosts" of 2013

Friends, as always,  thank you for stopping over and 
spending some of your precious time her at my home on the web!

Don't forget to subscribe to Campfires and Cleats

 by scrolling to the subscribe button at the  top left sidebar.

I'd love to stay in touch regularly!

You might also like to join us on Facebook.

Oh, and IF you are shopping at amazon this Christmas season,

would you consider clicking through my link?

Here it is:

http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&tag=campfandcleat-20

In this way, I will receive a teeny tiny portion of the purchase.

If YOU are an amazon affiliate, please send me

your link and I will do the same!

THANK YOU!

Until next time,

~Chris

Celebrating the O Antiphons~ Resources for Simple and Meaningful Activities

Welcome, friends!
Can I tell how much we loooooooove the 
Great O Antiphon days here in my home?
The series of very special days which is so close to
 Christmas and so rich in liturgical history is simply electric....
brimming with anticipation, isn't it?
We simply adore easing right into our O Antiphons, 
which light up the calendar from
the 17th through the 24th  following my 
son's birthday on  the 16th.
 The celebratory feel continues to swell as we prepare
 our hearts for the birth of our Savior.
My birthday boy could not love having a Christmastime birthday 
anymore than he already does.
The O Antiphons add to that love of the season.
He's never had a  day-after-birthday-let-down and
I believe the Great O Antiphons are the reason.

What are the Great O Antiphons? 
Despite having been educated in Catholic schools from 
grade 1 through and including graduate school,
I only learned of the O Antiphons,
the seven "jewels" of our liturgical year, recently.
They are beautiful, fascinating and unique.
And here's why.~

 1. Each day addresses our Lord with 7 titles based upon Old Testament prophecies. Here is each Latin title with its divine English translation. ~

O Sapiens~ Wisdom

O Adonai ~ Sacred Lord

O Radix ~ Root of Jesse

O Clavix David ~ Key of David

O Oriens ~ Rising Sun

O Rex Gentium ~ King of all Nations

O Emmanuel 

2. Unbelievably,  the Latin titles when spelled out  backwards:

EROCRAS

translate to~ 

Tomorrow I come!

3. The tradition of the Great O Antiphons dates back, some say, four hundred years and each title is represented in the powerful and popular Christmas hymn, "O Come, O Come, Emmauel." For more historical info on the Great O Antiphons, you might like to visit Catholic Resources.com  and Catholic Culture.com

A few of my family's Great O Antiphons Traditions:

1. My series of blog posts  from Advent 2012 outlines our family's activities for each day of the Antiphons. Perhaps you'd like to take a peek and see if any suit you to adapt in your own home?

December 17- O Wisdom

 December 18 ~ O Adonai

The O Antiphons and S/mores

December 19 ~ O Radix

Trees and Trophies

December 20 ~ O Clavis David

Strings and Keys

December 21 ~ O Oriens

The Rising Sun: 

Dawn over Gettysburg

December 22 ~ O Rex Gentium

Kings and Cakes

The photos of our O Antiphon studies, prayers and fun, actually, are described in my posts, above and include rosary making, lapbooking and some coloring fun.:

3. Additional books we enjoy around the Great O Antiphons:

There is nothing better than the historical fiction of these titles by Arnold Ytreeide for this liturgical season. We've read  these every Advent for the past several years. They bring to life the Biblical characters of the time during which our Savior was born. Further, the connection between the events in the books, the symbols on our Jesse Tree and the Messianic titles of the O Antiphons  becomes even more clear each time we immerse ourselves in them. It's really very exciting! Here they are:

Jotham's Journey

Tabitha's Travels

4. Jesse Tree~ Each day of the Great O Antiphons,  we continue our Jesse Tree traditions. Most of our regular schoolwork is on hold at this point in December until the new year arrives; so our focus is primarily Advent activities. We're able to spend a good part of each afternoon  exploring and discussing the literature and creating our Jesse Tree ornaments. 

Our Jesse Tree, 2011~~ 

Here's our progress so far, below, on the Jesse Tree 2013, as well

as our Advent basket, which contains:

* each boy's "Jesse Tree kit,"

(scissor, printed copies of each ornament,

 ribbon for ornament hanging, colored pencils and

 hole puncher in a gallon size ziploc bag)

* Fireside Catholic Youth Bible

*The Jesse Tree by MacCaughrean

*both advent books above

5.  Music for the Great O Antiphons~

 Liturgical Time walking shared a phenomenal  music video of the classic and oh-so-fitting,

O Come O Come Emmanuel  which I know will become a family favorite! Thank you, Michelle!

 Friends, as always,  

thank you for stopping over and 

spending some of your precious time 

here at my home on the web!

Have you signed up to receive my posts in your email inbox?

   If not, just enter your email address here

so we can be in touch regularly!

Enter your email address:

You might wish to follow on Facebook as well.....

Until next time,

~Chris

...and BTW:

REALLY!!

Post dividers and general cutesies,

courtesy of Shabby Blogs 

Schoolhouse Teachers.com ~ A Review

Welcome, friends!

As a member of TOS Review Crew

I have had the pleasure of enjoying, 

using with my kids and finally, of reviewing 

a truly rich homeschooling resource,

SchoolHouseTeachers.com.

If you are not aware of the wealth of information available to homeschool families,

at SchoolHouseTeachers.com's

 just a couple of quick clicks away,

I am so happy to fill you in on some of the 

areas that you will find there, which can be used  as a supplement to,

or even a full curriculum in, several subject areas.

Their yearly membership option is extremely affordable 

and I'm happy to explain the details as to why.:

Introduction~

I strongly encourage any user to begin with the SchoolHouseTeachers.com  intro on the right sidebar. The overview and testimonials serve to familiarize all with the intent and focus of the site as a whole. Also, I'd suggest not overlooking the site tour, which, given the enormity of this resource, is a big time saver and  extremely user friendly.

TOS and SchoolHouseTeachers.com on Social Media~

If you are not connected to TOS / SchoolHouseTeachers.com you'll  miss posts, news, encouraging articles and general information around family, curriculum and homeschooling in general. Here are your links so you can be in the know and receive the latest info from this site and TOS.:

Pinterest

Google+

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

Age Range/Curriculum~

From preK/elementary through high school,  SchoolhouseTeachers.com provides a bountiful source of ideas and even full  courses for the homeschool family. 

Here's a  look at the prek/elementary offerings~

I can't even begin to tell you of the plethora of resources provided by the knowledgeable teachers and writers across the curriculum....so go see for yourself.....But come back for a bit more!

Art~

 Amazing, right?  Click over and  take a look at the Art Techniques lesson provided by Brenda Ellis of Artistic Pursuits.com. Here's a little preview of what Ms. Ellis is providing each week during her seasonal art lesson.:

My younger son, almost 11 years old, is seriously crafty and heavy into  learning about techniques and artists' lives and influences. The material at the art techniques tab alone intrigued him so.  I had to literally pull the sketchbook away from him to get to math! We will undoubtedly be visiting Artistic Pursuits frequently!

Reading~

Before we move to the older grades, I have to share with you how thrilled I am to discover a thorough and comprehensive look at language for all types of learners at the "reading" tab. Take a look at the Reading Course Archives! A complete course in fluency, phonics, spelling, reading across the curriculum and SO much more! I can't imagine the need to look further for research and activities, and to be perfectly honest, I do speak from experience, as I'm a Reading Specialist; this is definitely my area. I am always seeking to learn more and therefore, I look closely at the Reading and Language offerings  to determine the quality of a program. SchoolhosueTeachers.com certainly exceeded my expectations in this area. I cannot wait to explore their archives even further. Additionally, I downloaded...and you can too...the guide, "Fourteen Steps to Teach Dyslexics to Spell and Read."  The tips offered, through  Victoria Dyslexic Online, have been tangible and clear.  We have used a few of the suggestions already in conjunction with my dyslexic son's  other reading strategies and I am so very happy with it!

A look at the middle/high school offerings~

Initially, the course checklists appealed to me, as a method of streamlining courses as the demands of the kids' curriculum increase. I printed the monthly form and use it for my 8th grader,  who is taking a few 9th grade courses...all the more reason to be sure I'm on target, with the guidance of SchoolHouseTeachers.com.

Here's the SHT December month at a glance, as a sneak preview.

But go over and peruse the whole section to see what else grabs you.:

There is SO much to love about each age level's offerings, but I need to tell you about one more.: The geology course, taught by Patrick Nurre, is exciting and engaging to  my  13 year old and  my almost 11 year old

 Montana

Just this afternoon, my older son had a mineral identification lab to work on and in addition to his Earth Science Reference Tables, he took a peek at the info found in the geology course to aid him!

As you can  see, the geology course within SchoolHouseTeachers' offerings are well lived within my family and I know they will continue to be so, abundantly.

Another feature I loved~

"Dailies!"  Wow, go check this out. This is SHT.com's "daily lesson zone" and it is amazingly comprehensive, incorporating such topics as daily grammar, everyday astronomy and everyday explorers! In fact, I used the middle school spelling list this week and took advantage of a couple of the activities offered to support the target words as well.

Cost of SchoolhouseTeachers.com~

The first month's subscription is just $3! After that, each month is $12.95 OR an entire year for $139, which is 10% off! A subscription covers course offerings for the entire family as well as downloads, printables and teacher interaction. 

TOS Reviews~
For more informative (and fun) reviews from The Old SchoolHouse Crew, please click here.

It was a pleasure to review this resource and I absolutely know that my family

will use, enjoy and reap many benefits from SchoolHouseTeachers.com.

Thank you, as always, for spending some of your precious time here 

at my home on the web.

Until next time,

~Chris