Fun Christmas Links

Here are a few wonderful web links for the Christmas season-

Listen to Dicken’s A Christmas Carol in serial format from the BBC

Check out the daily freebie site for classic ebooks, online stories and teaching tips at the Homeschool Freebie of the Day site

A monthly online literary magazine with poems, classic stories, Victorian era illustrations, songs, and activities.  This one includes a read-a-loud version of A Christmas Carol, condensed by the author himself

The Latin lovers among my readers can enjoy a Latin Christmas carol for each day

Christmas audio-books for kids and Storynory-The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Snow Queen, and more

An audio-book adaptation of the Landmark book, The Winter at Valley Forge

Christmas notebooking pages from Notebookingpages.com

The most amazing Christmas sewing site- Sew, Mama, Sew!

Many, many coloring pages and activities from author Jan Brett.  These are truly beautiful resources!

One of my favorite Advent calendarswith daily Scripture readings, devotional articles, hymns, Christmas traditions around the world, art history lessons, book suggestions, daily movie suggestions, and more from Teachingmom.com

A detailed and very helpful stocking stuff site, full of ideas for every stocking, in every price range

From Veritas Press, scroll down for a down-loadable Christmas lapbook and Advent wreath project sheets

The Beach

I am sure we all have many goals, and many of them are very lofty and inspiring.  They are the type of goals that you would look at and think, yes, that is a wonderful thing to aspire to, something that will make a difference in the world.  Those goals are hard to meet, but we all make them.  This is all good.

I also have some not so lofty goals, goals that will not impress even one person.  One  of my recent goals of this sort has been to spend more time at the beach.  :)  When I try, I can aim very, very high.

I haven’t been doing that great with this goal, but I do have my moments of accomplishment, such as this great day spent meandering up the coast with Erin and the two kiddos.  It was a crisp, clear day with a great breakfast, (I had to get up much earlier than I would normally on this Saturday do to the fact that the kiddos wake up early, even on the weekend-imagine!) time at the Ritz to see the gingerbread houses, and a stop at the beach.

 

Random Thoughts

 Just to keep some people happy…

I have been away from the blog for some very, very good reasons.  My life has been incredibly interesting and all, you know.  I have traveled on that exotic vacation that I have long dreamed of (the cruise down the Nile River was awesome!), met, dated, and dumped a guy(yep, told you it has been busy!), written a book, and spent time with some very cute nieces and nephews.

So of course, only the last part is true.  Otherwise my life is pretty normal and unvaried.  I did cut my hair shorter and that gives me something to say when everyone asks what is new-”Well, in case you didn’t notice, my hair is short and blonde!”  Great conversation starter.

I did attend the Twin Lakes Church Christmas musical last night and everyone who lives around here should definitely try to go.  They have put together a very impressive and varied program, and my little sister Lizzy is in the children’s ensemble.

Random Fact about the musical-

when they projected some seemingly random photos, I recognized one.  There was Pioneer Woman’s daughter, right there is Aptos.  The fact that I knew who she was right away made we wonder if I might know too much about this family.  Which leads to…

Random Fact about me-

I was a fan of the Pioneer Woman before it was big.  Really, truly I was.  I might not be a fan of any bands before anyone else, but…ahem, she is a homeschool mom and I read her stuff before she went big time.  I was a reader back when there where more like 20 comments on a post.  I also own her calendar.  Super dorky, right?!?  It gets better…

I even have my calendar signed by Pioneer Woman and Cowboy Josh.  And you don’t even know who they are, do you?!?