Hosted by Biblical Womanhood
There is nothing more frugal than FREE!! And this is my gift to you this Christmas… I made these simple Christmas notebooking pages and want to give them to all of you this Christmas Season. 
This ebook is especially for those of you who homeschool. Feel free to pass the link on to others. Just go HERE to download your copy!
This year we also have a really special Advent calendar sent to us from friends in the U.S. - a Lego one! The kids are having so much fun having something little to make from Lego every day! They are quite spoiled by our dear friends!
We have Advent candles as well, that we light each Sunday (except for the first one as already confessed!). We do a little Bible reading with each candle that we light, and last year with school we went into the meanings of each candle a bit deeper. We use white, red or gold ones - whichever we happen to have on hand. This year I need to buy new ones since I had to leave the candles I had behind when we moved back to Australia. I think I will go for gold…
Last year we made an advent wreath. The children just had so much fun doing this. As I already mentioned, there was no Christmas to be seen in public in the Middle East. In one way this was good, since we weren’t bombarded with Christmas sales and junk mail. On the other hand, it was easy to forget Christmas was coming up since there was no sign of it anywhere - no Christmas decorations, no music playing in the malls, etc. We had to make do with the decorations we had brought with us, or some we managed to buy off other expats who were leaving. Sometimes we found some Christmas things in the strangest places - little shops where you would least expect them. When we saw these things we would buy as many as we could and share it around with all our friends!
Mostly, though, we made things ourselves. From this:
To this:
And finally this:
The white candles were for each Sunday, and then the red one was the Christ candle.
Celebrating Advent is really a lovely way to prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus. It gives focus to what can often be a hectic and stressful time of the year. There are lots of links for advent stuff on the internet. Here are just a few that I have found:
http://www.teachingmom.com/features/advent.html
http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/child/adv.html
http://www.crivoice.org/cyadvent.html
http://www.spirithome.com/advent.html
How dark outside!
but see — a star’s in the sky;
Mary and Joseph are passing by.
So let’s light a candle to welcome them
as they go on their way to Bethlehem.
We’ll light a candle in church each day,
We’ll light one candle each week and pray.
We’ll light a candle at home each day,
We’ll light a candle each week and pray.
(from here )
This is my second post for the Holiday Open House. See my first post here.
My next one is here!
For more Holiday Open House posts, visit Tiany!
You’re going to have to come back during the week and read some more!After Sinterklaas on the 5th, we start decorating our house on the 6th. I did this because I didn’t want the children to confuse Sinterklaas and Christmas when they were little. Sinterklaas really doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas, ie with the birth of Jesus. Yes, Santa came from St Nicholas, but in Holland there was a clear distinction between the two, and I wanted to keep it that way.So, on the 6th we bring out all our decorations and start putting them up around the house. I love having the house look all Christmassy! Since we were married, every year I would buy a special Christmas decoration in the after Christmas sales. I have quite a nice collection now. Since I learned how to quilt, I’ve been wanting to make a Christmas quilt a year so that I can swap my quilts around too. I always swap all my normal nick-nacks for Christmas decorations, so I want to do that with my quilts too. So far I have started four, and am almost done with one!!! Maybe this year I’ll at least finish that one….!Our Christmas tree is still the same little one that we bought when we were first married for $19.95, which was a lot of money for us then! I don’t have the heart to get rid of it and buy one of those beautiful ones they have out these days…it does the job and I am way too sentimental!
Today we brought the tree out of the shed and set it up, but the other decorations were at the old house still. I told the kids to put the tree together, and then we’d go and get the other decorations. In the meantime I was busy doing some other things around the house. I heard lots of giggles, and then the children called me to the lounge room. They had decorated the tree with their soft toys!
I thought it was quite cute and told them if they wanted to leave it like that for this year, they could! They were pretty excited. We’ll have to take all of them off and put the lights on it, but they would like to have it like this for a change!
This evening was a special night for our local tourist attraction “Sovereign Hill“. It is a replica gold mining town. We go there often as we have a membership, and want to make the most of the local history. Anyway, tonight was a late night Christmas shopping night with free entry for all. Boy was it busy! There were some lovely stalls though, and the children got to do some candle dipping for free because the guy there was a friend of the family! Here are some of the sights in our first of many Christmas activities this year:
It was a bit of fun! More on how we spend Christmas tomorrow….
This is my first post for the Holiday Open House. My next one is here!
I must have been very good this year, because I got two poems and presents for Sinterklaas last night! Here is the first one:
Piet was shocked to find one day,
That he’d been wrong all these years,
He thought that Joy was easy to please,
But she’s not! He told Sint his fears.
She’s got what she always wanted,
An old house and a farm to boot,
Not just an acre or two,
But 14, yet it still doesn’t suit.
No, she wants a cow, a calf and some lambs,
Yes she wants some sheepies too,
And chooks, don’t start on that one now,
She wants more than just a few.
A hundred you say? Where on earth would they go,
14 acres will not go that far,
Why can’t she be happy with her farm and her house,
She even has a car.
Well, I guess Sint can understand that a farm,
Must have some animals too.
With a dog and two cats to look after already,
You could hardly call it a zoo.
Sint can’t give you hundreds of chickens,
Or a cow or calf right now,
But this will help you get started,
Until you can find a sow.
If you sell your eggs when you get some,
You can save your pennies in here,
And maybe you will have enough in there,
To buy your sheep and your calves next year.
Love,
Sint
And “Sinterklaas” gave me this cute sheep piggy bank.
Then to my surprise I got another one:
Sint has watched you move around
Moving things along the ground
Moving, moving, moving more
Moving even from shore to shore
Now he wants to see you stop
To spend more time with Nan and Pop
To sow the seed
And dig the weeds
To feed the chooks
And train the cooks
So in this book you’ll find advice
On how to make life oh so nice!
And my present was this cute country tote bag and a little book called “The Bear Necessities of Simple Living” by Duane S Montague:
Thank you Robyn, um, er, Sinterklaas!!!
So Sinterklaas is over for another year, and now the preparations for Christmas start in earnest! (Matthew is hanging over my shoulder saying, “Can we please open the box of decorations? It’s torture having it sitting there in the lounge room and not being able to open it yet!” So, I’d better get going….
Tonight is the night of Sinterklaas - St Nicholas. As many of you know, I come from Dutch heritage… my parents are both Dutch, as is my entire family…. except for my husband who is fair dinkum Aussie! My parents immigrated to Australia when they got married, and even though we didn’t live in Australia for long, we were always encouraged to come back here one day and live. My Dad made sure we had Australian passports as well as Dutch ones, so in 1988 when I was 19 years old, I came here. I have loved this beautiful country ever since, and no matter where I travel (I’ve lived in 7 countries), I’ll always call Australia home.
I can’t deny my Dutch blood, however, and some traditions I wanted to pass on to my children since they are half Dutch. One of these traditions is the one of St Nicholas. Let me tell you a bit about him.
Saint Nicholas lived in Turkey in 230 AD. He was a wealthy man who gave most of his money to the poor. He was a bishop and after he died became a saint. Over the years a tradition develop in Holland. On the 5th of December, the eve of his death, the Dutch celebrate his birthday! Instead of receiving presents himself, he gives them to the children. This comes from when he was alive and gave to the poor. And instead of coming from Turkey, somehow things changed to him coming from Spain, on a steamboat. This probably came from the times when luxuries came from Spain - and since Sinterklaas brings good things, he must come from Spain.
Sinterklaas has a helper - Black Peter, who is a Moor. He is black from the soot in all the chimneys he came down in to put things in the children’s shoes. Children put out their shoes at night, sometimes as early as a week before the 5th of December, and Black Peter puts goodies in them. If you are naughty, however, you get a stick.
Sinterklaas rides on a white horse and visits all the good Dutch children, no matter where they are in the world. Here is Sinterklaas visiting children in Jordan a few years ago:
Sinterklaas writes poems to go with the presents he gives. Usually they are funny ones about what has happened in the past year and about something the person has done. It ties in with the present he gives them.
When the children are older and know that Sinterklaas is not alive anymore (this year he turns 1737!), more fun begins. Families get together and pull names out of a hat. Each person has someone else to buy a present for and write a poem. The present is called a “surprise”. They make something out of paper, cardboard, foil, or whatever, write a poem about it and the person, and hide the present inside it. For example, if someone loves horses, then “Sinterklaas” will make them a horse out of paper maché and have the present inside it.
Here are some pictures of what my mother got a few years ago. The person who got her name, put her gift in an airplane and made a poem about how much she travels:
So there is a lot of creativity going on around Sinterklaas time - with poems being written all over the world, and “suprises” being made. It is a time of family fun, tradition, and has NOTHING at all to do with Christmas!!!
You know, every year when it comes to the beginning of December I think to myself - oh, I am too busy to do Sinterklaas this year….. maybe we should skip it…. after all, we don’t live in Holland….And every year I tell myself, no… this is what memories are made of. My children can’t speak Dutch. They’ve visited Holland once. They are Australian through and through… but they also love the tradition of Sinterklaas and look forward to it every year. This year they all know that Sinterklaas isn’t real and so next year we will pull names out of a hat and it won’t be only me writing all the poems! What sweet memories we have ahead of us, as each one becomes creative in writing a poem and giving a gift to another.
Traditions are important. They define what we are. As Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” says,
And how do we keep our balance?
That I can tell you in one word!
Tradition!
You may ask, how did this tradition get started?
I’ll tell you… I don’t know! But it’s a tradition.
And because of our traditions,
every one of us knows who he is
and what God expects him to do.
I am glad I carried on the tradition of Sinterklaas for my children. Even though it has taken a lot of effort, I have seen the joy in my children’s faces when the doorbell rings and they run out to find a sack full of goodies on the front step. I have watched them giggle in delight at the poems “Sinterklaas” has written about them, wondering how he knew just what they wanted. I wonder if they will continue this tradition with their children one day. I know I will try to encourage it, even if it means inviting my grandchildren to come to my house on the night of Sinterklaas each year, and writing poems about them…. and teaching them St Nicholas songs…..:
Look there is the steamer from far-away lands.
It brings us Saint Nicholas, he’s waving his hands.
His horse is a-prancing on deck up and down,
The flags are all waving in village and town.
Black Peter is laughing and tells everyone,
The good kids get candy, the bad ones get none.
Oh dearest St Nicholas if Pete and you would,
Just visit our house for we all have been good.
The birds woke me up at 5.00 this morning. Instead of going back to sleep I decided to get up and enjoy the quiet in the house. I sat at my kitchen table and caught up on a few of my favorite blogs while I glanced regularly out the kitchen window to see the sun rise. Then I had a lovely chat with a friend from South Africa, on google talk….
When I do manage to get up early, I really enjoy it. I love to spend time reading the Bible and praying while everything is quiet. As my veggie garden grows, I know I will be out there in the early mornings before the heat of the sun, to do some weeding and picking. I used to do this on our other plots of land all the time. It is the best time to harvest veggies. And when we have chooks… well, I remember the first things I got from our last little homestead back in 2003:
Some lettuce, parsley, chives, strawberries and our first egg! I was so excited that I took a photo! Now I can’t wait till I can do this again here, at our new home….
After the early morning start, we had a very productive day. Imagine, I had an extra couple of hours in my day! Robyn had kindly agreed to have the children while I did some Christmas shopping. Elizabeth helped her decorate the cupcakes she made. Don’t they look great?! (And doesn’t Elizabeth look worn out?! LOL!)
I was able to get all the kids’ pressies at one shop - very painless! I had money to spend on them from their grandparents, which is what I did today. I already had a few presents for them, from us, that I picked up on specials throughout the year. It is a blessing since we don’t have a lot of extra money right now, just having bought this house. It is also wonderful to have my main Christmas shopping done so early in the month.
Tiany is hosting a Holiday Open House this week and I will be participating in that later in the week. I’ve also got a surprise planned for everyone this holiday season, so keep coming back here to see what it is! I won’t keep you in suspense for too long….
Off to bed now…. it’s been a long day! But such a lovely one. I wonder if I can get up as early tomorrow….!
I’m sitting at my kitchen table in my new kitchen - looking out on my washing line, veggie plot and 14 acres!!!!! The crazy thing is that in this modern homesteading life we also have a wonderful internet connection! Yes, I want to go back in time and live the pioneering life… but with my internet thank you very much!
We have almost moved! LOL! Most of our stuff is here at our new home. The old house still needs cleaning and lots of bits and pieces thrown in the car and taken to the new house. We have had lots of helpers and worked hard at it for the past few weeks, so we are getting there. Really, I think a few more loads will do it.
This move has been funny. It is our 15th in 15 years of marriage. I just could not come up with the enthusiasm I had at some of our previous moves. I put everything off till the last minute, and this move has taken the longest of all our moves. I think I have just had enough. I want to stay in one place for longer than 6 months! The longest we’ve been in one house is actually 18 months, so if we can beat that…. then I might believe this is our last home. The thing is, every move we made had its purpose. Every time we knew God was leading us to move on. It hasn’t been easy. In fact, it has just been exhausting.
I look around this lovely old house and I wonder how long we will be here. I ask myself if I will be able to be “normal” and live here for years…. or will my body go into automatic mode and prepare for another move? It seems like we have been living on adventure and adrenalin for so long now. I don’t even know how to be “normal”, get into a routine that doesn’t involve packing and moving twice a year… but I hope and pray that I will learn, because I am just so sick of moving.
The children are too, especially our eldest son. They need stability. They need consistency in school. So,… next year will be perfect - right?!! No moving,…. good routines…..consistency in school…. PERFECTION!!!! No, don’t worry, I am not looking for perfection, but I am really hoping for a better year than this one! Three moves in one year is just too much…
I just love every nook and cranny of our new home. I am going to take lots of photos and post them. Elizabeth has been happily picking flowers and bringing them into the house for me. All three of the kids are enjoying riding their bikes around on our long driveway and also in the yard. I’ve been working in the veggie garden and will tell you all about that soon too….. I think this post is already too long!
So, thanks for your prayers for us during this move. I know that they have helped and given me strength. We are just so blessed to be able to be here on this property, and I am soooo thankful.