2012-13 School Year–Week Fifteen

Christmas School kicked into full gear this week! We kept working on math (Ladybug finished her kindergarten math workbook…I don’t know what she’s going to do next!), and writing, but everything else we did was Christmas-themed.

On Monday, we learned about Christmas during the Elizabethan period, and made a favorite craft…stained glass Christmas trees. It’s been a few years since we’ve made them, and it was the first time Ladybug got to make one, so it was a lot of fun!

Tuesday’s theme as a Georgian/Colonial Christmas. Since we read about the use of pomanders at that time, I got out the cloves and an orange, and we made one of our own. Bunny and Ladybug have decided we should always have one around, because it smells so good, and I can’t say I disagree with them!

Wednesday we learned about Christmas in Victorian times, and how those celebrations influenced how we still celebrate Christmas today. We read The Christmas Bird, which is a Christmas legend explaining how the robin got its red breast. Robins are a popular Christmas decoration in England, maybe because of this legend, or more likely because, during the Victorian era, the postmen wore bright red coats, and people used to call out, “Here comes the robin!” when they saw one. We made a robin craft, as well. I’m pretty proud of this one, because although it was simple, it was my invention. We used brads to make the wings and feet movable, and decided to glue the robins to a blue background to make it look like they’re flying.

On Thursday, we moved on to the Edwardian era, which, to be honest, isn’t that much different from the Victorian era. We did enjoy looking at An Edwardian Christmas, which has no words at all. It was amazing what the children could infer from the pictures, and the small details they picked up on! Sometimes, it’s nice to just look at a picture book, and let the illustrations tell the story. We also read about St. Lucia on Thursday, since it was her commemoration day.

We moved into a more modern era today, learning about Christmas during World Wars I and II. We’ve read Christmas in the Trenches pretty much every year that we’ve been homeschooling, and it remains a family favorite. To be honest, I had never even heard of the “Silent Night Truce,” before reading that story, but I think it’s one of the most amazing war-time stories I’ve ever heard. We also read some selections from Letters from Father Christmas. The last letter Tolkien wrote fit in especially well with today’s wartime theme.

Our big craft was making a gingerbread house…only the second time we’ve tried doing so. I was smart this time, and actually read the directions beforehand, so I knew to assemble the house the night before so it could set up before the children tried to decorate it. Turkey, Bunny, and Ladybug had a great time coming up with and implementing designs. It was a very fun, although time-consuming, activity!

Next week, we’re only having a few days of school. We’ll be finishing our Christmas in England unit with a look at modern English Christmas celebrations, having our traditional “Nutcracker Day,” where we’ll read the story and watch not one, but two different productions of the ballet (one of them being the Royal Ballet, of course!), and celebrating the first day of winter and having our Christmas tea party. After all that, we’re going to take a vacation for a few weeks…I’m definitely looking forward to that!

St. Charles Christmas Traditions 2012

Today was one of our most-anticipated events of the year…going to downtown St. Charles, and walking up and down Main Street, taking part in the Christmas Traditions festival.

We stopped and saw the “Trains on Main” display this year…we haven’t seen it too often, so it was very fun.

For the first time, St. Charles had a gingerbread house contest…and we love looking at gingerbread houses!

I especially liked the gingerbread nativity.

After seeing the trains and houses, it was time for lunch. Usually, we go to Frankie Toco’s for pizza, but they had a 45 minute wait, so we tried a new place, Lewis and Clark’s. I’ve wanted to eat there since the first time we saw it, and I wasn’t disappointed. Their burger wasn’t as good as the Seamus burger, but it was still really good (especially the garlic mayo!)!

Then the real fun began…looking for Christmas characters, and collecting their cards. This year, the children got 28 out of 35 cards. Not the best year, but not the worst either, and the weather wasn’t great, so I call it a win.

We were a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see one of our favorite characters, Jack Frost, but we did see evidence of his work!

We love listening to the Victorian carolers.

And seeing the drum and fife corps.

And the architecture is beautiful!

I also love all of the old-style shop signs.

We stayed so long, we even got to see the Christmas lights as it began to get dark…a very fun and busy day!

An Evening’s Work

Last night, I spent a few hours wrapping most of our Christmas presents. This was the result:

Not to mention the trash pile, which is disturbingly almost larger than the present pile!

Banners for the Time of Christmas

For our first Christmas school craft, we made banners for the time of Christmas. The time of Christmas is broken into three seasons, so we had three banners to make. They were a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too!

The season of Advent (only the first flame is glued to the banner–the rest can be added as Advent progresses):

The season of Christmas (to be used for the 12 days of Christmas and the day of the Epiphany):

The season of Epiphany (to be used on the days following Epiphany, until the beginning of Lent, as well as the time after Pentecost…all of the green days):

We spent a lot of time going through the banner book, choosing designs, colors, and appropriate Scripture verses, deciding where the glitter glue should go, and then putting them together. The whole family got involved! We’ll continue working our way through the church year…we have plans to make banners for Lent and Easter, as well as an Alleluia banner (we already made a red banner). After we’ve made the basic banners, we may move on to specific banners for Holy Week, and other themed banners…we’ll just have to see how it goes. It’s another nice way to tie our church life and home life together!

The Boar’s Head Festival

The boar’s head in hand bear I
bedecked with bays and rosemary.
And I pray you my masters, be merry,
Quot estis in convivio.
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.

The boar’s head, as I understand,
Is the bravest dish in all the land.
When thus bedecked with a gay garland,
Let us servere cantico.
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.

Our steward has provided this
In honor of the King of Bliss;
Which on this day to be served is,
In Regimensi atrio.
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.

The mightiest hunter of them all
We honor in this festal hall
Born of a humble virgin mild,
Heaven’s King became a helpless Child.
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.

He hunted down through earth and hell
The swart boar death until it fell.
This mighty deed for us was done.
Therefore sing we in unison:
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.

Let not this boar’s head cause alarm,
The huntsman drew his power to harm.
So death, which still appears so grim,
Has yielded all its power to Him!
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino.

On Friday night, we had the opportunity to attend a performance of the Boar’s Head Festival, at Peace Lutheran Church in St. Louis. It’s been 12 years since I’ve gotten to go to the festival (at a different church), so I was very excited to refresh my memory about it, and to take the children, and see their reactions. (I wasn’t disappointed!) It also fit in well with our “Christmas in England” theme for Christmas School this year.

All of the children loved it, even Chickadee. There was so much to watch and listen to, and even though we were sitting in the back, because of all of the activity in the aisles of the church, they had plenty to look at. There was dancing and various musical performances (including a bagpiper, trumpets, and madrigals), and entertainment from a court jester (hilarious!), in addition to the presentation of the feast, the yule log, the wassailers, and the nativity story at the end.

If you’ve never been to a Boar’s Head Festival before, here’s a rough outline:

The Courtly Story

The Coming of the Yule Sprite
The Approach of the Herald Banners
Procession of the Beefeaters
The Boar’s Head Procession
Court Entertainment
The Yule Log Procession
The Wassailers

The Christmas Story

Mary and Joseph Approach the Inn
The Apparition
The Shepherds
The Adoration of the Wise Men
The Christ Light

After the festival was over, we got to head over to the gym and enjoy cookies, punch, and wassail. And take pictures of the performers. The lighting wasn’t great, so my pictures aren’t as good as I hoped, but they still give a general idea of what the evening was like.

A wise man and the jester…what an odd pairing!

A monk:

The Beefeaters (Turkey loved seeing them!):

The baker:

A bagpiper (minus his tall fur hat):

Lords and ladies aplenty:

And, of course, good King Wenceslas himself:

The costumes were detailed and beautiful:

And the props were excellent, as well:

Of course, the star of the performance–the Boar’s Head:

The children decided that their favorite part of the evening was the singing of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” as acted out by the jesters. I have to say, I agree…it was hilarious.

It did run a little long, which was too bad, because the part that became “boring” was the nativity story at the end. But everything before that was enjoyed by everyone (especially when the servers came through with cookies for the audience during the feast!). I’m glad we made time in our busy pre-Christmas schedule to attend!

God bless our fam’lies here at peace
Wherever they may be!
Those who wander, those at home,
In Christ are one with Thee:
Love and joy come to you
And to you your wassail too.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.

Christmas on The Hill 2012

It’s hard to believe that Christmas on The Hill has already come and gone, but as always, it was fun!

The Nativity Walk is my favorite part of Christmastime on The Hill.

This was my favorite Nativity scene.

The detail on the pieces was amazing!

The buildings all look so festive at this time of year!

And I’ve never seen such a festive horse…it didn’t just have bells and bows, it had antlers and a red nose!

Even its feet were decorated!

Of course, we listened to La Befana tell her story.

We also stumbled across some sort of flash mob…it was very entertaining!

I love the Italian pride that is everywhere!

And the fact that the center of it all is St. Ambrose Catholic Church.

I have a favorite house on The Hill.

I love that space under the stairs that’s just perfect for a Nativity scene!

It’s nice to see local businesses get such good support from the crowds.

Quite a few of the buildings on The Hill have these green bricks…I wonder if there’s some kind of story behind them?

No trip to The Hill would be complete without a stop at Amighetti’s!

Another fun (and windy!), day in December on The Hill!

Gingerbread Displays 2012

Since the weather was so beautiful today, we took a nice, long walk up and down Main Street in downtown Belleville, to admire all of the beautiful gingerbread creations in the store windows.

There were all kinds of different displays, from traditional houses to mythical creatures, and more than one very “punny” creation!

Of course, there are different awards given out to the best and most creative designs. The Markel Family chose three particularly impressive displays.

A replica of the town library: