Advent

Time of advent here .There are lots of  preparations going on. One of the things we do these days is get out to our water park and collect some hollies. Advent wreath is lit up every evening with purple and pink candles and geo had an opportunity to make a paper wreath in our home ed group.Advent saints are brilliant and to follow those days are quite interesting especially feasts of St Lucy, St Ambrose, St Nicholas,Our Lady of Guadalupe, St Juan Deigo, St John Henry Newman which sounds great

Jesse tree tradition helps children to explore the lineage Christ from root of Jesse and from creation.

                         Advent basket with  Christmas story books.

Preparing the cards with silhouettes and stickers.

St Nicholas feast day was celebrated in our family with fillers in their shoes and read the story and understand the sharing of gifts.

Some of  the friends who gathered on the Feast of Immaculate conception and children made some coloring  and looked at what immaculate conception is all about.

On the feast of Guadalupe, Geo made a super craft along with other home edders.

Another feast was the feast of St Lucy on December 13, which means 'light' and she reminds us her deep love for God.The more we pray and speak to our Lord, the stronger will be our love for him and our desire to stay close to Him always. There is a tradition in some European countries the eldest girl in the family will be dressed up in her white gown with red sash and a wreath with lighted candles on her head and will serve the breakfast for others in the family.
        Annu made some cinnamon rolls though she didn't dress up this time and it was so tasty.Snaps were taken once we were about to finish the rolls .

 A few days ago children were taken to ice rink in Manchester for Ice skating and everyone except me had a go. It was bit risky for the first time as we were for the first time  .

These are the days of 'O Antiphons begins on 17th December which is an ancient latin tradition of  reminding titles of Jesus as it is reminded of the coming of our Lord is fast approaching. If you put the title together in the reverse order, will end up as 'EROCRAS' , in latin it means...tomorrow he will come. Tried to fill each day with some surprises along with each title, could be foods or sweets.

 A few days ago we visited Sea life Manchester packed with lots of sea creatures, it was nice to know Sea horses are the only males who give birth to children. Most exciting thing for them was the climbing tunnel in the place.

Yesterday, our homeschooling group performed carols in a Residential home and it was a blessed opportunity. It was so good to have Dave who joined seminary recently.

Birthday and frozen 2

It was Joch's birthday and everything fell in place beautifully. Thank God for him as a gift in my life. Planned to visit Trafford centre, shopping, had meals out and came up an idea to watch Frozen 2. To me it was a big surprise and we cut the Annu's homemade cake and had a good day. The day was packed with so many homeschooling activities, nativity practice, catechesis and so on.

Into film

The season of  Into films was going on this month till November 22nd. Every year we tried to watch some movies. Children enjoyed a lot.This time both little ones went to watch 'Peter Rabbit' in . Movie  was really good and myself enjoyed too.

Cecilia-patroness of music

The story of St Cecilia is very captivating. Beloved St Cecilia, virgin and martyr believed to gave up her life in third century. It is said that Cecilia 'sang to God in her heart ' on her wedding day, desiring to live for Christ alone.With the help of an angel, cecilia converted her husband and both died as martyrs. She is known to be patron of musicians. In art , she is portrayed as she is playing organ, or lyre.

        
 ''Let me sing to the Lord for His goodness to me'' Psalms 12:7

A line from fifteenth century story of Saint Cecilia explains how she became the Western patron of music .
She loved everyone no matter whether they are poor or rich and helped anyone in need and knew that all are children of God. 

After daily reading of the story of Cecilia, thought of making blondies which was of first time.Geo was helping along with Theresu.Then once it was made it was decorated with some chocolates for indicating piano keys.It was a blessed day in our family, we had a visit from one of the famous musician from India, who wrote many christian music

Brownies ended up some cracks but tasted good..

St Cecilia Pray for us.

St Martin of Tours

Charity does not only mean giving people food and clothing:it also means giving them a smile and a good word. He went to leper and hugged him saying ," Jesus is suffering in you brother''.

It was the feast of St Martin's on November 11th. The story of a Roman soldier who became a Christian and later in a bishop. He famously gave half of his beggar and then had a dream in which he saw Jesus wearing it.

It was amazing to hear that when he died in the month of November , a strange and wonderful thing happened. All the coldness and gloominess of autumn disappeared, and for three days everything was as bright and beautiful as if had been a saint; the holiness of his whole life is a proof of that. He was a brave soldier who decided to share the light and truth of Christ among pagans.

There is a tradition of carrying lanterns and procession in the streets in Germany and other countries and serving sweets for children.

We tried to make lanterns using jam jars , modge podge, tissue paper and read the story of St Martin and toasted some marshmallows.

   

Lego land visit

It was great day out for Geo and Therese to visit Lego land. They really love Lego and enjoyed making cars, driving, activity, climbing , watching movies and so on..