St Valentine

So, although the Eastern Church commemorates this saint on July 6th, Western culture celebrates this day on February 14th, the anniversary of his death.  Why?  Read here. (hint: his death coincided with a pagan feast). 

Activities:
If it ain't broke, why fix it?  I have always thought that the way children celebrate Valentine's Day is sweet and don't see any problem with continuing with those same traditions with the addition, of course, of talking about St. Valentine's life.

Here's what we've done and are going to to do:

• We made valentines last week to hand out at Wednesday school. 
•  Today I have heart candies to give out during school lessons.  
• We decorated our living room window with hearts hanging on string. 
•  We're going to bake heart cookies to have with a Valentine's tea this afternoon (which is when I'll tell them about who St. Valentine is).
• This evening, we're going to a family candlelight dinner.  Pa will present the girls with chocolate hearts and I will give one to the boy.

Any other activities that you recommend? (and my apologies for not posting this BEFORE Valentine's Day!!!).  Blame it on my pregnant, mothering brain.

Presentation of the Lord in the Temple

Tomorrow we celebrate how Joseph and  Mary fulfilled the law by taking Jesus to the temple with an offering. This blog has two wonderful posts (Thank you, Ma!) on this feast which talk about it in depth as well as offer fun ideas for enjoying this special day with our little ones. Since I'm not one to reinvent the wheel, I'm just going to talk about a couple things (born out of those ideas) I'm doing with my little ones (4 &1) this year.

This year my four-year-old is participating in a wonderful program at our Church called the Catechisis of the Good Shepherd. He has already been reintroduced to the story and has been allowed to "act it out" with models. The thing he focused on was the gift of two turtledoves given by Mary and Joseph. He was told that the gift would actually go to the priests for food. As we were talking about the Feast on the way home from Church he decided we should bring a gift to our priests just like Mary and Joseph did. He also wants to bring a gift to his Catechists (teachers), because "they work at the church too."

I thought it was a wonderful idea to bring a gift that the priests could eat/use, not only does it show them our appreciation, but it allows us to offer something back to God in a very tangible way.
My son wants to get a clock for the church (I wonder if he thinks it will help the priest keep his homily short? j/k). My idea- dove shaped cookies.

Another thing we will do is to take candles to church for the service to celebrate the Light "to enlighten the gentiles!" We have the battery operated ones, but in the next few years we will graduate to real candles. At our church the priests bless the candles during the service. And just like Ma's posts suggest, we will decorate them! :)

I wish you all a blessed feast!

Epiphany

In the West we celebrate the coming of the wise men at Epiphany. My girls are very excited about giving gifts to baby Jesus tomorrow. Tonight is the 5th of January. We took the ornaments off the tree but left the lights on. We sat around the wreath with it's 5 white candles glowing and sang many Christmas hymns for the last time this season. Claire decided she wanted to give baby Jesus an star shaped ornament with the three wise men embroidered on it and Emily will bring a gold bell. We will add the three wise men to our crèche.

A delayed St Nichola craft and SANTA LUCIA!

A bit delayed, but while browsing the Craft Crow for ornament ideas, I came across this lovely St Nicholas Day craft.  Definitely putting it on the shelf for next year!!!

And, now, for one of my FAVORITE Advent days of the year (and, yes, I am biased because I have a very beautiful Lucy Light of my own): St. Lucy's Day (or Santa Lucia!).

You can read about various ways that different cultures celebrate this day over at the Catholic Culture website (a great resource, imho).  We do our own rendition of the Swedish tradition.

After the sun sets in the evening, we have Lucy dress up in a white dress with a red sash and her lovely crown of battery operated candles that her godparents gave her.  She then processes, carrying a plate full of buns shaped in a ring like a crown and gingersnaps, (usually with the help of her siblings) to where we and our guests are sitting and singing Santa Lucia.

This year, we are giving Lucy and her siblings Santa Lucia paper dolls for a gift and will, per usual, tie a red ribbon around a white candle and give one each to our guests in honor of Santa Lucia.

Santa Lucia!  Santa LUCIA!

Happy St. Nicholas Day

I had a sudden thought last night to include a note of encouragement in the girl's St. Nicholas stockings. I hope to remember to do this each year. This time it reads, "Be kind to one another."

We also listened to this podcast of St. Nicholas http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/saintoftheday

Santa Lucia Paper Dolls

For any of you who will be celebrating Santa Lucia on December 13th, here is a link to some paper dolls I found online.  A great gift idea for all the little girls in your family!

For ideas of how to celebrate St. Lucy, look here.  It is a very fun tradition that our family enjoys celebrating each Advent season.

Hail King Edmund

Now, although slacker Ma is on a delayed celebration schedule for Edmund's name-day (which was this past weekend), Grandma had all her ducks in a row and mailed this wonderful King dress-up outfit for the occasion.  Of course, Edmund couldn't wait to try it on.

The real celebration will occur Friday or Saturday this week.  We'll hang the St Edmund flag we bought in England.  We'll eat sticky buns in memory of his sticky end and have St. Edmund story time.  Afterwards, we'll decorate our own crowns to wear that day in honor of the Saint and King.   

What do you do to celebrate your children's name days?

Nativity Fast preparation

Monday, November 15th marks the beginning of the Nativity Fast.  For a more in depth look at some activities and crafts to due during advent, look no further than here.  But, in brief, here are some activities to do with your children throughout the next 40 days to help prepare you hearts for the celebration of Christ's birth.

Remember that each week has a theme: faith, hope, peace, love, repentance and communion.  Light your candle for the week at the beginning of that week and continue lighting until Christmas and through the 12 days (or as long as they last)!  The theme ideas come from Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home by Anthony Coniaris. The activities to go with are of my own silly creation!  If you have any other ideas, please do let me know!
  
1. Make an advent wreath and paper chain, Eastern Orthodox style.
2. For Faith Week, beginning November 15th, sit down as a family and list gifts you'd like to give to the baby Jesus.  Then spend the rest of the Nativity Fast preparing these gifts (whether by making them or saving money for them).  Remember all these gifts, however silly, can be given to people in need.  To give unto someone in need is to give unto Christ.
3.  The Entrance of the Theotokos falls on Sunday, November 21st this year. Check out this activity from our archives.
4. For the second week of the fast (beginning Nov. 21st), make some anchor ornaments to hang around your house.  Anchors are a traditional Christian symbol of hope.  Print out this picture as a template, and cut out card stock or construction paper and let the kids decorate them.  Then hang them around the house or tape them on your windows.
5. For week 3, December 5th, decorate a tree outside!
6.  December 5th, the beginning of Week 4.  Make doves to hang for this  Week of Peace.
7. Monday, December 6th, is St Nicholas day!!!  Don't forget to read stories of St Nick to your kids and fill their shoes with goodies.
8.Week 5, beginning December 12th and the Sunday of our Forefathers.  For this week of repentance, make your candy cane craft and/or join our style of celebrating our Forefathers.  This is when we get our Christmas tree!
9.  Lucy Light!!! Monday, December 13th.  This is a Xmas staple in our family.  Pa's family did it because they are of scandinavian origin, we do it for that reason and because we have a little Lucy of our own.  Even if you don't have a little Lucy, this is a very fun day if you have any girls in your family.   Read more about how you can celebrate this day here.
10. We light the candle for the last week of Christmas on December 19th.  Make gingerbread houses and  talk about how through the sacrament of communion, Christ lives in us.
11.  December 25th!  Christmas Day!  Light your final candle and feast with joy on the day of Christ's birth!

Halloween

As I mentioned last year, I know that many Orthodox Christians do celebrate Halloween and many don't. I, personally, see nothing counter-cultural in simply abstaining from Halloween celebrations, but think that doing our best to transform our celebration of Halloween into something holy is the most Christian thing we can do. In addition to last year's suggestions, here are some activities to enjoy with your children:

Dress Up--Next to the candy, this is the most fun part of Halloween, is it not? My advice is to just avoid any dark-themed costumes like vampires, devils and the like.

Pumpkin Carving--I liked Elizabeth and Michelle's idea from last year: carve crosses into your pumpkins. For little children, let them paint the pumpkins. Sure, it's messy but a lot less risky!

Games/crafts--Apple Bobbing, blindfolded 'feely' box (great idea, Elizabeth!), pin the tail on the donkey or some other variation (pin the face on the pumpkin--everyone can be a winner with this one), make popcorn balls, etc. The Crafty Crow has a large selection of Halloween crafts to do (I particularly like the different pumpkin themed crafts).

Trick or Treating--Whether you choose to do this probably depends on your neighborhood and how 'thoroughly' your neighbors get into their decor. We avoid scary homes, but do allow our children to trick or treat. If you choose not to trick or treat, I would suggest doing a variation of an easter egg hunt in your house but hide candy bags instead. Another option would be to give each child some clues and they have to use the clues to figure out where their candy is hidden (this might be helpful in making sure candy is evenly distributed).

Feasting--Feast on caramel apples, hot apple cider, popcorn balls, and other autumn-y treats!

Prayer--Most important of all, say special prayers with your family. I suggest singing 'Christ is risen from the dead' and to say prayers for the departed and light candles for loved ones who have passed from this life.

Happy, holy Halloween!

Prayer and School

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that it is very easy to work prayer into the day. Every school day, we begin with morning prayers followed by saying a prayer before our lessons. It is a wonderful way to start the day and I really believes it helps me to be more patient than my nature otherwise tends to be.

However, not everyone has the luxury or the desire to homeschool and finding prayer time is probably much more difficult to do as a family. I was wondering if any of you have a consistent routine of morning prayers with school children and what kind of routines you have to make that possible. It would be wonderful if you could share them!

I think that prayer is so important before school because it is a reminder that learning is character forming and the disciplines of learning affect our spiritual life. Learning to be diligent and disciplined even if the desire might not be there is of great value and will serve us all well in our spiritual walks. It is important for us parents to help our children incorporate prayer into their daily lives. I know it can be difficult with how busy we can all be, but it is not only good for our individual spiritual health but our families as a whole. To be united in love for Christ is the most incredible treasure a family can have. So let's seek that treasure and hold on to it!

*Don't forget the links on the right have a variety of crafts and activities to do as a family for various feast and fasting periods. My apologies for not having any recent activities to present.