growing & learning with him
I have been tagged by Noelle from Jumpin Bean. She is a great blogging buddy and friend. I have answered the questions below and have tagged a few bloggers at the end of this post who will hopefully continue the game.
I am tagging the following bloggers:
Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs
>The reindeer had a bale of hay made of tater totes and some carrots.
Santa got to dine on cookies of two different kinds. He was also given a chance to take a dip in some catsup. Santa is made of a turkey burger, a Swiss cheese beard and trimmings for his hat, a cheery tomato for his nose, a large tomato for his hat, and sprinkle eyes.
JDaniel loved this meal so much we had it two days in a row. He loved the Santa burger. I have a feeling I have many Santa burgers in my future.
Welcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.
Steps:
Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.
My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:
Christmas Tree Memories by Aliki is a book that highlights the memories a family has about many of the ornaments on their tree. They remember when they made some of them and they remember the people that have given them others. I was amazed at the variety of types of ornaments they made. Someday I would love to make each one with JDaniel.
What did we do with it?
Homemade Ornaments
You don’t always know until you open the box as to whether you are going to love the gift it contains or plan to pass it on to one of your friends at the next white elephant swap. Once you open that beautifully decorated box with the red velvet ribbon and the gift it contains is revealed the suspense is over.
What is left is how you respond to the gift?
There are several avenues you take when the gift you have been given is far and away not something you will love and cherish forever.
If you are at the gift giver’s home, you can smile and secretly plot where you are going to hide the gift in their home. There is a chance they will forget they gave you the gift and when they find it they will slap themselves in the head and say, “Oh! That is where that gift was.” (I have a sister that tried this several times. It never worked. Mom always found the gift later on and remembered she had given it to her.)
You could be rude about it and ask if there is anyone else present that would like to trade with you or have this gift as a future birthday present. (This is best done behind a closed door after the gift exchange unless you want to crush the joy the giver has in giving the gift.)
You can honestly thank the giver for the wonderful electric toothbrush or sweater with glittering poinsettias and remember that if you drop it off at Goodwill by the end of the year it is a tax deduction.
There is the option of thanking the giver and only displaying the crystallized Lucite soap dish and hand towel with golden embroidered fleur de lis in your bathroom when your boyfriend comes to visit.
Each of these options has its flaws and there is a chance they could figure out what their gift wasn’t well received. If you give it away, the giver might ask to see it at a later time. If you keep it and only put in out with they are at your house, you could forget where it is. Then what do you say? It was hidden by JDaniel and he doesn’t remember where he hid it. That will only work once if you are lucky.
There is really only one sure way to receive a gift and have the giver know it is well received even if you dislike it a lot. You have to remember the heart of the giver. They may truly love what they are giving you. It is very possible they fell in love with this gift and if they loved they knew you would too. Remembering that they selected this gift out of love can really help you truly be thankful for a ceramic knife from your dad or the sleep positioning headrest from your mother.
Many teachers and mothers around the world have learned this lesson after years of practice. I hope you don’t have to do this much this year, but if you do please remember the heart of the giver. Your heartfelt thanks will be well received.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Swiss Cheese mouse;
The red apple stocking was hung without notice or care. (The mouse had not seen that it had way too much worn.)
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children have nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window, I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow that was really a flake made of sugar cookie dough.
He was glad mom hadn’t tried to feed him a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he finished his last bite,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”
>
Why such a tiny tree? We actually don’t have space for a large tree. Well, we could have put it in front of the fireplace, but if we had a tree in front of the fireplace where would we hang the Christmas stockings. My mom suggested that we move some of the furniture out of the living room to make room for a tree. I am not sure where we would put the displaced furniture in our house. We have furniture everywhere. It flanks every wall of every room. Yes, it may mean we probably have too much furniture or maybe it means our Cape Cod house is really small and doesn’t hold a lot of furniture. We combined two homes when we got married four years ago and I gave away a lot, but maybe not enough for our house to hold.
Next year JDaniel will be three and half and he will probably want a full size tree. Until then this little tree will be our special Christmas tree and we love it.
>Welcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.
Steps:
Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. the badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.
My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:
