As always, our New Year’s Eve plans come along last minute. Last year’s family Sherlock Holmes Party was such a success, that we decided to continue the tradition of having a mystery movie night this year by introducing the kids to the fabulous story-telling of Dorothy L. Sayers. Tonight, we’ll be dusting off the DIY Detective […]
Archive | December, 2012
Perform & Record The Winter’s Tale (with Bears & Other Stuffies)
On Sunday, we’ll be gearing up for an impromptu performance of our December Shakespeare play, starring all of the stuffies in the house!!
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas! Thanks for joining us for our Advent Shadowbox 2012 Calendar! __________ Here’s a recap! Advent Shadowbox 2012: An Introduction: We (re)introduce our Advent Shadowbox Calendar Tradition and include some tips for how you might create a similar tradition of your own. Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 1, Have a Tree Trimming Party, Make Cinnamon Glitter […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 24, Christmas Eve Checklist
□ Make sure there are enough cookies for Santa. If not, make some more! □ Prepare the Cannoli Buche de Noel for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner. □ Go to Family Mass □ Indulge in the Feast of the Seven Fishes □ Drink Hot Chocolate and Sing Carols. □ Leave Cookies, Milk, and Maybe Even Some Reindeer Biscuits by the Fire
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 23, Read & Illustrate The Winter’s Tale, Act V
Today concludes our work on The Winter’s Tale (or does it?). We’ll read and illustrate scenes from Act V. Here’s a bit of a summary of the action. I’ll post images of the illustrations as they become available! The Winter’s Tale, Act V, A Brief Summary We’re back in Sicilia for Scene 1, where Paulina, […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 22, P.M. Pajama Party – Make Cookies for Santa!
Since we have some plans for this morning, we’re going to have a bit of a late night cookie-making party in our pajamas. It’s time to make a few of our classic family recipes: Santa Baby Cookies & Cookie Meteors. Here are reprints of those recipes. The Cookie Meteors recipe has been amended to include […]
Cannoli Bûche de Noël
Each year, for Christmas, I make a Bûche de Noël. For the past decade, I have been making my mom’s classic, 1970’s recipe with an easy chocolate cake, a lovely mocha whipped cream filling, and a heavenly chocolate icing: Click Here for that Classic Bûche de Noël Recipe. This year, I thought I’d take it […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 21, Order Fish & Chips and Watch The Bishop’s Wife
Tonight, we’ll order Fish & Chips and settle down to watch a Christmas classic on the darkest day of the year! Our Friday holiday Film Fest Continues with The Bishop’s Wife!
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 20, Make a Deck of Constellation Cards
Make a Deck of Constellation Cards! The kids are really interested in astrological signs and constellations. For some time now, I’ve been admiring the gorgeous, read-it-by-candlelight constellation book on the Keep Moving Forward Blog (at left) and the lovely constellation books at Quince and Quire: Starry Drafts. So, when I found easy-print consteallation templates over […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 19, Pre-Christmas Concert Pizza Party with Quick & Easy Individual Thin Crust Pizzas
Today, we’re making our quick and easy thin-crust pizzas for a little supper before the kids’ Christmas Concert at school. adapted from thekitchn makes 4 5.5-in pizzas DOUGH PIZZAS
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 18, Make Silhouette Self-Portrait Cards and Send Them To Friends and Family
Today, the kids are going to make Silhouette Self-Portraits and send them to family members with handwritten holiday greetings and a few words about what they’ve been up to over the past few weeks inside. Silhouette Self-Portraits Materials Black Construction Paper White Paper White Chalk Scissors Glue OR Pre-Printed Silhouettes Made from Digital Photographs [See […]
How to Make Silhouettes from Digital Photos Using Free Online Photo-Editing Tools & a Printer / Scanner
Since we were making Silhouette Self-Portraits today, the kids and I decided to try to make some basic Silhouettes using our iphone camera and our available computer gear. We don’t have Photoshop, so we used the free, online photo editing site http://www.fotoflexer.com [you can also try ipiccy.com] to get our pictures to a point at […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 17, Fill A Pantry
Today, we make an online contribution to The Daily Bread Food Bank. The kids suggest that everyone look around for food banks in their communites and support their efforts today!
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 16, Read & Illustrate The Winter’s Tale, Act IV
We’ve turned the corner from tragedy to comedy! It’s time to illustrate the romantic scenes from Shakespeare’s play! I really hope the kids enjoy today’s installment of The Winter’s Tale. I’m quite looking forward to the kids’ illustrations of “TIME” and of our young lovers. [And, Act Four Scene Four is the second longest single […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 15, Gingerbread Party, Design, Build, Decorate
Today, the kids are going to have a Gingerbread Party. They’ll cut, bake, and DECORATE some gingerbread cookie cutouts. Then, they’ll use paper and charcoal pencils to DESIGN the ultimate gingerbread house. Finally, they’ll use store-bought royal icing, graham crackers, ice cream cones, some of those gingerbread men, and candies [even a few leftovers from […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 14, Watch Holiday (1938) and Make Prof. Potter’s Punch and Judy “Hidden Whallop” Cookies
George Cukor’s Holiday (1938) is one of our favourite movies. It was high time we showed it to the kids! To go along with the excitement, we decided to design a special new cookie to add to our repertoire. At first, we thought of creating a Linda Seaton “If he wants to sell peanuts” Peanut […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 13, Learn “Who” to Knit, Beginning a Family/Welcome-Guest Scarf Project
I really enjoyed reading about my friend and former colleague Nathalie’s experiences knitting with her son in the September 2011 issue of Today’s Parent Magazine [see her blog post: Teaching Griffin to Knit for a quick precis]. I thought it would be fun to get my own kids started by introducing a family knitting project: […]
Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 12, Improvise a One-Act Christmas-Themed Hunger Games Play
Today, the kids will get into the spirit of play-acting. We’ll be asking them to dream up a Christmas story featuring their favourite characters from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and to improvise a performance of that story somewhere in the house. It will be interesting to see where and how they choose to set […]