The Branches of Life: Merry Christmas! Christ is Born

Merry Christmas! Christ is Born ! We have had a very enjoyable Feast day and some great quality time as a family! After we returned from our spiritually renewing trip to Marietta, we had a few things to do to prepare for Nativity. As the time drew near, we continued to read to Sophia about the Birth of Christ and have really tried to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas.

We had waited until the last minute to put up our tree. We usually put it up much earlier, but the Little Man of the house can be quite inquisitive and we envisioned him not only taking off the ornaments but perhaps knocking down the whole tree. Sophia helped us to decorate it and put up our stockings...and lo and behold, Demetri has not ruined ONE thing ! Thanks to my brother-in-law, we were even able to hang lights outside for the first time! We had never had an electrical outlet on the exterior of the house...until now!

We had a few days to prepare our ornaments for the Ornament Exchange that we signed up for over at Orthodox Mom (thank you so much to Sylvia for organizing it)! I am not overly "crafty" or creative, but I did find a great idea HERE and we made some Apple Cinnamon scented ornaments. Sophia really enjoyed the whole process. She helped measure the ingredients, mixed them with her hands, helped to roll them out and cut the shapes. She especially enjoyed decorating them! We used the star-shaped cookie cutter and once they were baked and dried, Sophia decorated them with glitter-glue and then pasted an icon onto each ornament.

Getting ready to roll out the dough for the first time!

The finished ornaments!

She made homemade Christmas cards and signed her own name. She was SO independent and excited when we started making the cards, but once we did the first 3 or 4, she said "This is hard work"! We brought them to the post office together and off they went! We sent out 7 ornaments - which meant she would be getting 7 packages in the mail herself! She was so excited each day as a box arrived in mail for her. They are all on the tree, but I will take a picture of the ornaments collectively and hopefully post them soon! Many thanks for all the work that went into these precious ornaments!

Well, she enjoyed the whole process of making these ornaments so much that I decided I would let her make some Christmas sugar cookies. Again, her favorite part was putting on the sprinkles! (mine too, I did a few of my own)!

We attended services of the Blessed Nativity of our Lord and then enjoyed the fellowship of our Church family.

Demetri venerating the Icon of the Nativity, with the help of his Nouna

family snapshot after the Divine Liturgy

Christmas Morning we spent at home enjoying some family time, opened a few gifts and played with the kids. We spent the rest of the day at my sister's house with our family for a wonderful day of laughs, fun, and a delicious festal dinner !