Happy Advent!
December 2 found us following our family tradition--we turned up the Christmas tunes, pulled out all the decorations, and enjoyed the first Christmas treats of the season! Usually that Christmas treat is hot chocolate and a batch of cookies, but when you live in the tropics and it's in the mid-80s on the first Sunday of Advent, you skip the cocoa and serve up homemade candy cane ice cream instead! Yummm!

The girls' tree (yes, we have two; the second is a Chrismon tree) and the play-friendly nativity sets ended up in the study this year. The girls had a blast putting up their tree--they even assembled it and put on the lights--and they've added new handmade ornaments every day. Lion's are scherenschnitted and involve copious amounts of glitter, and Bug's are origami. Monkey hasn't contributed any yet, but she's been busy with other projects. The nativity sets have gotten lots of use too, as the girls have done dramatic reenactments of Christmas stories (not just the story, the girls like to change around the PlayMobil parts and play out other Christmassy tales.

This is why we ditch formal lessons during Advent. It gives us a chance to slow down, work on craft projects, write Christmas cards, spend more time reading (including my personal favorite--Dicken's A Christmas Carol), make cookies, play games, sing Christmas carols along with our daily Advent devotional, and make or buy thoughtful gifts for each other.

We have decorations outside too! There's also a wreath on the door
and candles in the upstairs windows. Those little lanterns each feature
a silhouetted nativity scene.

For their school's Christmas recital, the girls decided to form a trio and play "Silent Night." This was their first time playing together (or with any other musicians at all). They were also the only group in their school to perform without a teacher on stage with them. We're so proud! (Hopefully, the video below loaded properly and you can watch too.)

African collar necklaces

Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa!

Our local library sponsored a holiday storytime about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. We attended with some homeschool friends, and learned the origins of each holiday, listened to some fun stories, ate snacks, and completed several crafts. 

Paper & pipe cleaner menorahs 

Byodo-in Temple

We decided to be touristy one weekend and visit the Byodo-in Temple, a scaled down replica of a 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple in Japan. The replica here is open to visitors of all faiths. The girls and I had just finished learning about the origins of Buddhism in history, so they were very curious to see what an actual Buddhist Temple looked like. The temple and the grounds were beautiful! The temple is surrounded by streams, a tiny waterfall, and a massive koi pond that's also home to a family of gorgeous black swans. When we first entered, we walked by a small pagoda that houses a huge bell. Visitors are invited to ring the bell as a way of dispelling negative thoughts before entering the temple. (Let's be honest though, mostly it was rung by kids who thought it was great fun to make such a loud noise!)

One of our neighbors provided the perfect kid-sized banquet table.

Happy Thanksgiving!
We are thankful for awesome neighbors! Monthly potlucks have become the norm since we moved in this past summer, and we stepped it up to join forces to create a Thanksgiving feast. We had all the traditional fixings (including 4 kinds of pie) for a crowd of about 25 people. We ate lots of good food, followed by hours of kids playing and grown ups chatting in the shade of our climbing tree.