Weekly Wrap-Up: a very BIG week!

Last Saturday, Kathryn spent a large part of the day getting ready for and participating in her daddy's wedding. She got home in the afternoon, and had just a little down-time before we headed to a fun crafty party at a nearby art studio. The theme of the party was based on the American Girls Felicity books, so Kathryn and several other girls made a pomander, made soap, began a cross-stitch, decorated cookies, then enjoyed hot cider.This week was our first week of Lindsey being home full-time for school, but we had a very light week. There was just too much other life stuff going on to get really in-depth for school. We mostly did crafts related to learning how other countries and cultures celebrate Christmas. Most of the week, our school table looked something like this...We learned a bit about Christmas in China, and made a pagoda-shaped paper "lantern" with a silhouette of the Holy Family inside. We learned of a Ukrainian legend about a poor woman who had no money for gifts or decorations: a spider built a web around her Christmas tree, and the web turned to silver the next morning. So we made our own silver spider web out of glue and glitter.We learned about the Star Man (instead of Santa) in Poland. One tradition I liked is that they scatter straw on the floor under the dining table to remind them that Jesus was born in a stable. An angel would be a common decoration on their Christmas trees, so we made paper angels.We made clothespin dolls of Saint Lucia as we learned about Scandinavian Christmas celebrations. If we observed this tradition in our family, Lindsey would be the one to dress as Saint Lucia and serve us coffee on Christmas morning because she is the eldest daughter. Both girls have read the American Girls Kirsten books, so they were already familiar with this. I think Lindsey wanted hers to look more like her, but Kathryn had a vision of Kirsten in mind, and had to have the candles on the crown as well.Both girls were on a roll, so to speak, so Lindsey made a felt ornament for the tree. It's a star with the year in the middle, and each point has an initial for each member of our family. She's never done any sewing, so this was a great little project!Kathryn made a manger out of popsicle sticks and a baby Jesus out of a wooden clothespin.I'm just about all crafted out after this week!

The very biggest highlight of our week was when Lindsey's adoption was finalized! See yesterday's post for details!