Project: International Christmas

It has been many years since my family's Christmas Around the World unit. My oldest children were a lot younger and my youngest children weren't with us yet. (We have participated in a couple of one-day group activities of such a nature, though.) I have been wanting to revisit this unit and had planned on doing it this year, but the circumstances of rebuilding our kitchen limited the time I could personally give to it. As I was discussing some ideas with a friend, I came up with a plan. Since my children are now all mostly capable of independent research, and since I needed to be more hands off for the 10 days or so before Christmas, I gave my children the assignment of Project:  International Christmas.

Each of them was to choose a foreign country in which to study and create and give a presentation on. They could choose any country they wished, as long as it was one that celebrated Christmas. To guide them in their research and presentations I gave them this:

On Wednesday of next week you will give the family your presentation.  It needs to include the following components, and all need to be made/written/colored/created by you--not just found online and printed off.

-A map showing the location of the country in relation to the world

-A good up-close map of the country, with some details marked

-The country's flag

-A graph of some kind

-Share a native story or folk tale that is important to that country's culture

-Exports and natural resources

-Samples of traditional food

-Short biography of someone famous from that country

-Important geographical features or landmarks

-Music from that country

-Type of government

-"Merry Christmas" and some other common phrases in the native language

-Gingerbread model of a traditional or typical dwelling (we'll do these together on M or T)

-Demographic information, including religion(s)

-Christmas customs and traditions, which must include an activity for everyone to do

Before they got started, though, we kicked it all off with a field trip. First we visited a local Fair Trade gift shop with unique handcrafts from all over the world.

Checking out the musical instruments.

Nativity Needlework from Peru.

I did some Christmas shopping as well. I couldn't resist the unique items.

Then we visited other local businesses that hosted the entries for our town's Gingerbread Parade, both for fun and to get some ideas. These were my favorite. 

Back home I took every book off the shelves that could possibly help the kids with their research, stacked them all in a pile in front of them, and for a few days had them comb just the books with no Internet. After that they were free to fill in any holes with a Web search.

On December 23 we had a very full day of making our gingerbread structures, eating our International foods, and listening to each other's presentations.

My youngest chose Germany as her country to present. Her gingerbread house was a version of a common half-timbered German house. We had chocolate bars from Germany, bratwurst and sauerkraut, and we made Black Forest brownies. For the folk tale and activity part of her presentation she read a version of the Legend of the Christmas Spider and we put tinsel on our Christmas tree.

My next youngest studied Russia. He proved everyone wrong when he victoriously created a condensed graham cracker and gingerbread version of St. Basil's Cathedral, all by himself. (No one thought he could do it because he's never made a gingerbread anything before and we all thought the cathedral too complicated.) He made Piroshky and Russian Tea Cakes for our meal, and the activity he prepared was for us to make Russian Star Ornaments.

My middlest did his presentation on Greece. His gingerbread creation was the ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. He had plans to make Kok, and we were looking forward to it, but as the day progressed we ran out of time (and clean dishes), so our backup was grabbing gyros and baklava from a local Greek restaurant. We'll make Kok another day.

My second oldest did his presentation on Canada. By the time he got around to making his gingerbread house, our frosting was dwindling and drying out. His creation ended up being a "cabin under construction" in the Yukon. :) For the Canadian part of our International meal he cooked Poutine.

A fun and surprising addition to all of this was that as we were preparing to make our gingerbread houses, my missionary son sent us a photo of the gingerbread house he made. I LOVE the cute gingerbread missionaries! We added this photo to our gingerbread village table.

And finally, on Christmas Eve, we enjoyed looking over a photo compilation of what children in 11 different countries leave for Santa.

Wise Men Still Seek Him

Our Christmas Presence readings continued with Pamela Kennedy's The Other Wise Man, which is a retelling of Henry Van Dyke's The Story of the Other Wise Man. (I didn't realize I was getting a retold version, but it turned out fine, especially since it made for a nice picture book. Still, I can't wait to read the original.) This is a story of a man set to travel with the other magi to find the Christ child, to present his own gifts of jewels, who ends up never actually setting eyes on Him because every time he gets close, he sees someone in desperate need and he cannot turn away. In the course of his journey he sells the jewels meant for the King in order to help the people he sees in need. At the end of his life he is disappointed that he never actually achieved finding the King, but is told that through his acts of love and service, he actually did.

The day after reading The Other Wise Man I read Carol Lynn Pearson's The Lesson to my children. The main lesson in The Lesson is that life's most important lesson is to teach us how to love. There are other things to learn, as well, and this is a good short read.

I then read some excerpts from Thomas S. Monson's "The Search for Jesus", we had a discussion of all these readings, and then we watched the video below. After that, each child made a small poster on the theme, "Wise Men Still Seek Him" for themselves, using old Christmas cards or graphics from the computer.

Rappin' with Hip Hop Angels

"Angels We Have Heard on High" has always been one of my fav, fav, favorite Christmas songs. Nothing feels better to my heart and soul than belting out some gorgeous "glorias!" I just discovered a new rap version and, believe it or not, it really is worth listening to. Even though I don't like the rap/hip-hop genre in general, I can appreciate the poetry of some of it when it's full of well-done rhyme, rhythm and reason. This is such a piece.

Further, the video really, really touched me. THIS is Christmas Presence. THIS is what it's all about. THIS is somebody coupling his talents, passions, and possessions with a desire to do good, and ACTUALLY DOING IT. 

Merry Christmas! And thanks for the example, Jamesthemormon.

A Savior is Born

I love, Love, LOVE this year's Christmas video!

Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present

Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present is a cute story that packs a lot of good examples in a creative way and tied into our Christmas Presence theme nicely.

The story begins on Christmas Eve as Santa is tucking his reindeer, one of whom is sick, into bed. Exhausted from his year's work and night's travels, Santa wearily climbs into bed himself, only to discover that there is still one present left in his bag. The present belongs to Harvey Slumfenburger, a very poor and very good little boy who lives on a mountain far, far away. Santa knows that he cannot let Harvey down, but he also cannot take his sick reindeer out again. He gets out of bed and the rest of the story is a journey of mishaps as Santa tries one mode of transportation after another, each by asking the next person he can find along the way to help him, only to have every plane, motorbike, ski, etc. break in crazy accidents.

Santa does finally reach Harvey's humble hut at the top of the mountain, just before morning. The book has an open ending wherein Harvey awakes, sees his present at the end of the bed, opens it... and smiles... leaving the reader to wonder what the present was.

The first lessons in this book that I love are that Santa demonstrates compassion, responsibility, determination, perseverance, and patience. He understands Harvey's situation and feels a desire to bring him joy. He's tired and feels completely spent, but he's Santa and it's his job to deliver that gift, so he just does it, even though he has his own reasons not to (sick reindeer, etc.) and to make excuses. He overcomes almost insurmountable odds and just keeps going. Many people would give up after the first, second, or third accident, but Santa keeps on going. And he never gets upset.

The second group of lessons in this story are basic generosity and helpfulness. Each person Santa asks for help--on Christmas Eve and in the middle of the night no less--are perfectly willing to use their time and resources to help Santa on his way. When disaster strikes, they are sorry they can't be of further help and offer suggestions for Santa's next journey leg.

Now, this picture book has cute illustrations and is probably supposed to be a simply charming tale of mishaps. I realize that all these lessons could very well be my own projections. Nonetheless, they are there, by example, and I see them. After reading the book aloud, I asked some leading questions to help my children see them also. Then we went to the scriptures.

There is a word that has been on my mind for months:  entreat. It was in a scripture I read that has also been on my mind for months. We went to the entry for entreat in the Topical Guide of our scriptures and focused on this:  "gentle, and easy to be entreated:  James 3:17 (Alma 7:23, Helaman 7:7)."

According to Merriam-Webster, entreat means to ask (someone) in a serious and emotional way; to make an earnest request; to plead. Synonyms include appeal, beseech, beg, implore, petition, solicit. With this in mind, we read the following scriptures and discussed how they applied to the people in the story of Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present, what it all has to do with "being present" and/or giving the gift of presence, and what it all means for us.

"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." (James 3:17)

"Oh, that I could have had my days in the days when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem, that I could have joyed with him in the promised land; then were his people easy to be entreated, firm to keep the commandments of God, and slow to be led to do iniquity; and they were quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord--" (Helaman 7:7)

"And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle, easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive." (Alma 7:23)

After all of this was a creative writing assignment. What was in the box that Santa left for Harvey? What was Harvey's Christmas present? Everyone was supposed to begin their story where the book left off, reveal what the gift was and why Harvey needed/wanted it and/or how it blessed his life.  My kids' reveals ranged from a hat and mittens to keep him warm, to a Book of Mormon to bless his whole family, to a toolkit so Harvey could work and earn money to help his family, to a slingshot that managed to shoot a rock through Santa's window far, far away. I loved this book and discussion and the writing!

Christmas Presence

Our focus for this Christmas season has been Christmas Presence. Many years ago I found Chieko Okazaki's talk-turned-booklet "Christmas Presence" in a Christmas clearance bin and found it so inspiringly instructive. Because the holidays are too often focused on Christmas presents, I pulled this out this year to use as the spine for our December devotionals. It begins:

"As an educator, I was always delighted when children would discover some of the wonderful games you can play with language in the creation of puns, and images, and literalisms--such as, 'Have you ever seen a butterfly?' 'No, but I've seen the lettuce leaf.' Or how about the games you can play with homonyms, such as horse and hoarse? I would like to share some thoughts about another pair of homonyms:  Christmas presents and Christmas presence.

"We all know about the first kind. Christmas presents come wrapped in bright paper with beg red bows on them, and we find them under the Christmas tree. The second kind is the awareness that someone else is with us--the Christmas presence of our Savior. The scriptures describe both kinds for us. The first is the present as a gift, and the scriptures refer to us laying our gifts on the altar, kings giving gifts to prophets and other kings, God accepting Abel's  gift, and the wise men presenting unto the Christ child their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. In the second case, we find Adam and Eve hiding themselves from the presence of God, Moses coming into the presence of Pharaoh, and the commandment in Psalms to come into the presnece of the Lord with singing. It is this second kind I want to examine--the presence of the Lord, the presence of his love, the presence of his grace." 

Sister Okazaki goes on to discuss the importance of each of us giving the gift of our presence to those we love or even just come in contact with--being fully present in our interactions.

One example she uses in her book is the story of Rob's gift in Pearl S. Buck's Christmas Day in the Morning. She quotes some of it and summarizes and analyzes some of it, but later I read the full story to my children. It's a lovely story.

I gave my kids a writing assignment after reading and discussing these. They were to write about an instance or a person wherein they were given the gift of someone's presence and why it was important to them. I loved reading what they wrote! Each one wrote about someone/something vastly different from the others, but they were so meaningful and insightful.

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P.S. It is really hard to find this booklet nowadays. I have found it in person only twice, both times in Christmas clearance for just 50 cents. Keep your eyes open! An internet search brings up really rare, expensive copies for sale. It's good, but I wouldn't pay $25 for it!

Life's Other Lessons

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything. That's not for lack of things to post; on the contrary, there are so many posts that I planned and wanted to share that my brain feels the high-powered pressure of being jam packed with things needing to get out so I don't have to store them cerebrally anymore. I am frustrated because many of them were things pertaining to autumn or certain days or lessons this past autumn, and I like things to get posted neatly, tidily, and in chronological order. But there hasn't been a single neat, tidy, chronological stitch in any facet of my life since September, so why should my blog be any different? 

You may recall our September disaster wherein a dishwasher leak ruined my kitchen. We are just now getting our kitchen back--went three months without one. It has been...an interesting experience. All of the real business of tearing the rest of everything out--the rest of the cabinets, flooring, etc.-- happened the day before Thanksgiving, which made for a real memory-making holiday. Getting everything put back into place wasn't the jubilee I thought it would be, either. Part of that is because we took on tiling the floor ourselves; part of that is that just because things are new, it doesn't mean they are perfect. And a house full of people living their lives makes all new things "lived in" in a hurry.

In some ways all of this was an interruption. There are definitely some plans that were waylaid. In other ways, however, we learned many lessons that couldn't and wouldn't have come any other way, and those kinds of lessons are almost always way more important than anything I might have planned. 

There were real-life applications of subjects learned:

Even a kid had to measure and draw lines for cutting the tile to fit certain places.

So glad to have an older son who was experienced
with tools and machinery from some manufacturing
and construction classes so he could cut tile.

Working together, everyone with their own responsibility, to get the job done.

We learned how to really work together as a family. If every single one of us hadn't picked up some tools and rags and whatnot and pitched in, my poor husband would probably still be laying tile. We were ALL up into the wee hours almost every night for a week, under the pressure of rented things needing to be returned and the deadline of upcoming installations. It was hard work. It wasn't fun at all. But I am so proud of how everyone just did it, and that we did it together. None of us knew much at all about tiling a floor before this, but we sure know a lot now. We also learned that things are just things. That life can be fulfilling without them, life can go on and even happily in any state, and that even in a state of complete chaos there can be peace and joy and fantastic moments that cement not just tile, but a family together.