Look at this onesie. It is a 3-month onesie. On Abby's first birthday. She's definitely a tiny girl. (The pants are 9-months, though.) We find out tomorrow what her stats are.
Papa playing a game on Kessa's back.
Abby's favorite thing right now is to climb the stairs. She can get up both flights by herself in just a couple of minutes. Pretty impressive for someone who couldn't even crawl 3 weeks ago.
This is Abby's first birthday cake. It's supposed to be an owl, in case you couldn't tell. :D The frosting on top is actually purple! I promise! And it's my first real attempt at decorating a cake by myself. (Kessa's first birthday cake I had plenty of help from both grandmas.) It's a pull-apart cake, meaning it's all cupcakes frosted together. So we didn't have to cut anything. You just grabbed the cupcake you wanted and pulled it off. That was kind of nice.
Abby desperately wanted to touch the flame. She got within an inch once before I pulled her hand away. Yipes!
Abby's first cupcake. She had no hesitation when we set it in front of her. She reached her hand in and pulled out a handful.
Then a bigger one.
"Psh. This is taking too long. I'll just shove the whole thing in my face."
"Dah! It's starting to roll! What shall I do?! Keep it in my face at all costs!"
"Oops. It fell. Thank goodness for my giant bib catcher!"
Kessa was impatient. Here she is trying to sneak under everyone else to steal a cupcake. Or a Thin Mint. Which, I'm not entirely sure.
When unwrapping presents, Abby was content with the bow; Kessa did the actual unwrapping.
Awww. Uncle Nick and his girlfriend, Chelsea, took the opportunity of green pull apart licorice to play Lady and the Tramp.
Kessa wanted in on the fun, too! (Though in a much less romantic way…) I love the look on her face. (I also love how Travis made the first look all romantic while the second just looks fun. Well done, Trav.)
Oh, poor Jessa was just plum tuckered out by the end.
Kessa's friend, Audrey, came and visited for awhile towards the end. They had a ton of fun playing Don't Break the Ice. (For the record, it got brought out initially because Uncle Shawn and Uncle Nick wanted to play.)
We all took turns looking at the Jerusalem book Travis gave me for Christmas years ago. Apparently I had never showed BJ's family before. Who knew?
Family, isn't it about… piggybacks?
Then we put the girls to bed, Nick, Chelsea and Shawn left, and we played 7 Wonders while BJ helped Teresa with Algebra 2. What a great end to a 1st bday party. ;)
We celebrated the last night of Hanukkah last night with some friends and family. It was lots of fun filled with food (best latkes yet!), lighting the menorah, stories, playing with friends, and playing dreidel. It's a tradition my brother, Travis, and I have been doing since we got home from Jerusalem in 2007. This year there was a lot of interest in questions as to why we, as Christians, celebrate Hanukkah. This seemed like a good place to explain.
First, let's talk about what Hanukkah is. This is going to be a very brief summary (even shorter than the children's book we have about it!) for brevity's sake. We all know I'm too long-winded as is.
In the 2nd century BC, the Greeks conquered Jerusalem. They tried to Hellenize (make Greek) all of the Jews. (Just like they did to every land they conquered.) A handful of Jews revolted, refusing to worship idols, and fled Jerusalem. Through guerrilla warfare, the small number of Jews fought against the Greeks and eventually conquered. The Greeks withdrew, leaving a broken and desecrated Jerusalem behind them. The Jews cleaned and fixed the temple, but when they went to rededicated it, they found they only had enough oil for the menorah to last one night. It takes 8 days to make new oil worthy of the temple. They felt like they couldn't wait another 8 days to dedicate and truly cleanse the temple, so they used the little oil they had and prayed for a miracle. And a miracle they got. The oil burned for 8 nights, until new oil was made to replace it. It truly was a miracle.
The Jews celebrate Hanukkah by burning candles in a type of menorah with room for 9 candles. Each night another candle is added (plus one in the middle, called a sammash, that is used to light the rest) until all 8 candles (plus the sammash) are lit, to celebrate the 8 nights that the oil burned. This celebration is also called the Feast of Lights or the Feast of Dedication.
Christ celebrated the Feast of Dedication. We read about it in John 10:22: "And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter." Christ was Jewish. He celebrated Jewish holidays.
And guess what? Our religious ancestry is Jewish, too! We believe our religious fathers were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We believe the Old Testament. We believe our history follows the Jews right until Christ, who fulfilled the Law of Moses and established his church upon the earth. But does that mean he stopped being Jewish? How about the 12 apostles? No! They still practiced many Jewish traditions. They let go of the Law of Moses and moved onto a higher law, but traditions are not law. Although they still followed Jewish traditions and customs (kosher eating, circumcision, and probably many holidays), they allowed Gentile converts to Christianity to have different customs. They were not required to be Christian and Jewish. And that's where we get the split. The new branch of the church, the gentiles, didn't follow Jewish traditions. And guess who kept the church alive through all the Christian persecutions? Jews? Gentiles? It was the Gentiles. It was due to the mother of a Roman emperor converting to Christianity. And because its was the Gentiles allowing Christianity to flourish, it was the Gentiles who determined the customs and festivities*. Thus Christians stopped celebrating Jewish holidays.
So… back to us. Today. Do I feel obligated to celebrate Jewish holidays? No. In fact, I don't celebrate most. I've never eaten a Passover dinner (although I would love to). I do not celebrate the Day of Atonement. I've celebrated Purim twice, and I want to again. And I do not fully celebrate Hanukkah. We do not give out presents every night. Heck, this year we only lit the menorah for half of the nights and it was our best year yet. Usually we only remember once or twice. We don't recite the blessings associated with lighting the candles.
So, then, why do we celebrate at all? For a handful of reasons.
Because it is part of our history.
Because we like excuses to have parties.
Because we like themed parties (We also have done Spain, Chinese, and Harry Potter parties. We're hoping to have a Star Wars party in March.)
Because I have a menorah. Why not use it?
Because it's a great way to teach my kids about another religion and culture. Not to mention teaching friends and family about the same.
Because it's great way to teach my kids about miracles. I love to relate stories to myself and my life. BJ and I were discussing last night and I think in future we will focus on that more. Perhaps every night when we light the menorah we will tell a story about miracles we've seen in our lives, or in the world, or in church history (both LDS church history and in Christian history. And in Jewish history!) Or, perhaps, if we are in need of a miracle ourselves, or know someone who is, we could use the celebration as a means to focus our prayers and discussions and faith on the needed miracle.
The story of Hanukkah is found in the Apocrypha. Modern-day revelation tells us that, "There are many things contained therein that are true, and it is mostly translated correctly." Although we do not believe the Apocrypha to be canon, it is still worthwhile to read it, with the Spirit. I believe the story to be true. I love the story. I believe it is worthwhile to teach my children. Just as I believe it is worthwhile to teach them Old Testament stories. I will definitely place more emphasis on Old Testament stories, but I think the story of Hanukkah has its time and place, too.
I majored in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. I basically spent years immersed in Jewish and Old Testament culture. I love it. I lived in Jerusalem one summer. All things Jewish have a special place in my heart. I want them to have a special place in my children's hearts, too.
So there you are. My long-winded explanation of why we, as Christians, celebrate Hanukkah. At least in part. :) We're going to have another Hanukkah party next year! I hope you all can come!
*Did you know that most of our holidays were actually a result of the Church trying to eliminate pagan holidays? They would take a pagan holiday and celebrate a Christian holy day on it. Then the people still got to celebrate on their holidays. They just changed why they were celebrating. So yes, friends, Christmas was actually founded on a pagan holiday. Which is why we celebrate the birth of Christ in December when he was actually born in the spring.
We liked this book. It wasn't too wordy and we could skip the details that were starting to bore Kessa. It must have done it's job, though. The day after we first read it, she was sitting at the kitchen table drinking milk. Suddenly she stopped, thought a moment, then proclaimed, "Milk. Cow!"
Beatrice's Goat
This is a really cute book about a girl in Africa who really wants to go to school, but can't afford it. Then someone donates a goat to their family (information about the charity who does this is in the back of the book) and she is able to use the money from selling the goat's milk to pay for school. I think it is slightly above Kessa's level, though. She's sat through the entire story twice, but she doesn't get excited about wanting to read it again. I'll bet if we do this curriculum again next year, she'll be ready for it.
Activity:
Technically the activity is a butter battle. You put some cream in a jar and let your kid shake it and then put the rest in a mixer and see who is faster, kid or mixer. I knew this wouldn't fly with Kessa. She'd probably have shaken it for a grand total of maybe 3 seconds. Then she'd be done. And probably want me to finish. So we just skipped that and instead just made butter. We've been talking about doing it all week, but timing just never worked out. On Friday Uncle Travis was here and he cut off a piece of french bread, but we were out of butter and Kessa was Not Pleased with this, so I whipped out the heavy cream and stuck it in the mixer. 5-10 minutes later, we had butter!
And a byproduct of making butter is buttermilk! (I find it very humorous that buttermilk is the liquid left over when the butter is taken out.) We put it in a half-pint jar to make something with later. Mmmm. Can't wait!
Field Trip:
The suggested field trip is to go to a bakery. I thought of a better, and more applicable field trip, though. Our friend, Emily*, raises goats. So Wednesday morning we got up early and headed up to her place to milk some goats!
It was definitely a fall morning. One of the first this year. Abby woke up with cold toes, so she got socks and both girls got long pants and long sleeved shirts. I thought that would be sufficient. But when we got there Kessa kept running to spots of sun because the shade was just too cold! (She is just like her mommy that way. She despises cold. This is the first year she's been able to express that, though. Winter should be fun.)
After Emily came out, we headed out to the … barn? Anyway, the milking area. We let one goat in at a time. Pictured is Mercedes. Emily milked Claire after this, but I didn't get any pictures of it. She's brown, in case you're curious. They are Nubian goats. Emily walked Kessa through every step of milking. The goats run right up onto this milking platform, because they know they get grain up there. The wooden slat around her head keeps her from moving around while milking. I doubt she would have anyway. She looooved that grain. Here Kessa is holding the bowl they'll milk into while looking at the grain Mercedes is eating. She eats a grain mixture (of corn and … oats we think?) and alfalfa pellets.
Next step, wash your hands and the goat's teats to make sure everything is clean. She also squirted one squirt of milk off to the side, just in case there was any dirt just inside the teat.
And then it was time to milk! Kessa loved to watch it. (Gotta love the Instagram picture. It's the one I took to send around and post on Facebook.)
Kessa surprised me by wanting to help milk. I didn't think she would, being my cautious child and all, but when I told her a few days before that we were going to go watch a goat get milked, she got all excited and asked if she could do it, too. I agreed and have been talking it up to her ever since. But then the night before she stayed up too late so we had to wake her up early that morning. She was tired and even more shy and cautious than normal, so I wondered if she'd still do it. But she did! Emily squeezed the teat up at the top while Kessa squirted the milk out into the bowl.
Afterwards we went hunting for eggs. We found a bunch in this hole in the barn. Kessa was scared to reach into the dark until Daddy did it. Then she did it, too. We found 6-7 light green eggs. (Pictures below.) Emily let us have two of them. One for each hand. Kessa had to carry them everywhere after that. Into the car, into the house. But she was very careful and didn't break any. I was actually glad that Kessa insisted on bringing some stuffed animals (Racky and Dave the panda) on our trip. They made perfect cushions for the eggs. :)
Then we brought the eggs and milk back into the house (you can see the bowl of eggs on the counter in the background) and strained it through a cloth into a glass jar. To get out any little bits that managed to sneak by us.
Kessa liked watching it drip. Emily gave us a half pint of goat milk to take home to taste with the instructions to wait until it was cold. So after dinner that night we poured each of us a little taste (and Kessa had a cup of cow milk, too, leftover from dinner). We concluded that it was hard to tell if cow and goat milk have different flavors, because we were comparing raw goat milk to homogenized/pasteurized 2% cow milk. The goat milk was creamier (duh. It's whole.) and had a slightly … wild flavor to it. (Best description we could think of.) But I've had raw cow milk before, and I would say it has a wild taste to it, too. I remember my dad telling me about doing milk tasting panels in FFA and they had to figure out what the cow ate. I don't remember all the foods, but I definitely remember that one of them got into a wild onion patch! Now I wonder why store-bought milk doesn't have the wild flavor. Maybe the heat from pasteurization kills flavor? Maybe because those cows don't get to eat pasture and instead all get the same diet of hay and grain so there is no variety of flavor? Hmm… my bet is on the latter.
Emily also has a very large dog named Chalcy. (Look Abby and I were there, too! So is BJ. We never got a picture of his face, but he's standing behind Kessa in the above picture.) She liked to stare right into Abby's face. Until BJ would go to take a picture, then she'd go away. She's just like a child that way. :)
She is unlike a child in that she is VERY obedient. See that mat on the floor in the corner? Every time Emily would say "spot!" Chalcy would return to that mat. But it made me laugh, because she's so big that she could put her back legs on her mat and still have her front legs halfway across the room. Do you see how big she is?! She's about as tall as Kessa! She loves people, too. So she would come up and try to get you to pet her. Kessa was intrigued, but super scared, too. Cautious child, remember? Here she is reaching up for Daddy to pick her up. When we were loading up in the car, BJ was asking her about the trip. When they talked about Chalcy, BJ asked if she scared Kessa a little. "Yes! She kept trying to kiss me!" Hahaha. Love that girl.
Bonus:
Unrelated to milk except that they were gotten during the goat milking expedition, are eggs! Kessa was so excited to have green eggs. She'd open the fridge and point to them and yell, "Green eggs!" We used it as an opportunity to teach her about how different kinds of chickens lay different colors of eggs.
And then we fried them for breakfast. Seeing another teaching moment. There were two eggs and three of us, so we used one white egg from the fridge. I asked Kessa if they were the same or different. She said they were the same. I asked if she thought they were the same or different on the inside (we had talked about how they were all chicken eggs, even if the shell color was different) and she thought they would be the same. So we cracked one of each open into the frying pan and she was shocked to see that one yolk was "brown!" (It's really orange.) So then we talked about how Emily's chickens get to walk around and eat anything they want. They eat grains and bugs and stuff. Their eggs are really nutritious and their yolks are orange. But chickens that lay eggs to be sold in the store are all packed together in a barn and they don't get to eat outside. They only get to eat the grains and stuff that the farmer feeds them. Their yolks aren't as nutritious and are yellow. I then let her choose which egg she wanted to eat, and she chose the yellow one. Go figure. [sigh] In good news, that meant I got to eat the orange one. :D
*Emily's husband, Jeff, shares the chickens, goats, milk, eggs, dog, etc. But it was just easier to say Emily than Emily and Jeff. And Emily is the one who showed us everything while Jeff was a sweet daddy and took care of their unhappy, but adorable, baby. But thanks to Jeff, too! Without him, Emily wouldn't have been able to teach us any of this!
Disclaimer: The book links in the posts are links to my Amazon Affiliate program. If you click on the pictures, it will take you to its page on Amazon. I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make while there.
Tops and Bottoms is absolutely adorable. When I saw it in the Scholastic book order this month, I immediately bought it. It's the story of a lazy bear who inherited a lot of land and a hard-working, yet risk-taking, hare who lost all his land in a risky bet with a tortoise (hah!) They become business partners and Hare tricks Bear three seasons in a row. It's cute, it's funny, and the art is very well done. The book even opens top to bottom instead of side to side. It might be a tad advanced for Kessa right now, at least, I'm sure I got more kicks out of it than she did, but she still enjoyed reading it several times during the week.
The Vegetables We Eat. Kessa's first ever non-fiction. Again, it's a little over Kessa's level (I think all the books might be. I think this is geared more towards 4+) but not so much that she was bored by it. It talks about vegetables in a market, the different types of vegetables (roots, leaves, bulbs, fruit, etc.) and talks about how vegetables get from a farm to the store. It has lots of pictures of many different kinds of vegetables. When we did the activity, Kessa wanted the book propped open on the table as a guide.
Activity:
This week's activity was making salt dough vegetables to play with. Kessa helped us make the dough.
Then we sat down together as a family to make the vegetables one evening. Daddy taught her how to roll dough into balls and snakes (I'm sure there's a better word for that. Columns?)
Kessa's first (and only real) vegetable was a potato. She shaped it on her own, with Daddy's guidance, then she poked it with a toothpick to get the eyes in the potato. (And you can see the book propped open in the background.)
As BJ rolled a ball, it developed a mouth by itself. Creeeeeepy. :)
"Look what I made, Mommy!"
BJ and I probably had more fun making the vegetables than Kessa did. She played with the dough more than shaped it. Which is fine. She felt involved and that's the important part. Her major contribution is in the bottom left. :) BJ made the tomato, a carrot, corn, broccoli, pea, and celery, cucumber and butternut squash. I made the artichoke, bell pepper, pumpkin and the other carrot. Kessa made the potato and the "cumma wumma lumma for people to sleep on" aka "a common" aka "Topanga's pillow" (BJ's interpretation) aka that blob on the bottom left.
A few days later, Kessa and I painted them. I was super impressed at her painting skills. I guess all that handprint painting was good prep for this! The only help I gave her was to pour out the paint (and sometimes mix it) and remind her to clean her brush between colors. The rest she did completely on her own.
She painted the tomato, both carrots, peas, pumpkin, squash, pepper and potato. I did the rest. Pretty good, huh? I really liked this activity. And she loves having vegetables to play with in her pretend kitchen.
And for fun, a video of Kessa dancing on the counter (cautiously) while the vegetables baked. (Warning: these take HOURS to bake. Like, put them in the morning and come back in the afternoon or evening kind of length. We ended up doing about 4-5 hours in the evening, then waited 2-3 days to let it finish drying before painting.)
Field Trip:
This week's field trip was to the produce section of the grocery store. I'll admit that I didn't actually make a special trip for this one. We made several trips to the grocery store and went through the produce department, though. And on most of them we talked about different vegetables and she named lots of them. A couple of times I even asked her what type of vegetable one was (broccoli = flower) but it had been too long since we read the book, so she didn't remember. And I never got pictures.
Disclaimer: The book links are links to my Amazon Affiliate program. If you click on the pictures, it will take you to its page on Amazon. I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make while there.
Look at this onesie. It is a 3-month onesie. On Abby's first birthday. She's definitely a tiny girl. (The pants are 9-months, though.) We find out tomorrow what her stats are.
Papa playing a game on Kessa's back.
This is Abby's first birthday cake. It's supposed to be an owl, in case you couldn't tell. :D The frosting on top is actually purple! I promise! And it's my first real attempt at decorating a cake by myself. (Kessa's first birthday cake I had plenty of help from both grandmas.) It's a pull-apart cake, meaning it's all cupcakes frosted together. So we didn't have to cut anything. You just grabbed the cupcake you wanted and pulled it off. That was kind of nice.
