Easter Egg School Lunch

I love holidays and I love family traditions.  I think having traditions to go along with holidays helps build nice memories for children.

Easter is such a sad yet joyful holiday.  Sad because Jesus died but joyful because he died and rose from the dead for mankind!  We try and emphasize the Christian reason for holidays but we also let Blue Rock enjoy some of our culture's traditions such as going on an Easter hunt and finding an Easter basket with some goodies on Easter morning.

I read somewhere about surprising your child with a candy filled plastic Easter egg in their lunch box.  I thought, what a wonderful and genius idea!  However, why only put candy when you can put their whole lunch in the eggs?  Blue Rock LOVES plastic and pretend eggs.  So I knew he'd love this!  I washed the Easter eggs, cut up some ham, cheese, carrots, washed grapes, and added cheddar bunnies, and some dark chocolate almonds (for his candy).  You can add anything your child likes that can fit in an egg.  I wrapped them in surround wrap (you could just put them in a clean egg) and placed the little baggies in different Easter eggs for Blue Rock's lunch.  To make it extra fun I added a little green grass.  He was very excited watching me make his lunch.  I think he's going to love it!

Christmas Book Tradition

We are starting a new tradition this year.  As part of Advent we are going to read Christmas books everyday as we count down to Christmas.  I think I first saw this idea on Pinterest.  Since we are Christians, we want to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas, Christ's birth.  As far as Santa Claus goes, I think knowing about St. Nick is great and carrying on his legacy for secretly leaving gifts is a fun idea, but I don't want Santa to get in the way of focusing on what is most important, Christ.  Therefore, most the books are more about Christ than Santa and some are just about the Christmas holiday in general and fun.

With Blue Rock's help, we wrapped 25 books.  Starting today, Dec. 1st., everyday Blue Rock will choose one package to unwrap and read.  Then we can read that book and any other books that he has already unwrapped.  Christmas morning we will read Luke 2 from the Bible.  I always seem to go overboard with books.  So finding just 24 books was difficult, especially since we have a few Christmas books from previous years and I found lots of new ones that looked so neat.  So I wrapped a few books together, especially if they seem to go together.  After this year I'm hoping to comb through the books and only have ones that Blue Rock and any future siblings would enjoy year after year.  One friend recommended Elf on the Shelf.  That seems like a cute idea and I know a lot of people have fun with it but after spending so much on all these books, we're going to wait until maybe next year to purchase it.  Here are our books in no particular order:

1. The Parable Series: The Pine Tree Parable by Liz Higgs



2. Mary's First Christmas by Walter Wangerin Jr.



3. A Fruitcake Christmas by Max Lucado

 

4. Story of Baby Jesus by Alice J. Davidson



5. The Christmas Candle by Richard Paul Evans



6. Santa, Are You For Real? by Harold Myra, Jane Kurisu












7. Jacob's Gift by Max Lucado



8. The Legend of the Three Trees by Catherine McCafferty



9. The Twelve Bugs of Christmas by Max Lucado and The 12 Bugs of Christmas by David A. Carter

         

10. The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado



11. If You're Missing Baby Jesus by Jean Gietzen



12. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer and Christmas Stocking by Dawn Sirett

   

13. The Twelve Days of Christmas Illustrated by Caroline Pedler



14. A Letter to Santa by Barnes and Noble

 

15. A Night in Santa's Great Big Bag by Kristin Kladstrup



16. This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotton



17. The Night Before Christmas two books by Jan Brett and Moore

  

18. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg



19. God Gave us Christmas by Lisa Bergren



20. Cobweb Christmas by Shirley Climo



21. Who is Coming to Our House? By Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff and Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell and Jason Cockcroft

   

22. The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg



23. Llama Llam Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney



24. The Usborne Advent Nativity Book



25. Good News of Great Joy by C. Michael Dudash - will probably be read on Christmas Day because it's taken directly from Luke 2



 

Trip to the Cheese Farm, Soda Factory, and Chocolate Factory

Last Saturday we decided to take a day trip to the country.  I have really missed seeing farms in Germany and the cheese from Europe, especially The Netherlands.  Europeans usually make their cheese fresh, using only the freshest ingredients, including raw milk from grass fed cows and goats.  So I was looking online to see if I could order some delicious cheese from somewhere and I found a farm about 2 hours away, that makes and sells cheese, organic raw milk, organic eggs, and local organic meat, beef and sausage.  I was excited to learn that we could visit the farm, take a tour, and see how they make their cheese.  Very cool!

DH had a men's Bible study Saturday morning so we missed the tour.  However, we were still able to explore the farm, see the cows and baby calves, which Blue Rock loved.  We saw the outside of the cheese cave, hopefully next time we'll get there in time to go inside.  There was also a large white dog who lived on the farm that was very friendly.  Caden tried feeding the calves grass, so sweet.  We also tried between 12-15 cheeses.  It was the BEST cheese I've had since living in Germany.  We saw the machines they used and the owner/cheese expert, said the equipment is from The Netherlands and he follows those methods in cheese making.  We filled our ice chest with lots of local fresh cheeses, milk, and meats. 

Next we ate at a local restaurant.  It was home cooking at its best.  DH and I each ordered a meat plate with 3 veggies.  The meal came with a drink and dessert all for $8!  What a deal!  We shared our food with Blue Rock and still had leftovers.  For a couple bucks more you could order the all you can eat buffet.  Everything is made fresh there and it was packed with locals. 

After a delicious lunch we headed to Dublin Bottling Works, where Dr. Pepper used to be made.  Now they make sodas with pure cane sugar, yummy!  I ordered a dark soda from the soda jerk and Blue Rock had his first taste of soda.  I loved the look on his face!  I asked him if he liked it and he said yes.  He tried a few more small sips then gave it back to me.  We're not big soda drinkers but we bought a big case of a variety of pure cane sugar sodas anyway.  DH said we might as well buy 24 since they'd only be $1 each instead of $1.50.

Next we headed to the small town of Hico to a chocolate factory called Wiseman House Chocolates.  Did I ever mention that Europeans also have better chocolate than Americans?  Especially the Belgians and Swiss.  At this factory, all of the chocolate is made by hand from the same chocolate from Belgium and Venezuela,  They only use fresh ingredients and leave out added sugars, glutens, sodium nitrates, and trans fats.  If you like chocolate you'd love their chocolate.  They offer tours and classes as well.  Think of episode of I Love Lucy when Lucy and Ethel made chocolate.  If you visit, make sure you bring some money because this is the not the cheap chocolate you buy at Target or Walmart.  We tasted some delicious chocolates, then loaded up our small ice chest with chocolate gifts for Christmas.

We enjoyed our day trip a lot.  I am so glad there are so many wonderful places to visit around us that are only a day trip away.