The 12 Days of a Simple Christmas (Revisited) ~ Day 9 Ball and Burlap Tree

I hope you have been enjoying this 12 Days of a Simple Christmas reposted series. Again, these were a series of posts from 2010 when we decided to spend only the few days before Christmas preparing for it, just like in the olden days. It was a meaningful Christmas, definitely, and one I won't ever forget. As I looked at this post my heart melted. Look at how tiny Eli and Brynne were!!! Today is Eli's 11th birthday, so reposting this is especially emotional for me. Here is what I wrote in 2010 ...

I had it in my heart to get a Ball and Burlap Christmas tree this year. (Honestly, I didn't even know what they were until I came across one as being a Christmas tradition of old.) What is a Ball and Burlap tree? It's a tree that has been dug out of the ground, roots and all, instead of cut. The roots are bound in a ball and wrapped in burlap. After it is used as a Christmas tree, it can be replanted. Something excited me about the idea of letting our Christmas tree continue to live instead of tossing it into a ditch after we were done with it. I have visions of cardinals sitting on it's branches after a big snow.

We went yesterday and picked out our tree. We have a wonderful Christmas tree and blackberry farm in our town. We have purchased cut trees from there in the past and picked blackberries there for the first time this past summer. The owners are the nicest people and the guys they have working there are always so friendly and helpful! They also always have several places set up for fun photo ops.

Rick, Eli, Brynne and I went to pick out our tree. Kyndal and Dawson are teenagers ... which means they weren't real interested. Instead they stayed home and made our traditional pretzel snacks.

Here are some pictures from our time at the farm. We had a fun time playing hide-and-seek in the rows of Christmas trees and picking out the "perfect" tree.

We have a picture of Brynne in this same sleigh when she was 4 months old.

Here is the tree we chose.

This is where it will reside for the next couple of days. We will bring it in this week and get it ready to decorate on the 23rd.

She will be about 30 feet tall at the height of her maturity.

If you are interested in a Ball and Burlap tree, you can go here for instructions on how to care for it.

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

ABCya

Eli's reading resource teacher shared a website with me yesterday that I would like to pass along. It's called ABCya . There are separate educational sections with fantastic games for ages kindergarten through 5th grade. I browsed the 2nd grade level, and it includes age-appropriate games about Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Geometry, Patterns, Mouse Manipulation, Art and Holiday games. There are lots and lots of fun and creative games for children to play. They are fun, but oh, so educational. Eli's favorite, in his short time playing it, was Create a Car . A lot of the games also have Apps available for purchase (99 cents for most of them) for the iPad and iPhone. I have been looking for another free website for games similar to Starfall , for some time. I think I have found it. I can feel confident having Eli and Brynne play these games.

How to Build a Homeschool U.S. History Curriculum from "America: The Story of Us"

FINAL UPDATE (JUNE 2012): We completed our entire U.S. History course last month using the America: The Story of Us video series and the resources I had planned. We officially covered Episodes 1-9 which got us through the 1920's. We plan to use the remaining three videos when we study the World Wars in a couple of years. I just want to go on record as saying that I believe whole-heartedly that the use of this series with my resources would more than qualify your child for a full credit of U.S. History. And, it was exciting and enriching. Feel free to follow all of my lesson plans. You can see them all at this link: http://journey2excellence.blogspot.com/search/label/America%3A%20The%20Story%20of%20Us Update: America: The Story of Us is now available as an InstaStream through Netflix! We also had it available at our local library. If you didn't receive a complimentary copy, you won't have to pay the $30 for it! Many of us received a complimentary copy of "...

Journey to Excellence

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