Handmade Gift Idea!

A Pine cone slathered with organic, natural peanut butter. then sprinkled with birdseeds makes a very lovely handmade gift for family members, friends and wildlife!!!!

Birds

Our Stories over the next 4 weeks will be from the book Christmas Roses Legends for advent. This week our story is "The Legend of the Bird's Nest". In this story , a Hermit prays to God for the destruction of the world due to all the suffering it's people has created. He is a gnarled, old hermit and while he is praying, with arms outstretched to the heavens , two little birds mistaken him for a tree and build their nest in his hand. Watching these birds, and especially the baby birds that hatach, cause the hermit to have a change of heart. One of my family's all time favorites!!! This week , one project we made is a pine cone bird feeder. We gathered the pine cones from our yard and slathered on organic natural peanut butter and then sprinkled on some bird seeds. Dried fruit could also be added. This was a fun project so we decided to make a few as gifts as well.
Other ideas:
Visit a bird sanctuary
Make your own birds nest from natural or found materials OR make a little box of helpful natural materials for the birds to use.

Advent

During Advent, we light a candle each evening to mark the path to Christmas day. We use a night sky play silk over a small round table and spiral 24 tea light candles towards one golden star candle in the center ( representing Christmas Day) We also decorate the spiral with pine branches and little wooden stars ( that we have painted golden.) Each Sunday during the Advent we add a representation of each kingdom to the spiral.
1st Sunday: Rocks, Crystals, Shells
2nd Sunday: Small plants
3rd Sunday: Little wooden animals
4th: People ( Mary and Joesph figures)
I sing "One Star Shone" from Sing a Song of Seasons by Mary Thienes-Schunemann each and every night after we light the candle. I love this time of year!