Our second week of Advent

Wow we're in the second week of Advent and a busy week for us.  Daddy is home this week so I hope to get a lot done.  There are a lot of feasts this month so we will have lots to do. 
We will be going over a couple different countries this week with all new books and new Christmas cookies.
We will go over Russia, Switzerland, The Ukraine, Italy and Hungry.


I came up with this idea of covering Geography with Christmas over at http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/.  I changed some ideas to fit our family and places that interest us.


Sunday we celebrated the feast of St Nicholas . We read The Baker's Dozen a Saint Nicholas Tale.


Monday was the Feast of St. Ambrose he was known as the Honey-Tongued Doctor.St Ambrose is also a  Bishop and doctor of the Church. For dinner we had Honey turkey over rice and for dessert I made Peanut butter cookies with honey. That night we read Gingerbread Friends which is the second book to Gingerbread Baby.


Tuesday was the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We went to Mass which was just lovely. Our Parish has a school and all the children from the school were at morning Mass when we went.  Father explained everything in a way a child could understand so my girls just soaked it up. Being new to the Church only 1 year we soaked it up to.  After church we spent the day at home since there was a huge winter storm coming.  We made Hot water Chocolate Gingerbread cake and muffins. The smell of the bread filled the air this bread is loaded with fine spices.  This bread reminds me of Moravian Spritz Yummy!
For dinner I made a Four- Cheese Chicken Fettuccine a very rich and tasty dinner. We also had Apple Smoked Cheddar Cheese with Olives and White pepper crackers. 

Four-Cheese Chicken Fettuccine, Apple smoked Cheddar Cheese

With Olives and crackers.

Dessert Hot-water Chocolate Gingerbread

That evening my hubby took a turn reading to the little ones before bed he read The Mitten.

Wednesday is the Memorial of Saint Juan Diego we will be making this Mexican Wedding Cookies.  I add an egg to the mix and these were so good.  The books for today will be The Donkey's dream and the The Legend of Saint Nicholas.

We also watched The Polar Express at night as a family.

                                                                         

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Thursday we will learn a little more about Russia and make some Russian Tea Cakes. I will also cover Norwary and we will have Scandinavian Spice Cookies.  The books we will be reading will be The Wild Christmas Reindeer and The Friendly Beasts

Friday we will take a look at how the people in Italy celebrate Christmas and make Italian Sprinkle Cookies

We will also work on our Advent folders and the girls will make a Christmas craft out of their Art books.

The books we will read will be some of our new books from St. Nicholas this year.  One winter's Night and Pascual and the Kitchen Angels

Saturday is the Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe and we will be having  A tea for our Lady of Guadalupe which my girls just love. Thank you Alice for your wonderful ideas.  I will post our tea ideas up soon.  We will make the following cookie Chocolate chip with Christmas M&M's