A Homeschool Christmas Party!!

A Homeschool Christmas Party!

Casie and I decided it was only fair that we do a 'Homeschool Christmas Party' since all the kids at school get to. She will be getting to take a Christmas break from homeschool (and I as well, phew!) so today is the last day of school until Jan. 3rd! Our party turned out well and I hope she had fun with it. She seemed to but sometimes I feel bad that she's missing out on the school parties with friends. She really doesn't seem to mind though and always tells me she loves doing it at home. What a sweetie! We started our party with Christmas Cupcakes! Yummy! Walmart does a great job! LOL After cupcakes we put together Christmas puzzles in a race. Casie won -- Of course!! And don't think I gave her any slack. I was working that puzzle hard! But to no avail she beat me by about 15 pieces!! After puzzles, I told the girls the traditional story of why we hang and eat candy canes for Christmas while they hung them on the tree. Here is the story I read to them.

A candymaker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols from the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ.

He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the Church, and firmness of the promises of God.

The candymaker made the candy in the form of a "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. It could also represent the staff of the "Good Shepherd" with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who, like all sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candymaker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Unfortunately, the candy became known as a Candy Cane -- a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time. But the meaning is still there for those who "have eyes to see and ears to hear." Every time you see a Candy Cane, remember the Wonder of Jesus and His Great Love that came down at Christmas, and that His Love remains the ultimate and dominant force in the universe today.

After candy canes, I had them go in seperate rooms and gave each of them a gift for the other to wrap. They then met under the Christmas Tree and exchanged thier gifts. This was really fun and they LOVED giving eachother presents. Casie got Curious George UNO and D'arrica got Dora playing cards.