Weekly Wrap-Up: Lots of Christmas Entertainment

Busy, busy time.  We've been continuing on with our Christmas Around the World study.  WP added in another book this week and that upped the content somewhat.  Now we actually feel like we're learning something.  Woot!

One of the first things that we did was actually make the fabric ball ornament from our Russia study last week.  I thought it came out cute.  We also studying Spain, France, Germany, and Sweden this week.  Some of the craft ideas seemed silly to her so she opted not to make them.  It's very interesting to learn about the various traditions in other countries.  A lot of them have been very similar to what we enjoy here but with different little twists.  And it was neat to learn about what countries many of our traditions originated.

For a hands-on activity, Mackenzie decided to make a traditional French Christmas cookie called "colombe."  It means dove.  They are cute little dove shaped cookies.  She made them entirely on her own, from scratch.  Well not entirely.  Her little sister placed the chocolate chip eyes on the birds.

While she didn't choose to do a lot of the crafts from the around the world study, she did several from her little sister's advent activities.  (Truth in the Tinsel) I think that she liked the simplicity of them.  She claims to like crafts but I sense she doesn't really like things that have a lot of steps or "pieces."  Kind of like how her mother feels about cooking.  lol

There were outside activities aplenty this week.  We hit the Scholastic Book Fair with our buddies.  She is a bonafide bookworm so that is always a huge hit with her.  She would've liked to have bought everything she saw but I had to cap her at 5.  She suckered me into 6.    Then we went and had lunch afterwards.  Shopping for books makes everyone hungry.

Our church also had their Christmas play last weekend.  Mackenzie, drama queen that she is, had a part. They performed the Christmas County Spelling Bee and Mackenzie played "Katie Collins-head cheerleader."  Her is a sampling of her skills.  All the kids did a fabulous job.  It was one of the best shows that they've ever done.  So good that our pastor asked them to perform a few numbers for the Christmas eve service.

We also got to go watch her best buddy perform in her school's holiday show.  Mackenzie was a little nervous to go because her friend, formerly homeschooled, now attends public school due to behavior issues.  Mackenzie's attitude hasn't been all that stellar lately and I think she was worried that I might be tempted to leave her there.  LOL  It did cross my mind briefly.  

Not enjoying a glimpse of a possible future. LOL

Awesome performances

Best friends!  And Kayleigh. lol

And if all of that weren't enough Christmas entertainment, Mackenzie had her informal Christmas piano recital this week too.  Shew!!!

And really, there's still more.  Tomorrow we're going to see a local theater group perform The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.   We are ready.  We read the book and watched the movie.  Ha!  Hotlips Houlihan was in it.  Woot!!  Can't wait.