Saturday, December 10, 2011

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens makes a wonderful theme for family evening together. Below is a short film narrated by Vincice.
Dickens' classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and three Christmas Ghosts that change his perception of life.
My Audio School has an audio version of the popular story. Listen with your kids as you all cuddle under the twinkling lights of your Christmas tree. If you prefer to read click below.

Continue your lifestyle of learning with your kids by visiting David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page wonderful page.
Go Make Memories!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Homemade Christmas Cards

A sweet way to enjoy the season is to have your kids create Christmas cards. We did this a couple of years ago. I had the kids draw (make sure they sign and date their art) their pictures and then I scanned them into the computer. I then printed them on card stock. We further embellished them with glitter gel pens. You can use any items from the craft store to embellish. I like the word Embellish! Here they are:












Bartholomew's Passage Advent Book


We have been thoroughly enjoying our advent readings. We are reading Bartholomew's Passage. It is the book that follows Jotham's Journey. It is a story of the adventure of a boy set in the time of Jesus'birth. Every chapter is a cliff hanger. We all cuddle on the living room couches under soft fleece throws by the glow of our christmas tree lights and advent wreath candles. If you have an oppotunity to purchase these books I highly recommend them! To learn more about the author and his other books CLICK HERE


http://www.jothamsjourney.com/

Prep and Landing

Tonight ABC will be showing Disney's first tv holiday special, Prep and Landing, a 30 minute movie about an elite team of elves that prepare everything for Santas arrival. To view a trailer and lots of funny shorts CLICK HERE

For lost of crafts and activities to do with your family in relation to this movie CLICK HERE

Happy Watching!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Christmas Box: Movie Nights



“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” this song is heard throughout the house. The glow of candles and smell of baked goodies fill the air in our home and sets the mood to our Christmas celebrations.

Every year we strive to continue our traditions and add more family fun activities that focus on the of Christmas, our lord and savior Jesus Christ. I hope our holiday traditions and celebrations inspire you.

Have a Merry Christmas!
Monica

Go Make Memories!
There are many family fun activities to during the holidays. Check your local community newspapers and your city or county websites. We enjoyed or city’s annual tree lighting celebration. They had many performers on an outdoor stage by the waterfront. It is so nice to see families out in droves sitting on blankets enjoying each other. After the mayor, Rick Baker, lit the tree (which simultaneously lit surrounding light displays all around North Straub water front park we headed over to view an outdoor holiday movie. We thought it was going to be “Miracle on 34th Street” but it turned out to be “The Shop Around the Corner ” We had never seen this movie. It was awesome! We all enjoyed it. It was freezing cold. Luckily, mom was prepared with fleece blankets, popcorn, and hot cocoa. Oh, what a wonderful night we had. Even Flat Stanley got in on the fun too. We introduced him to the mayor and had our picture taken by the tree. Mayor Rick Baker is almost as tall as the tree! It was nice to see him there with his family too. Every Friday and Saturday local merchants and the city of St Petersburg are sponsoring outdoor holiday movies, FREE!

See info below:

Sunscreen Film Festival 2009 Holiday Outdoor Film Series in the Park presents
North Straub Park, Beach Drive and Third St., 7 p.m. Enjoy a different holiday classic beneath the stars on the downtown waterfront every Friday and Saturday during the holiday season. Sponsored by the Merchants of 400 Beach Drive, Progress Energy and City of St.Petersburg.

o Dec. 4 - Polar Express
o Dec. 5 - White Christmas
o Dec. 11 - Prancer
o Dec. 12 - A Christmas Story
o Dec. 18 - Miracle on 34th Street
o Dec. 19 - It's a Wonderful Life

We have a family tradition we started last year called the Christmas Box. Every few days my husband and I put out a wrapped box with special items inside for a family fun activity or outing. A family favorite is a movie night. We buy a new holiday movie to add to our growing collection or we rent one. We put the dvd in the box along with popcorn, holiday cookies, wassail or hot cocoa, which are a must for your holiday viewing pleasure. Those big holiday popcorn variety tins will make a spontaneous movie night even easier. If you have a portable movie projector light a fire out back and enjoy the cool weather by snuggling up with you hubby and kids under a blanket. Invite friends over and to share in the fun too.popcorn and any other treats we fancy. The kids are always excited to see what fun surprise awaits them inside the Christmas Box. Makes me feel a little like Santa!

Here is a list of our family favorite holiday movies and some we plan on seeing this holiday season:





Sunday, November 8, 2009

A fun and easy way to bring some cheer to family and friends is to Elf Yourself! In about 2 days you can give it a whirl. Visit http://www.elfyourself.com/ and let the holiday fun begin!

Friday, February 13, 2009


Thank you my love, for walking in our Lord's ways and loving us as Christ loves. You are an amazing friend, husband, teacher, and father.
F.A.A.D.
Monica

Psalm 128
A Song of Ascents.
1 Blessed is every one who fears the LORD,
Who walks in His ways.

2 When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.
4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the LORD.
5 The LORD bless you out of Zion,
And may you see the good of Jerusalem
All the days of your life.
6 Yes, may you see your children’s children.

Peace be upon The Guerras!

Monday, February 2, 2009

A weekend full of family fun!

Dad surprised the kids with breakfast at Denny's. Yummo, we hadn't eaten out ina long time. It was great to be waited on. After breakfast we visited our friend and Bible study teacher Debbie. she taught the Freedom Workshop to the teens at homeschool co-op. Mikael just loves her. It hs been wonderful to have my son and brother in Christ walk with me in with the knowledge of the key points from the study. Debbie hosts an annual Arts and Craft Christmas open house every year. There were many artists there exhibiting their jewelry, sculptors, paintings and more. Debbie's scripture cards done in calligraphy and photography postcards are beautiful. She even had a sketch done by her father for sale. Check out the pictures.


After visiting with Debbie we headed to Pinellas Pioneer Settlement for their Annual Christmas Jamboree. We ran into our very dear friends and old lifegroup leaders the Hendrick's. They were instrumental in our family's life as we settled in St. Pete and offered us love, support, and encouragement without reservation. I just love them! There son is quite talented with the facial muscles and their daughter is hanging upside right above Seth in the background.



It was a blast from the past! We visited one of the oldest homes in Pinellas County. They were making pumkin pancakes, bacon and hot chocolate the old fashioned way in an old fashioned kitchen. The icebox is just that, a box that has a big block of ice in it. And the stove cooked with coals. They actually made the pancakes in the oven. The volunteers were very informative and truly enjoying teaching the kids. The kids were able to learn about the evolution of the printshop and had the opporunity to print their names using and old fashioned "doo hicky" printer.


I had a devine appointment with a mother who's booth I was perusing for jewelry. Her son was killed in and auto accident the previous year and he worked for All Children's Hospital. His fellow co-workers donated crafts to raise money for a the new facility being built in his honor. The mother's pain was obvious as she spoke of her son and gratitude for those who donated for their cause. I asked if I could pray with her and she agreed. The poor woman sobbed as I wept and turned out to be a christian and was raising a grandson that was very active. We were able to invite them to Alf's karate classes and scouts at our church. She was so happy to find a place to take him and I could tell that she felt better. Thank you Jesus for giving her grace to move on. They are Puerto Rican so that was cool too that we were able to talk to the both her and her husband in spanglish. As we walked away I held my kids hands a little tighter and kissed their heads.


After the Christmas Jamboree we went to a park to collect pinecones for crafts and decorations and for a little playtime.


We didn't find many nice pinecones but the kids had a blast and Alf and I were able to sit and enjoy watching them have fun.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Gingerbread Decorating Party

What joy to share such special moments with my family and friends. I made my baby girl a cute no sew apron with little gingerbread men all over it. the kids all chipped to set up and clean up. I could never have accomplished this without my kiddos.






We had great weather for our party. It was chilly and breezy. Just the right touch of Florida winter added to the Christmas feel of the party. We had to postpone it for a day due to a cold front that brought with it tons of rain.



It was great fun to plan and host a party with sweet April. We both enjoy doing this kinda stuff and it was a blessing to share in it with other families. The kids and moms all had a blast decorating and I must say the moms got way into it. We ended up blowing the houses up at our friend's the Geer's on Christmas Eve (more on that soon)

Have a Sweet Christmas!

Chocolate fountain fun!

Marshmallow, apples, pound cake, strawberries, pineapplewill never taste the same after being dipped in warm chocolate. I love my family dipped in chocolate too!
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GINGERBREAD BUILDING


What an ooey, gooey, sticky, yummy, fun mess!



April and I had a wonderful time planning our gingerbread decorating party. It gave us an opportunity to get together and facilitated a time to for enjoy with our kids and then with our friends to decorate.






After all the boys are long gone my little momma stays working and creating her masterpiece. Granted she was also doing a lot of nibbling too but we had fun finishing off our projects together.


Lexie's Sweet Polar Express

My Holiday Ham!


My Holiday Ham!

Chirstmas, Science, & Work?



What does Christmas, science, & work have in common? This year it was our office decorating theme at America II Electronics.
Every year where I work every department picks a theme and decorates for Christmas. A local children's program comes and enjoys a company sponsored party and we try to make our themes enjoyable for the kids. Our families get to come a couple of days after and enjoy the fruit of our labor also.
It is very competitive, every office tries to out do everyone else and the company awards the top 3 offices. First place get to go have dinner at a restaurant, second & third get lunch brought in for the entire office.
All that said this year I suggested we do a science theme for our office. I got the idea on one of our visits to MOSI. I researched easy experiments we could do with household items and what they teach. Before I tried them at the office I needed to experiment at home and make sure they worked. So my kids got to learn science with dad, not to mention dad learned a thing or two himself. It was great fun and all the kids loved it because I made sure to get plenty of supplies to allow for the kids to do it themselves, at home and at work.
Well, it was a hit, we placed third for the first time. We came in after a theatrical performance of Madagascar saves Christmas (1st), & another office that set up Rock Band on a projection unit with a stage and real band style speakers and equipment (2nd).
We all had a blast, and I know even if we forget how all that stuff works we we always remember having fun making stuff explode and soda cans implode....cool.
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