By far the most popular Christmas gift that anyone received this year is the Nostalgia Electrics Hard and Sugar-Free Candy Cotton Candy Maker.  My girls had seen it in a local grocery store, and, to be honest, I was pretty skeptical. My Mom had a small cotton candy machine when I was growing up, and I just didn’t remember it working very well.  I remember it taking a long time to make just a handful of candy, and then it was a mess.  The girls kept talking about it, though, and looked it up on the internet.  They saw some video demonstrations, and the more I watched, the more I thought that maybe–just maybe–this one might work all right.  I still expected it to be kind of a disappointment, and probably a mess to clean up.  I ordered some Cotton Candy Express sugar to use with it, and I am so glad that I did!  When we got it put together and followed the instructions, we soon found out that one little tablespoon of the sugar made a nice serving of very yummy candy!  The kids have been making cotton candy almost every day since then.  They have tried using the hard candy instead of the sugar.  It works, but it is kind of sticky and very strong-flavored.  It’s fun to try out different things, though. By the way, it is a snap to clean up in warm, soapy water.  The melted sugar just kind of dissolves!  :)

So, this gift was a hit!  Kara wanted to make a video demo of her own to show this wonderful product, so…..here’s Kara!

From time-t0-time the girls like to have their hair fixed up all fancy.  When we are in school, it just doesn’t work.  By the time we all get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, sort laundry, etc., it is time to get busy on our school day. So, usually the girls just get by with their hair down or pulled back in a pony tail, or they wear one of their beloved silly hats. When Christmas break came, though, they asked if I could spend some time with them trying out some different things.  Now, I must admit that doing hair is not my forte.  We have bought some hair books and I have been reading some blogs to get ideas, so I tell them that I will do my best but that I don’t promise professional results. We have a lot of fun trying, though!  This slideshow shows some of the new styles that we have tried:

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This year’s Christmas was a little unusual because it happened to fall on a Sunday. Because we all had church activities, my parents and my brother’s family decided to put off our usual Christmas get-together until the day after Christmas.  It ended up being a very nice, relaxed time–maybe not a bad thing to remember!  Christmas is always so hectic with presents and everything.  Simplifying that day and then focusing on a nice meal the next day worked out pretty well!

The kids’ favorite part of the get-together was my brother’s Corgi dog, Shorty.  That is a sweet dog!  We have been around several Corgis, and they have all been such friendly, happy little things.

The rest of our day was spent trying out the various gifts that the kids received.  The favorites have been Luke’s Sole Skate, Cosette’s Pogo Stick, and, of course, the 3DS.  That 3DS is weird; the games really look 3-dimensional without any glasses or anything.  It takes a little getting used to.  At first I just saw double when I tried it, but now I can see it just fine.  The top present of the year, though, was a surprise.  It has been so enjoyed, that it will have it’s own post soon.  So, stayed tune!  :)

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We learned how to play the Hanukkah Dreidel game last year when we were learning about Jewish holidays.  I had no idea how much my children would love this simple game, but it has definitely become a traditional part of our Christmas celebration.

We learned how to play the game using the children’s book Festival of Lights by Maida Silverman. This wonderful book tells the history of the Hanukkah celebration which is one that remembers a great, miraculous victory that the Jewish people had over Greek invaders.  While in power, the Greek ruler would not allow the Jewish people to study the Torah, which is made up of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  He wanted to force the Jewish people to abandon their faith in Jehovah to turn to the pagan Greek gods.  The Jewish people still met secretly to study the Scriptures, but in case monitoring soldiers came by, they had these little wooden tops that they would get out so it would appear that their meeting was simply a gathering to play a fun game.  So really this game was a diversion that allowed these devoted people to continue to study the Scriptures under persecution.

There are four Hebrew letters on the dreidels, one on each side.  The letters stand for the phrase “A great miracle happened there” as a reminder of God’s protection and intervention on the Jewish people’s behalf.

The first year that we played the Dreidel game, we just used a free printable dreidel located at this link.  It worked just fine to find out how much fun this game is, but this year my kids requested a real top, and I discovered that they are very inexpensive on Amazon.  I’ll tell you what, those real dreidels really spin!  We couldn’t believe how they spun!

So, here is how the Dreidel Game is played:

1. Each player gets the same number of items.  We chose to use 7 items each, simply because in the Bible, the number 7 is symbolic of God’s perfection, sovereignty, and holiness.  We used jellybeans for our items, but any small objects are fine.

2. Each player puts one item into a separate, middle pile, called the Kitty.

3. Each player takes turns spinning the dreidel.  The symbol that the dreidel lands on tells the player what to do.  To make this simpler to remember, I made this card explaining each letter’s instructions:

4. When the Kitty is empty or only contains one item, each player must put one of their own items into the Kitty.

5. The game is over when one player has all of the items. Sometimes this happens pretty quickly, and sometimes it doesn’t. If the game seems to be taking too long, I simply put a time limit on it and say whoever has the most items at that point is the winner.

So, it is really a very simple game.  It can also be pretty competitive!  It has definitely risen to the status of a Prairie Family tradition that we will enjoy for many years to come.

P.S. Another part of the Hanukkah celebration that I have grown to love is this song, Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages) which is about the great deliverance that God gave to the Jewish people (the English words begin at 1:06):

Christmas Eve is a special event for the Prairie Family.  In fact, several of us have commented that we actually enjoy it more than Christmas Day. Brock has said that when he grows up, he plans to spend Christmas Eve with us even if he can’t be here for Christmas Day because it is such a good time for us!

Cosette had an unexpected surprise when she went with me to the store to pick up a few last-minute groceries on Christmas Eve.  Right when we walked in the door, we saw a friend from church who told us that they were giving away big Christmas lollipops by the checkouts.  So, Cosette quickly found the right spot and asked if she could pick out lollipops for her brothers and sisters, and they said she could have as many as she could use!  So, she picked out which ones she liked for each person, and we sneaked them home and hid them in the Christmas stockings as a special gift from her.

So, what else do we do to make Christmas Eve special?  Well, we open our stocking presents, play a game of Dreidel (which I will explain in a post that I will write soon), and watch our favorite Christmas movie A Nativity Story.  That movie helps us focus on the true meaning of this special time of year and really is the focus of our Christmas Eve celebration.

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Cosette has a new hobby:  watching cupcake/regular cake shows.  Her favorites are Cupcake Wars, D.C. Cupcakes, Cake Boss, and Ace of Cakes. She says that when she grows up, she wants to have her own cupcake specialty shop so she can go on these shows (especially on Cupcake Wars, so she can win a prize!)  She has learned all kinds of techniques that she’ll actually have to try someday like marbled frosting.  Just so she doesn’t forget all of the wonderful tips, she is taking meticulous notes to put away for the future.  She tells me that I can help at her shop someday–probably running the cash register while she makes all of the yummy cakes.  I told her that sounds like a great plan–I can’t wait!