Merry Christmas!

 I never got it together enough to even post something minimal
with "Christmas" or "tour" in it.

#ithappens

I love decorating for Christmas - one of the best parts in my book even though I have simplified considerably - and I am a bit sad I didn't do more but it's too late now :)

There were some major things going on a round here and something had to give.

One of those things "going on" was the first ever Live Drive Thru Nativity at church.

Getting the littlest shepherd ready!

( He was so excited and stayed out the whole time both nights. 

It was really cold Friday night so his Dad had to make him come in for a few minutes and warm up!)

And some angels!

 Driving up to the main scene.

Inside the stable.

We had two "sets" of Mary, Joseph and the Angel so they could switch out - especially if it was cold. And it was so this worked well!!

This Joseph sent me a selfie from the stable and called it a portrait of the "First Family."

They are so funny!!

 

 

There was a steady stream of cars especially on Saturday night.

It was our first time so we had no idea what to expect.

The kids were so excited!

 

We Three Kings...

 

These little angels were more interested in the baby goat than they were in the baby Jesus!

 

 

                              

 We wish you a

Merry Christmas

and a  

Blessed New Year!

 

*If you are considering hosting a Drive Thru Nativity or similar event

 and have any questions, please ask!!

 For first timers it went quite smoothly and I'm happy to share what we learned!

Lights! Camera! Action!

It's showtime!

At our church anyway!

We are hosting our first ever live drive thru Nativity.

It has been a year in the making.

Seriously.

 I thought about us doing this last December 20th while driving to our community cantata event and by Dec. 20th of this year we will have hosted it two nights, 

be finished until next year  and be preparing for Christmas Eve services.

When I changed jobs about 4 years ago I moved to a much smaller church.

 I was used to huge volunteer work forces and different sized budgets.

 But let me tell you, this congregation may be small in numbers

 but they are "go big or go home" 

when it comes to supporting our WCYouth and what they want to accomplish!!

We have planned and asked for volunteers.

The entire church donated strands of Christmas lights to light up the night.

They bought and wore t-shirts advertising the event.

Costumes have been sewn, a stable has been constructed, 

a refreshment team is in place (pizza $$ donated and cookies baked!),

 parking attendants are at the ready. 

Large signs with verses have been painted. 

One thousand candy canes have been tagged with an invitation to join us again 

on Christmas Eve

and animals have been rented!

 When you are in Atlanta your livestock has to come from afar just like the Wisemen did! They will arrive shortly before our Nativity begins each night.

 And again, when you are in Atlanta, an off duty policeman has been hired to direct traffic. Lots of details.

It has been amazing to see every generation in the church volunteer for this endeavor. Senior citizens have sewn, built 

and volunteered to be Wisemen 

(the men thought I said Wise guys!! so they volunteered right away!!) 

and we will have little tiny angels and shepherds in our scenes as well. 

Our college students have rolled in from schools all over and shown up at church as soon as they got home to paint signs and make props!!

And for those of you well versed in volunteering for events at your church -  there wasn't a budget for this. Not one penny!

 So our first ever live drive thru Nativity has humble beginnings but we are ready to celebrate because

 "For Unto Us a Savior is Born."

Here is the link if you are local and would like to bring family and friends 

to see the first ever

Wesley Chapel UMC Live Drive Thru Nativity.

Talk, Talk, Talk!

I've been all over the place this summer and I have talked and talked.
With a lot of energetic, dedicated teachers. Both paid and volunteer.


I was invited to present at quite a few Preschool Training Conferences this Summer.
I spoke about creativity in the classroom the most often -
creative practices for both teachers and learners.

I was in the Scout Hut at a beautiful Catholic School in Dunwoody on Friday. What a great group of ladies. I take all my goodies and info with me and we get excited about the upcoming school year.

They were good sports - we talk but we do some silly things, too.

I was also at a conference in Griffin, Georgia talking about creativity in education as well.

The sessions at this conference were 2 hours long so a little different set up. That's a long time to talk.

 

So we did silly stuff at that conference too.
Gives the ladies a break from all my talk, talk, talk.

Then I jumped in the car and took off for Greenville, SC to present at my first national conference - cue butterflies :) It was for the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church ( I'll never type that again - what a title!) and it was about creativity in Christian Education.  There were paid staff members and volunteers at this conference. It was a ton of fun and we had a blast in downtown Greenville. What a great place to visit and explore.
We ate dinner at a place called Tupelo Honey Cafe - worth the drive back to G'ville just to eat there.
They have several locations - I highly recommend it!

This was the room I was in - one of the art classrooms at the Methodist Church they held the conference in - huge and old and beautiful. I loved their art tables and stools.
 

And look what was painted on the walls. Fun.
 

I also presented in Marietta at another Preschool Training event in conjunction with the Georgia Preschool Association and SAUMC.
This was all about multicultural studies and sensitivity and is incorporated with travel themed units for the classroom. Made me want to go someplace exotic.

This was all about multicultural studies and sensitivity and is incorporated with travel themed units for the classroom. Made me want to go someplace exotic.

 

 

 I'm off to a couple more in the near future and
then I have been invited to a conference at the beach in October!!! Woo Hoo!

 

From Humble Beginnings...

... Spunky angels with tons of personality!!

 

Aren't they great?? The artists were 4 to 7 year olds and they completed these great folk art angels at an afternoon art camp!

We started with an angel "blank"

   which is simply a  2 foot long section of 1x4 pine. The first angel was made from a scrap but then when we had so many sign up for the class I had to actually purchase pine boards. I nailed two paint stick legs on one end and a loop of wire for a hanger on the other end and they were ready for the creative fun to begin. 

We began with a white basecoat and painted the face area a flesh color. We predominately used the Blikcrylic paints because they go on so smoothly and dry very quickly. We used small craft bottles of metallics and they were gorgeous. We sponged on stars and painted stripes on the legs.

And here they are - spouncers being used for the eyes and cheeks! Perfect circles everytime and the kids think they are so much fun!

We added a little glamour when we painted the faces! They turned out so great with so much personality and they had the best time with the eyelashes and fancy smiles! I love the face on this one. :)

A few finishing touches - this awesome garland was at Wal Mart the other day. We chose either gold or silver for our halos and then I used the nail gun to attach them to the top of our angels' head. It is just flexible enough to make a perfect halo - it bends into a nice circle. Wire with beads or silver or gold pipecleaners are good halo choices as well.  I usually use recycled milk cartons for wings on my angel and bug projects but, again, so many signed up for the class that I had to come up with something else. I couldn't gather enough milk jugs in the amount of time I had to get ready. I had some plastic mesh canvas ( like you use for needlework) so I went with that and I had to buy a couple sheets to have enough. Each 59 cent sheet made 3 sets of wings. This is a very reasonably priced project even if you have to purchase the wood. The 2 foot section was less than $2.00, the paintsticks were free from Sherwin Williams, I used paint I had except for the $1.27 bottle of metallic paint. The wings are free or 20 cents a pair and you can always find something sparkly and inexpensive for the halo. It would be cute to have the kids make some  for Christmas gifts and you could definitely reduce the size by simply using a smaller section of wood.

While we were finishing up the angels I asked the class if they had ever heard the
saying " Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets its wings..."  I happened to be going from child to child stapling on the wings wherever they placed them and the office phone rang and one of the little girls called out, "The phone ringing is like a bell and all our angels are getting their wings! It's true!! " We all laughed and our great angels all earned their wings.