Feast Days, Owl Vomit and Homemade Stockings

well, did that get your attention? it's been so long since i've posted and there has been alot going on.

this time of the year is chock full o' wonderful saints feast days to inspire the kids. our first celebration was st. nicholas day on the 6th. the kids awoke to treats in their shoes and also lovely snow on the ground. then we went to a friends house where we listened to stories about st. nicholas, made crafts and then delivered them to a local nursing home

december 12th is the feast of our lady of guadalupe. we celebrated by reading the story of juan diego and our lady and by having a dinner of tacos and spanish rice.

today is the feast of st. lucy. she was a young martyr who among other tortures suffered having her eyes gouged out because she would not denounce her faith. we celebrated by having a big breakfast (for dinner)which was made even better by nana's homemade pumpkin bread which arrived in the mail todayand i wanted to make thesebut i couldn't get any takers (not even a four year old little boy would go for it...i couldn't believe it).

tomorrow we remember st. john of the cross. i can't figure out how to celebrate for him, but he was so cool i'd certainly like to find a way.

now on to the owl vomit. awhile back we received an "owl pellet" from a friend in our homeschooling group. an "owl pellet" is what the owl regurgitates. the owls body will breakdown and absorb all of the fleshy matter of it's prey, which it eats whole, but it cannot digest the solid matter. so, after the rest of the prey is finished digesting, the owl coughs up (for lack of a better, less gross word) the bones in a ball of feathers. tonight we disected one of those balls to find out what the owl had eaten. we discovered that our owl must have been somewhat of a hog because we found three skulls. two were from mice and the other was from a mole. the kids thought this was so cool to try and put back together all the skeletons.

and finally, tonight i had some time to sew, because unfortunately a mother's dessert night was canceled on account of weather. so i whipped up the stocking i need to send out for a stocking exchange i signed up for. here it is...i am rather proud of the way it turned out. it was my first attempt at anything patchworkesque. now i just need to finish the apron that goes with the stocking so i can mail it out on saturday.