Snow in December!

Ciara is really fond of doing puzzles now, and not a day goes by where she doesn't do a few - I think it is contagious because Jude is also doing lots of puzzles, including the girls ones that he has never done before.
Niamh had her gymnastics dress rehearsal this week. Her squad are dressed as little elves.

Waiting to go into the dress rehearsal - we will see the display this weekend.
Ciara watching the first falls of snow out of the window. She doesn't remember the snow from when she was 1, so in a way it is a new and exciting experience for her. The temperatures are not cold enough for the snow to settle, and it seems to melt as soon as it falls.
Later on in the afternoon it started snowing a bit faster.
Niamh showing Ciara her snowball.
Jude was chuffed to try out his snow suit, but Ciara spotted that he hadn't clipped the buckle in, so she said to "Come her Jude, I fix it for you", she has always been obsessed with harnesses and I have seen her head over to other peoples (unoccupied) prams to figure out how the buckles and clips work.
The next day(today) we got snow coming down even thicker and faster, but still none settled.
Apparently we have a lot of snow coming tonight, so hopefully we will wake up to a white scene tomorrow morning.

Our reading and decoration for the day was:

King David

–A Psalm of David.

¹ The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”

Psalm 110:1

⁴¹ While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”
They said to Him, “ The Son of David.”
⁴³ He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:
⁴⁴ ‘ The LORD said to my Lord,

“ Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”’?

⁴⁵ If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore. Matthew 22:41-46

22:41-46 When Christ baffled his enemies, he asked what thoughts they had of the promised Messiah? How he could be the Son of David and yet his Lord? He quotes Ps 110:1. If the Christ was to be a mere man, who would not exist till many ages after David's death, how could his forefather call him Lord? The Pharisees could not answer it. Nor can any solve the difficulty except he allows the Messiah to be the Son of God, and David's Lord equally with the Father. He took upon him human nature, and so became God manifested in the flesh; in this sense he is the Son of man and the Son of David.

Niamh's decoration: The harp of David.

Our next reading was:

The Fiery Furnace

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”
They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

Nebuchadnezzar Praises God

Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke, saying, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here.” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire. And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God! Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this.” Daniel 3:19-29

Eden's watercolour wax resist - a good illustration as the fire could not cover the wax drawings of the men in the furnace.
Niamh's picture.

Our next days reading was:

Jonah and the Fish

"And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights." Jonah 1:17

"An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matthew 12:39-40
Niamh's tissue paper collage of the whale - later we stuck a picture of Jonah in the stomach.