Cookie Baking Night 11/24/14

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Emily, Ethan, Carissa, and Alli. Tonight was Emily's birthday choice (she turns 14 at the end of this week). For supper, she chose Hamburgers, Cheese Fries, and Strawberry/Mango Smoothies. For her "cookie" she chose chocolate mousse (made with marshmallow fluff - it was a specific requirement that the chocolate mousse be made with marshmallow fluff/creme and contain Oreo cookies). So we used this recipe from the Kraft website. It was pretty good.

The kids started with a game of Zingo while I finished up making the birthday supper. 

After we made the chocolate mousse, we added mini Oreo cookies and whipped cream in little fancy cups. 

The finished products. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all!

Bible Lesson: For our Bible lesson tonight we took a little detour from our usual book and talked about a couple Christmas carols and what they mean. We focused on "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "Joy To The World". The children really didn't know what the carols meant or what some of words in them meant. They said they "just sing them". We talked about phrases like "herald angels" (messengers), "peace on earth" (peace with God), "reconciled" (make right, restore relationship). We read from Luke 2:10-14, which is the Bible text that the first line in the song comes from. 

We read the song verses (and tried singing it) from "Joy To The World", and we read the Bible verses that inspired that song - Psalm 98. 

My hope is that when they are out moving and breathing in this world and they hear those songs (hopefully, they hear those songs) that it causes them to think of Jesus and make much of our great Savior. 

I'll leave you with the words from each carol (the verses that we covered tonight) to ponder for yourself. 

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Hark! The herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn king

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled!

Joyful all ye nations rise

Join the triumph of the skies

With angelic hosts proclaim

Christ is born in Bethlehem

Joy To The World

Joy to the World! The Lord is come

Let earth receive her king

Let every heart prepare Him room

And heaven and nature sing

Joy to the World! The Savior reigns

Let men their songs employ

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

Repeat the sounding joy

No more let sin and sorrows grow

Nor thorns infest the ground

He comes to make his blessings flow

Far as the curse is found

He rules the world with truth and grace

And makes the nations prove 

The glories of His righteousness 

And wonders of His love