Friday, January 4, 2013

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

     Tomorrow is Twelfth Night! Are you making any plans? We've decided on a few fun things... first of all will be a GF version of Jessica's delicious Twelfth Night Rum Cake! Mmmmmmmm! Followed by a reading of this Shakespearean picture book, Twelfth Night, of course. Our copy is from the library. Maybe yours has one too! We will also be reading the corresponding chapter in our read-aloud book, The Thirteen Days of Christmas. We've had a debate this morning as I set out our 12 Days of Christmas pillar. The pillars say it's 11 pipers piping (doesn't the angel make such a sweet little piper) and then tomorrow, 12 drummers drumming but in the book we are reading and the song we are so familiar with it says 11 drummers drumming and 12 pipers piping.
One more to go!
     My children also inform me that in this pop-up book which they received as a gift from a sweet aunt, uncle and lots of boy cousins, the order offers a third variation. Which leads me to wonder... who wrote this thing and where can I find the original? I guess it doesn't really matter. I like my pillars so I'm gonna stick with that order. (Oh, and I bought them a few years ago, after Christmas, when they were 70% off at the local Hallmark store. Nowhere near the original price or even the price listed on Amazon!)

     We also look forward to a little merrymaking in the form of some corny jokes and games and getting ready to celebrate the Epiphany on Sunday! So, again, what are your plans?

Update! While at the library, we snagged a copy of Twelfth Night: The 30-Minute Shakespeare to read aloud and act out. The kids are really kind of giddy about it. Or maybe that's just me.

 

8 comments:

  1. We have had a lot of confusion on the 12 Days of Christmas song as well. We have always done 10 Lords-a-leaping, 11 pipers piping and 12 drummers drumming. HOWEVER, my mom bought some beautiful 12 Days of Christmas glasses a few years ago that had 10 pipers piping, 11 drummers drumming and 12 lords-a-leaping. And then I hear this version that has no pipers but 11 fiddlers fiddling?? By Connie Francis, no less.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful! I just love the pillars!

    You already know my plans (though I really need to get to the store if I hope to implement them!), and I'm going to try for the GF Epiphany cake this year too, since I haven't had any gluten yet this year and know I won't be able to resist a piece of that cake when I make it for my family!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We love Paul Sabuda's book titled The Christmas Alphabet. The pop ups are so great! I thought about buying the Twelve Days of Christmas, too, but decided to wait on it. I'm sure it's beautiful. We've been using the 12 Days ornaments, some of the kids did a 12 Days lapbook that I found at Homeschool Share, and we've done the play before using a kid's version. I usually make Twelfth Night Scones from Betty Crocker....however, not GF.:( I don't know if I'll make them again this year. The kids don't seem to like scones very much. We'll have a rosca de reyes for Epiphany on Sunday so maybe we'll just do the play again.:) Enjoy your celebrations!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So, I had to go and check and sure enough, even our Jan Brett book is different:
    Twelve Lords a Leaping
    Eleven Ladies Dancing
    Ten Pipers Piping
    Nine Drummers Drumming
    and Four "Colly" Birds

    The Little Pop up we have lists:
    Twelve Drummers
    Eleven Pipers
    Nine Ladies
    Eight Maids
    Seven Swans
    Six Geese
    Five Rings
    Four Calling Birds
    Three French Hens
    Two Turtle Doves
    and A Partridge...

    This is the version we usually sing, and the one that matches our Lap Book and new ornaments from Jesse Tree Treasures... Now I what to find our Golden Book version and see if it is different too! (I also have a newer version that should arrive in the mail this afternoon.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And NO WONDER I have such a hard time remembering the order of the last four things in the song!

      Delete
  5. Happy reading...feasting..bonding with family...

    Usha

    ReplyDelete
  6. Those Twelve Days of Christmas pillars are beautiful. Where did you get them from? Would love to add that to our Christmas traditions. Thanks for all your posts and wonderful ideas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shelby,
      I bought them after Christmas a couple of years ago at our local Hallmark store. I'm not sure where you can find them now.

      Delete

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and yourself!