Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Angel Breakfast

Ever since I first read about a church that held an Angel Breakfast, I wanted to do one...as an outreach. It was never to be though. So, we held one during Sunday School instead. And now with Covid-19, even a small one probably isn't a good idea. But who's to say you can't adapt this and use it for Christmas breakfast in your home. 

Why not add something different this year. When you can't go to the great events, why not bring one to your home. So here is everything you need to know, including downloadable printables. I hope you have a great family celebration this year.

Invitations

If you are doing this at home, you can skip the invitations. If you are able to do an event, used pictures of my centerpieces for the invitations. I designed them in Canva, a great online tool that has a free version.

Decorations

I used paper angels I purchased on Etsy here. I used 20 pound paper rather than card stock so that the tealights would shine through better. I had to enlarge the angels. They are designed for place-cards. I opened it in Adobe PDF and copied the angel by taking a snapshot of it with the snapshot tool. Then I pasted it into a Word doc and enlarged it. You could also use it as intended and make darling place-cards for everyone.

We used Buffalo Snow to make "clouds" down the center of our table. You can use any sort of fiber fill or even cotton batting for this. We added other angel figurines people lent us.


 

The Meal (Breakfast)

The main part of this breakfast is angel shaped pancakes. We made large round pancakes and cut them with an angel cookie cutter. If you are doing this for a large group, you can make and cut the pancakes ahead of time and then freeze them. When it's time to eat, reheat them in the microwave.

We added a "cloud" of whipped cream under the angel. Syrup, fruit cups and juice rounded out the meal.


Craft 

You can find plenty of angel crafts online. I have a number on my pinterest board entitled Kid's Events - Christmas Angel Breakfast for Children. We used one from Jesus Without Language. I liked this one because the angel actually looks like it is moving and it came from the Biblical story of the angel that appeared to Joseph in a dream. 


The instructions for this one are here.  You can purchase a huge Christmas pack that will include this craft at Teachers Pay Teachers. You can contact Kate at Jesus Without Language to see if this angel craft can be purchased individually.

Story

What a great opportunity to share with your children some of the truth of Christmas. God used special messengers to help prepare the way for his entrance into this world. The angel appeared to Mary, another to Joseph in a dream, and then to the shepherds. There were other appearances as well, but these are three major ones that occur within the 9 month period of God's entrance. You can find a children's book, or use some of the wonderful, free resources on line. My favorite site for visuals for telling a story is Free Bible Images. The page that has all of their Christmas stories is here.


Above are two sample pictures from one of the many stories you can find at Free Bible Images. They come with story planners if you need help telling the story. I print the pictures on cardstock.

Photo Op

You can make this as fancy or simple as you want. We went with simple. 


Please contact me if you have any questions.


 

Monday, September 28, 2020

Christmas on a Sunday

Every once in awhile Christmas falls on a Sunday. Over the years we have approached it various ways. My most memorable Christmas Sunday was a few years back. That year we gathered the Sunday School teachers in November and asked if they wanted to cancel Sunday School for Christmas morning and just have a church service, since Christmas is also a huge family holiday. One teacher was very vocal that Christmas was the whole reason we had church to begin with and it being the celebration of the entrance of our Savior into the world we should absolutely have Sunday School.

So we planned an Intergenerational Breakfast and it was the highest attendance we had all year.

We set up a continental style breakfast. The pièce de résistance were the homemade cinnamon rolls one of our ladies made. We had fruit salad, juice, hot chocolate and coffee as well. 

We used cloth tablecloths and simple centerpieces to make things a little special. It was simple, yet classy. I found everything for the centerpieces in our resource room. Polyester fiber fill, plastic snowflakes and battery operated votive candles. The little snowflakes were made from white paper and a snowflake punch. Walmart and Michael's carry these.

We played several games. 

  1. One was drawing a Christmas tree and fireplace on a paper plate on top of your head. 

  2. The other was piling up snowballs (marshmallows) on a wide wooden Popsicle stick. 

 




We met in the children's area instead of the fellowship hall, and I think this helped the event to be more incorporating of the generations. Some children were there with their families, but there was at least one who came without parents. Adults intermingled and played games with the children whether or not they were related. We even had people come to this that did not normally come for Sunday School. The best thing was that this could be an all-inclusive event. Those with disabilities could be incorporated as well.

My favorite moment came when one of the boys let out a huge yawn, and without missing a beat I asked, "Are we boring you?" What was special was that he was non-verbal. He rarely attended church because while non-verbal, he was not non-noiseful. I am not aware of the level of his handicaps, but at that moment, in the warmth of everyone joined together in one big class area, I interacted with him like any other child, which of course he was, but we so often forget that. It flowed naturally, effortlessly in the atmosphere of the gathering. 

There is a time and place for intergenerational programs and there is also a need for age appropriate teaching. If your church regularly has a Sunday School, an event like this would be great once a quarter, or even 3 times a year. It helps the children to connect with the rest of the church, and helps the church connect with them too. And it is an opportunity for an all-inclusive gathering of everyone in your church.




Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Pancakes and Missions



Kid's Mission's Breakfast from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.

They say that kids learn best when they are having fun. The first half of this event included "catching" your breakfast. Our cook flipped the pancakes and the kids caught them on their plates. The kids had a blast, but they also learned about the importance of Bible translation and smuggling and heard from a missionary. Parents were invited too, creating a family event at the same time.

Instructions for the Pin the Bible on the World game can be found in this post from November.


Pirate Themed Trunk & Treat

Shiver me timbers and batton down the hatch, it's trunk and treat time and have we got a theme for you. Be sure to check the video out a...