What God Wants for Christmas, day 1!

Bree couldn't wait to put on her Christmas tree shirt this morning. She was so excited to show all her friends at MOPs. We had a Christmas party at our meeting, which was a blast. I got some amazingly delicious gifts from my Secret Mom.

We started our new lesson on "What God Wants for Christmas" this morning. We open a present and find the character we are going to read about, read the story together, and then she puts the character in the nativity scene. I was worried she would hate waiting for each box (you do one every day), but she seemed okay with it. Today we read the intro from Gabriel. He is the narrator of the whole thing, so we start with him. She liked opening the present and getting out the little figure. I think we will read the entire story the last day (Christmas morning) to put it all together. It might be hard to remember what we read days before.

Again, no pants ... (sigh)

a Wonderful Wednesday

This week has been a blur, but we have had a lot of fun days. Tuesday a friend of mine who lives out of state now was visiting, so we had a great morning with her.

Today our lesson was our final telling of the Bible story from her Bible. She still loves those felt people. Our activity that day was making a special t-shirt for MOPs tomorrow. She loved gluing on the colorful pom-poms. I had made the tree the night before so it was dry. I sewed on the pom-poms so that they will stay. That took forever.

(I don't I've posted a picture where my kid is fully dressed ... whatever.)

Our Elf was reading a story that morning to her friends. Bree enjoyed that.

All the Monday Merriment!

This morning we found the Elf hiding in our stocking. That silly Elf...

Our lesson today was using the homework she receives from church. We went through the story they gave us and worked on her Bible verse. She gets a sticker each week for knowing it -- and she loves stickers.

Our activity today was Play-Doh. We used a cookie cutter to make trees and decorated them. She loved it. Play-Doh is one of her favorite activities.

Ignore the Halloween jammies ...

After Ollie woke up, we headed to Target to pick out our new ornament for the tree. I decided to let her pick it. She chose Hello Kitty, and it's unbreakable (perfect!). We also did a little Christmas shopping and talked to lots of strangers. Kids are a magnet for conversation. Ollie likes to sit in the back of the cart so he can stand, and it reminds me of the scene in Titanic where he's king of the world ... just like that. Bree likes to ride in the front. It works out well.

Brent starts finals today, so it is the last work week for him. We are very excited. He really needs a break!

Friend Frenzy

This was a great weekend. Saturday was a fun day. We did our Bible story while Ollie napped, and then headed out to a Christmas party with some friends. Lots of kids, lots of food, and lots of fun. Bree skipped her nap so she was a bit of a mess in the evening, but she went to bed early like a champ. It was a great day.

The Elf has been up to some crazy things, as well.

Apparently the story is getting dull because she is adding modern technology to it.

Sunday was church, good naps (finally!), and some much needed grocery shopping. We are set for the week, and it's going to be a busy one: Brent's final week of school and our final advent week. We start our series 'What God Wants for Christmas' this week, and I am excited about it. She is practically reciting the entire Bible story from her Bible, so I'm glad for a different spin on it.

Cookie Capers

Today was exciting. After a long night of partying last night, Bree and Ollie were both up early (shocker!). Today our activity was a Christmas playdate with friends. We went and decorated cookies together, which Bree loved, at her friend Emory's house.

The rest of the day was kind of a hiccup. She had partied too hard last night, had too many cookies today, and behavior was pretty bad. She had to throw out her cookies for screaming in her bed (thus waking her brother from his nap), and everyone was weary by 5pm. So we had early bedtimes.

Tomorrow will be better.

White Elephant Win

With 12 days until Christmas, things are getty pretty busy! We are avoiding the hustle and bustle of shopping and all that chaos, but we are enjoying lots of fun activities as a family.

Today was especially fun. We had a doctor's visit for Ollie (not very Christmas-y but a must). We went to school to visit Brent. In the evening, we hosted the annual FCA Christmas Party for WGHS. Bree was up for the whole thing, and she loved it. We actually walked away with the best White Elephant gifts. Two beanbag chairs and a stuffed dog in a purse. Score for Bree and Ollie.

The Elf was up late decorating our Christmas tree (I apologize for the blurry picture). Bree loved this one. The Elf has also adopted that little reindeer dog as its sidekick.

I'm excited for tomorrow and the weekend. It should be busy -- but lots of family fun!

Crafts & Climbing

Yesterday was a craft day for our activity. She made gift tags for our presents and decorated our wrapping paper. She enjoyed gluing on the buttons and painting the paper.

Today was fun, not too much going on!

Our activity today involved Ollie ... a snowy cushion mountain.

She always asks to take all the cushions off, so I save it for special occasions. We took them down and slid down, climbed up, flopped around, and enjoyed all kinds of merriment. Ollie even played too.

Her dad has enjoyed hiding the elf the past two days -- but he doesn't take photos, so use your imagination. It hid in her backpack and hung from our ceiling fan. She loved that one.

Today we had a playdate at Chic-Fil-A, our fave, with friends. Poor Ollie, he had a pink jacket because I don't have a boy-ish one. He's still a cutie though!

Merry Christmas, Birds!

This weekend was a blast. Saturday Brent took Bree to Home Depot to their kid's workshop. She made a tic tac toe wooden game. After, we met friends at Chic-fil-A for lunch and play. Always a blast.

The Elf was climbing the curtains yesterday and today she was hiding in our flowers, smelling them.

Today we had church, always a favorite in this house. Our activity for today was an animal Christmas tree. I got the idea from a book my sister game me on Advent activities. Then, randomly, I picked a book from the library where a little mouse and mole do the exact same thing!

So, we made delicious treats to hang on our neighbor's tree (after we asked for permission, of course) and said 'Merry Christmas!' to the animals.

Finally, here is just a fun picture of her hair. She wanted curly hair like me so I did no-heat headband curls. She loved it! I might do this more often. SUPER easy!

Old St. Nicholas

As promised, today was a whirlwind of activity!

Saint Nicholas brought them goodies in the boots! Bree got the Veggie Tales Christmas DVD collection and Ollie got the final set of our Little People nativity set (the Wise men!).

Our lesson today was the Bible story told through her Little People nativity set. She loved using the people to act out the story. Today she wanted to read the story to me and have me use the people (usually she will use the people as I tell the story). So I think she's remembering it a lot better now!

After that, we made candy cane reindeer and attached the story of the candy cane. She and her dad passed them out to our neighbors when he got home from work. She loved it.

Tonight, she helped me make Christmas Tree pizza and we are watching one of her new Christmas movies.

And that rounds out week one! OH -- and we called Grandma Shelly this morning to wish her a wonderful birthday!

Jesus Made Spiders Too

The past two days have been a whirlwind! But we are enjoying the holiday season. Our activities were social ones both days (a playdate with Bree's friend, Kenzie, on Wednesday and MOPs today), but often those are Bree's favorite. She is a people person, for sure. She thrives on interaction with people. I still read her our Bible story each day. She's not getting sick of it, which is nice. I am using some of the books from my Advent Bookshelf to break up the way I tell it. I don't read it from the Bible each day. I love the book, "Hurry, Hurry! Have You Heard?" It's a great story about the animals coming to see baby Jesus and how He loves them, great and small.

Side Note: When reading about the animals, it talks about bugs (including a spider) and every time she says ... "but I don't like spiders." I try to remind her that God made even the spiders -- though I could never tell her why He did or admit I like them either... Oh well.

Bree has loved finding the Elf. Usually she and her dad find it in the morning before he leaves for work. Yesterday she was having a tea party. Bree thought that was hilarious. She said the bear and frog were the Elf's mom and dad.

Tomorrow is jam packed.

It is St. Nicholas Day - so we left their boots outside their doors. They will find a surprise in them tomorrow morning.

Then lesson and a craft. Tune in tomorrow!

Whew!

Felt Board Fanatic.

Today's Advent activities went great. We started with the Bible story. I used her Bible to tell it but rather than looking at the pictures (which is what we did yesterday), I used felt people to act it out. My sister had sent me a nativity set last year, and I colored, cut, and felted them all for the lesson.

Bree LOVED it. She wanted me to tell the story 5 times, and after she got the "order" (which felt people come out when) she wanted to do it herself. She played the whole time with that, so we didn't even get to the "fun" part. Funny how that happens.

It would have been nice on our big felt board (more room), but her felt Christmas tree is taking that space up right now. But this worked.

Our Christmas activity was a special Christmas coloring page. We don't ever buy coloring books because I print out coloring pages that she requests, so she loved looking through a book and choosing one.

She woke up to the Elf eating breakfast with her spoon. She laughed and kept saying, "That silly Elf!"