December 17th

One week until Christmas Eve!!!  Anyone else freaking out about them, because I am!  I'm usually so much more prepared.  I've just been a little off these last few months and now I'm feeling the effects of it.  Thankfully, today's advent activity was quick and simple.  We started out, as always, with the day's scripture.  Today is was Hosea 11:1 which tells how Israel was led out of Egypt as a similitude of Christ.

I had planned to paint snowflakes today, but it has been NUTS around here today, so I adjusted.  We still did snowflakes, but no paint.  I got out some blue construction paper, glue sticks and irridescent glitter.  I had them use the glue sticks to decorate a snowflake (I drew the basic 3 crossed lines) and then they poured glitter on and moved it around to cover the glue.

 I let my 21 month old pour glitter on her own.  This is what happens when mommy gets 4 hours of sleep, she isn't always thinking clearly.

 Since the project didn't take long, and they were still in a creative mode I brought them coloring books and crayons.

December 16th

Continuing on with out Christmas story, as part of our advent calendar today we read Luke 2:36-38, which is about Anna, who was also at the temple with Simeon and prophesied about Christ child's future role as the Redeemer of mankind.

For our activity today I had planned to make snowball cupcakes, which worked out perfectly because my mother texted me yesterday asking me to bring dessert to family dinner tonight.  I made the cupcakes while the girls napped and when they got up we were ready to decorate.

 Lily is a pro by now, she knew just what to do and was waiting to help me load up and use the piping bag.

 We just had a couple dozen cupcakes, the best white frosting ever, and some crystalline white sprinkles.

 I piped the frosting on and the girls tipped them upside down into the bowl of sprinkles.  The tops looked just like glittering snowballs (but they tasted much better).

December 15th

My goodness this month is busy!  I'm usually so on top of things this time of year because I plan and prepare ahead of time, but this year, things are just off and I'm behind on everything!!!  We are managing to keep up with out advent calendar though.  Today's scripture was Luke 2:25-35 which is where Joseph and Mary come across Simeon at the temple and he prophesies of Christ's sacred mission.

Luckily our activity today was a simple one, we planned to attend our ward Christmas party (church).  We had a fun time being out for a bit as a family, but we had to leave early because our girls had woken up at 5:30 in the morning and by 8:00 they were done.

December 14th

Our 14th day of Christmas started with Matthew 2:1-5, which is where the three magi come to Herod asking where to find the Christ child.  Lily knows that there are three wise men from her nativity set so she perked up when I told her that they came from far away to find the baby Jesus because they saw his star.

Our activity for the day was very simple, we colored Christmas pictures.  Just printed some pictures off the internet and let the girls go at it.

 Lily was very excited about her colorful picture!  And yes, she is wearing shorts.  The girl dressed herself and since we won't going anywhere I let it be for the day.

December 13th

Today was very busy again, so our advent calendar had to wait until evening.  We started out, as always, by reading scripture, today's passage was Luke 2:21-24 which is Jesus' presentation at the temple after 8 days.

For our activity we painted wreaths.  I cut out some paper plates, put some green paint on a plate, and let them go at it.

 Then we put fingerprints in red all around as our berries.  Lily clumped them all together, but Charlotte spread them out pretty well.

 Lily loves to use GLOBS of paint, so these might be dry sometime next week.

December 12th

Halfway there already?

We are continuing to work our way through our scriptural account of the birth of Christ  today we read Exodus 13:2 which discusses how the first born are sanctified but God.

Since Tyson worked a day shift today and was actually home in the evening I decided to have our "Grinch Night" tonight.  We borrowed a copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and settled in to watch it while snacking on green popcorn and Grinch Punch, just a blended mixture of lime sherbet and 7-up.

December 11th

I love how involved my girls are getting with the advent calendar.  They ask to do the calendar climb up on the couch and open the package, hand me the card with the day's plan and eat their treat while we read our scripture for the day.

We continue to work our way through the Christmas story.  Yesterday we talked about the angel's visitation to the shepherds and today we read Luke 2:15-20, where the shepherds came to see Mary and the baby Jesus and then left to spread the word about what they had seen and heard.

Our activity for today was a snowman dinner.  Tuesdays are very busy days for us between preschool, dance class, and everything else so I had planned an activity that could be done during the evening.  We started out by making a snowman pizza complete with a carrot nose, though we substituted olives for the traditional coal.

After dinner was cleaned up we had snowman ice cream for dessert.  The girls were so excited by the little faces on their ice cream.