December 24th, Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve!

We spent almost the entire day with my family, all of my family.  My siblings and their families that live out of state were all in town and we gathered together at my parents' home for the day.  The day started with a family photo shoot, which was our Christmas gift to our mom.  It has been over 3 years since we were all together and many new children, and a new sister-in-law, have been added since then so we were in need of an updated group photo.  I'm very excited to see what the finished product looks like.

We then spent the rest of the day cooking, swimming, and enjoying each others' company.  That evening we we sat down together and read the Christmas story from Luke 2.  We then opened our annual Christmas Eve packages, which usually include pajamas and for our kids a new family Christmas story and an ornament for each.  This year I made the girls' pajamas.  They look cozy to me, I should have made myself some too.  I also crocheted some little slippers for them.  

 We also had our cousins' gift exchange and Lily was over the moon with the tea set that she received, I couldn't get a picture of her without it.  Charlotte also got her own tea set which is perfect!  They can have tea parties together without fighting over who gets to pour the tea.

Charlotte loves babies   Have a mentioned that?  She really loves baby Camden, who is a full year younger than her, but the same size, and Charlotte is not a tiny thing by any means.

December 23rd

Today was crazy busy!  Family in town, tons of last minute projects to finish, but we just might make it.

To finish our story of Christ's birth and early life we read Luke 2: 39-40, which simply tells us that the family returned to Nazareth and that Jesus grew, was "strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him."

Our activity for today was to make Christmas cookies, but in my rush no photos were taken.  My girls love to bake, always have.  In fact, I often wait to bake until they are napping because they can make it a little difficult sometimes.  Someday they will be great little cooks and bakers all on their own.

December 22nd

We are closing in on Christmas!

Our scripture for today was Matthew 2:19-23 which discusses Joseph bring Mary and the Christ child back from Egypt after the death of Herod to dwell in Nazareth, which fulfilled prophecy.

Our activity for the day was to make Christmas candy.  I grew up making candy every Christmas with my family to give away to the neighbors and friends and I enjoy continuing that tradition in my own family.  Because so much of my family is in town right now we didn't spend all day at it, we just made some creamy caramels and fudge, because those are my favorites.

Charlotte loved helping, but tried at least half a dozen times to dump ground chipotle powder in the fudge...could have been good, but I wasn't willing to risk it.

 Lily wasn't too keen on cooking this year, but she was happy to watch and eat the finished product.

December 21st

You know what the best part about the holidays is, family.  I love when my brothers and sister who live far away are home to visit and I love going out to visit our family that lives away from us.

The scripture for today was Micah 5:2 which is a prophecy about Christ coming out of Bethlehem that was given long before His birth.

Today's activity is one of our annual favorites.  We went to visit the Idaho Botanical Gardens for their Winter Garden Aglow.  This time we were joined in our advent activity by 2 of my sisters and their families.  The kids LOVED the lights.  That is an understatement, they were transfixed.  My nephew was hilarious, he was just in heaven going back and forth wanting to touch all of the lights.

While there the kids got to see a reindeer and visit Santa.  Lily still won't sit on his lap, but I'm okay with that.    Her being nervous about sitting on a stranger's lap is perfectly fine with me and I am not so desperate for that photo to make her do it.  Besides, I left my camera in the car by mistake so I didn't get any pictures this year.  Charlotte wasn't sure about him, but she sat there and said "hi."  They were well worn out by the end and fell asleep within a couple minutes of getting in the car.

December 20th

It is amazing how time flies when you just want it to slow down.  We missed our advent activity on the 20th, it was just a crazy day and we didn't end up having time for it.  To make up for that we did our advent activity for the 20th first thing in the morning on the 21st.  

Our scripture for the day was Matthew 2:16-18, which tells of Herod's slaughter of the innocents after the Wise Men didn't return to identify the Christ child.  A little to poignant for right now.

Our activity was a Nutcracker Night (which turned out to be a Nutcracker morning).  With Lily in dance she is very interested in watching others dance so I thought that she might enjoy watching The Nutcracker, I had no idea that Charlotte would like it so much.  She dance around the living room along with the dancers, trying to copy them.  The mouse king scared Lily, but other than that she also enjoyed watching it.

While watching the movie I had some crayons out with some nutcracker themed coloring pages.

December 19th

Our scripture for the 19th day of December was about one of Christ's teachings, which I think is really well fitting for this time of year.  It was Matthew 25:40 which tells us that when we help and serve others, we are serving our God.  May we all be kind and loving towards all those whom we meet, not matter the circumstances.

Today we made ;little presents for the girls to take to their teachers for preschool and church, which mostly involved baking.  Once the baking was done though the girls got to work coloring Christmas cards  Charlotte loves coloring.

 Lily was feeling a little camera shy today, but she was helpful.  After writing her name on a card she went and wrote Charlotte's name on her card, it wasn't quite spelled right, but it was really good for a 3 year-old writing out such a long name on her own.

December 18th

One week until Christmas, talk about crunch time!!!

Today we read Matthew 2:13-15, which is where Joseph was told by the angel to take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt to protect them from Herod and to fulfill the prophecy that we read yesterday in Hosea.

Our activity for today came from Pinterest.  We took some little candy canes, formed hearts on parchment paper, the poured some melted while chocolate into the heart shapes, and ended by sprinkling crushed candy canes on top.  Lily had a blast crushing candy canes.  

 We made these as presents for Lily and Charlotte's friends so we packaged them up all cute and have them ready to go.