December 4th- Grinch Night

Today's advent scripture again came from Luke, this time it was Luke 2:40-52.  This passage tells the story of the boy Jesus in the temple.

Our activity for the day was our first of four story and a movie nights.  I love the story of the Grinch!  Since I love it every December one of our activities is a Grinch Night.  We read the book, make some goodies, and sit down together and watch the old animated movie (the new live action one is just creepy).

For refreshments during the movie we had green grinchy popcorn balls and some snowflake cookies.

 My children all seem to enjoy the movie and we will certainly read the book several more times this month.

December 3rd- Letters to Santa

Another busy day at our house.  I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg, but with one child in Kindergarten and another in Preschool, both in dance, and it feels likes we are always going somewhere.  Luckily I planned our advent activities accordingly so on busy days I scheduled simpler activities.

This afternoon we started by reading today's scripture passage which came from Matthew, 2:1-12.  This passage tells us about the how the wise men traveled to search out the baby Jesus.

After we read our scripture we started in on some little letters so Santa Claus.

 Lily told me what to write for Gideon's letter, he apparently would like cars, and then Gideon alternated between scribbling on his paper and trying to eat the marker.

 Charlotte dictated her letter to me and then drew a picture of the gift that she requested, a blanket.  This girl is like her aunts, she loves to be wrapped up in a blanket.

 Lily wrote her own letter to Santa.  She told him that she is nice and that she would like a sled.

 We then put the letters into an envelope to send off to the North Pole.

December 2nd- Beaded Candy Canes

Today was busy!  We spent maybe 2 hours at home all day long so our activity had to wait until we were home for the night at 7:30.  Luckily today's activity was simple.  We started out by reading Luke 2:8-18 which is the announcement to the shepherds.  We then made beaded candy cane ornaments.

 The project couldn't be more simple, we just needed pony beads and pipe cleaners.

 Our biggest challenge actually was the little boy who not only insisted on sitting on the table in the middle of our work space but then continued to shove beads into our hands.  Even with his "help" the girls had a good time and made some cute candy canes to put on the tree.

 Charlotte wanted her candy cane to be small.

 Lily on the other hand wanted a big candy cane.

December 1st- Decorating the Tree

It is December 1st so in the Hansen Home it is time to start our Advent activities as we count down the days until Christmas.  The weather decided to prove that it was in fact December so we were hit with some very wet snow.

Since on the first we always decorate the boxes were all pulled down and I set up my decorations.  My Nativity set tripled in size this year and I love it! 

 During nap time and quiet time I set up the tree and got it ready for the children to decorate later that afternoon.

 Once everyone was ready we pulled out our first pillow box out of our Christmas box.  The children each got a little treat while I read the scripture for the day.  Today was read about the birth of Christ in Luke 2:1-7.

 After we read our scripture the children went to work putting the ornaments on the tree.

 The concentrated their efforts in one general area.

 But it looks nice.  I'm sure that they will move their ornaments at least a dozen more times between now and Christmas so we'll see how the tree looks in a few weeks.

 They sure are sweet children though and they are so excited for Christmas!

Visit with Santa

We spent Thanksgiving this year with our friends the Jenkins',  The day after Thanksgiving we got together with a lot of our playgroup friends at the church to share some leftover pie and snacks and let the kids play.  While the kids were playing someone special showed up to visit.

Lily was so excited to see Santa Claus!  She talked about it excitedly all the way home.

 Charlotte was also excited, but a little bit shy.

 Gideon was curious, but not terribly keen to be on his lap.

 It was a really fun treat for the kids that they didn't expect at all.

Struttin for Stuffin Half Marathon

I haven't posted about any of my races in a while, but on Thanksgiving I ran a half marathon with a great group of friends.  It was a wonderful course, perfect weather, great company, and I felt fantastic through all of it.

This was my 11th half marathon this year and one of my best.

Seven Years

Tyson and I recently celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  7 is a strange number, nothing monumental about it, but we have had a great time.  I'm not going to pretend that it has been all wonderful, in fact much of our lives together are actually spent apart with his crazy school and work schedules and me taking care of the kids and trying to find sometime for my running (and sanity).  But we make it work, and we are still happy to be stuck together.  Because we do struggle to find time to be together, just us, we took a weekend off for our anniversary.  We left the kids with my sister and brother-in-law and then took off for a local vacation.

During our weekend away we went for a lot of walks and hikes.  I wanted to get some miles in, but Tyson isn't a fan of running so we compromised.  It is kind of embarrassing, but as a Treasure Valley native I have never hiked Tablerock.  We decided to check it out since we were child-free and it was a great little hike.

Tyson is always fascinated by the old prison.  I'm sure that he is glad that he gets to work in a much more modern facility.

 We had some beautiful views of Boise.  It is clear why Boise is the city of trees.

It was such a pleasant weekend and we really enjoyed our chance to be just a couple again.  Seven years, a degree (and almost a second, come on May!), three kids, and two dogs later and we are grateful for our wonderfully imperfect life.