Crafting Snowflakes

For today's Advent activity, we did a craft.  I led the activity, which was to use coffee filters by folding them up and cutting them and then unfolding them to make snowflakes.  The kids did a great job with it, and Joshua especially enjoyed it and wanted to do multiple snowflakes.  I did one of my own as well, and in the end we had some cute crafts that we've hung on our windows as a fun holiday decoration.

Journey to Judea

One of our Christmas activities this year was to go to the Journey to Judea put on by Countryside Baptist Church in southern Olathe.  It's an hour-long outdoor tour of maybe 15 or so vignettes covering events from Exodus on through to the Resurrection.  Brent went with us, and while we waited for our group to be ready to go, we enjoyed some cookies and hot chocolate.   Clara sat in a chair and specifically requested Uncle Brent to sit by her, which made her really happy.

We then went out on the tour.  The girls pretty much refused to wear their coats, and concerned people asked us if we had coats for our children.  We assured them we did, but they seemed skeptical of our parenting.  But it really wasn't that cold out, and we knew they would ask for them when they were cold enough, and they did.  You walk from station to station, through the trees to each one, so there is a fair amount of walking.  The tour was quite good.  The actors were all from the church, but they were all skilled.  There were even live animals.  For example, there was a sheep representing the ram caught in the thicket after God tells Abraham not to sacrifice Isaac.  The sets were surprisingly elaborate too.  The empty tomb vignette, for example, had actual massive stones in place with a boulder that had been rolled away.  It was there that my favorite moment of the night happened.  It was around 10pm at that point (we started at 9 because the earlier slots were sold out), but our kids were still doing well, despite all the walking and the late hour.  Our group had about 25 people in it, and we were all listening to the monologue given by the actress representing Mary talking about being at the tomb and Jesus not being there.  During her speech, she said something like, "But the tomb was empty!  What had happened?!"  It was a rhetorical question, as this was a monologue, not an interactive session, but Joshua had been watching with rapt attention and before she could get to her next line, little Joshua blurted out, "I know!  It's because he came back to life."  Most of the people in the group cheered or clapped or laughed because it was so cute.  Joshua didn't know any better.  He just heard Mary ask a question, and he was pretty excited that he knew the answer, so he yelled it out.  People came up to us afterward and said to us and/or Joshua that it was great to hear him know the answer and to be so excited to say it.  So that was a nice little moment in our evening, and we enjoyed it overall, and I think we'll probably try to go again next year.

The Great Candy Cane Hunt

Tonight we went to an event called the Great Candy Cane Hunt at the Olathe Community Center.  The staff set out hundreds of small candy canes on the grounds of the property, and the kids were to bring their own flashlights to search the grass to find and collect as many candy canes as they could. While we waited to start, Hannah refused to put on her coat because it was blue.  That's ridiculous, of course, but we knew she'd change her mind if she got cold enough, and she soon did.  The kids had a great time.  I took Hannah, and Meghan took Joshua and Clara.  They all found a couple dozen candy canes and were pretty excited about their haul.  Afterward we were all pretty cold, so we warmed up with the provided hot chocolate.

Nutcracker Tea Party

Today was my date day with Clara. I decided to take her to the Nutcracker Tea Party, which includes a tea party and then an abbreviated show that lasts about an hour. When we arrived, it was very festive and some of the ballerinas sprinkled her with fairy dust.

We did not have the best table since I bought tickets one day before the performance, but it was close to the gift shop. Clara chose a pink nutcracker ornament. The performers walk around before the show and mingle and pose for photographs. Clara was not on board with this first photograph even though they let her hold their teddy bear.

We enjoyed the tea party. Clara did not like tea, so stuck with lemonade and enjoyed cookies more than the other options.

When we tried another picture, this time she was in better spirits. She told them how chicken baby was a lamb just like that for Halloween and they smiled and had no idea what she was talking about. During the performance, they let the kids sit up front, so our table didn't really matter. She lasted about 40 of the 60 minutes before she was kind of done and came back and sat in the back with me. It was a nice afternoon and I think it's a great way to experience the Nutcracker for the first time.

At the end of our date day, I gave Clara a Barbie I had from my Barbie-collecting days: Sugar Plum Fairy Barbie. She was totally excited about it and kept saying, "She used to be yours, but now she's mine." She was pretty exhausted when we got home, but she wouldn't take a nap without sleeping with her new doll.

In Our Christmas Jammies

All the "presents" we are opening for Advent are either books or movies except today, which were jammies. The kids were totally excited to wear their new jammies tonight.

A Crowded Sleigh Leads the Way

Today was our day to decorate the tree.  We are in the second year of our latest tree, which was one we got from Mom and Ron after our previous tree decided that a tree where all the lights remained lit was not something it was interested in being.  This year all the kids were able to contribute at least somewhat in putting the ornaments on the tree.  But a big change this year, from a tradition standpoint, is that I finally moved away from Horsey Hodie being the first ornament on the tree.  I decided we should have the first ornament be one that represents our whole family.  Awhile ago, Meghan started ordering us personalized ornaments from a company called Lenox.  We have one from them for our marriage and for our first home.  We have one for Baby's First Christmas (and in some cases second and third as well).  But we also have some family ones.  In 2010 we got one to show our family, and it's a sleigh full of three snowmen, since that was our first Christmas with more than just the two of us, so there's a little Joshua snowman.  The next year we had tiny baby Clara, so we got a new one with her added.  Then in 2012 we had baby Hannah, and our sleigh was loaded up with five snowmen.  I decided that should be our new first ornament on the tree every year, so I made that change this year, and today Joshua put it on as the first ornament.  By the time we were done, our tree was really quite crowded.  We are only getting more new ornaments every year, so we might have to switch to a 9-foot tree just to give us more space.  But for this year, at least, we have a tree completely full of ornaments, and we love it.

Advent Unwrapping

In a lot of ways, we have never been busier. I feel like I blink and a week passes by. But in other ways, things are so much easier with older kids and I have more free time than I used to. So one thing I always wanted to do, in addition to our Jesse Tree/Advent Calendar, is a book countdown. I usually have  assigned each day a book or movie in December. But this year I wrapped them all and wrote numbers on them so the kids can unwrap something each day and see what we will be watching or reading. This did take awhile, so when I did it, I felt it probably wouldn't be worth the effort. However, after seeing it in action, I really do feel it was worth it. The kids are totally pumped when it's their turn to unwrap and they are always super excited to see what it is. I thought it wouldn't be that exciting because, though I switch out a couple books or movies each year as they get older, it's mostly the exact same stuff we read or watched last year. (The Santa Clause, if you are wondering, is not a great movie. It was new this year for us. It is a good one for younger kids who may be ready for their first non-animated movie. I hope we will switch it out for Miracle on 34th Street before too long.) I'm not sure we'll do it forever, but we'll probably continue it for a few years before the kids stop being excited by it.