Christmas and Cornflakes

I had the big idea on December 9th, I think, to do an advent/tree/calendar.  In all honesty, it wasn't my idea.  I got it from friends/blogs, etc., and I got a bit of a late start.  I really had to stop myself halfway through this Christmas season to think . . . Why am I doing all of this?  Overwhelmed was an understatement between organizing class parties, buying gifts, attending Christmas parties, baking, and just general holiday madness.  One night we happened to be reading Little Guy's Bible (Jesus Storybook Bible) and the section we're on (we read a couple of pages a night) just happens to be the Christmas story - pretty neat! 

So, anyway, I was reading to them about how God would choose to show up as a baby and be born in the worst of conditions, with straw to sleep on, surrounded by smelly animals.  I was thinking about how painstakingly we picked out Little Guy's crib when we knew we were going to have a baby.  We wanted it to be beautiful and strong and the mattress to be soft and comfy.  Jesus had none of that, and He deserved it.  How little do Christmas parties and baking and organizing matter in light of God coming to Earth as a baby?

After that I wanted to focus on what matters, which is where the advent calendar comes back in.  Each day had a bit of the Christmas story and an activity for our family to do together.  I decided not to buy an advent calendar but to make something (so not me!).  So, I made snowflakes and glued the paper on the back and arranged it into a tree.  Here is the progression . . .

front of the snowflakes:

all the snowflakes:

our advent tree:

Just to assure you how non-crafty I am . . . When Little Guy first saw it, the first thing he said was, "Those don't look like snowflakes!  Snowflakes aren't black!"  Come on, Little Guy, use your imagination!!  It's been fun, and the activities have been everything from

coloring Christmas pages
driving around to look at Christmas lights
going to the zoo
making Christmas cards
making a gingerbread house, etc.

The first thing they want to do in the morning is to go down and see what the day's activity is.  Although, lesson learned for next year - they are wiped out from some of the things.  Since Little Guy's not in school this week, we've packed in the activities.  They crashed!  Oh, well, that's how memories are made, right?  Each night before bed, we read the bit of the Christmas story on the paper.

Sweet girl has snowflakes on her mind though.  I never buy Cornflakes, but I had them for a recipe, so the kids have been eating them for breakfast.  The other day, when Little Guy ran out, Sweet Girl said, "You want more snowflakes?"  I still can't get her to call them Cornflakes.

I will post more pictures of some of our activities soon!

Geese and Angels

Campus Crusade held it's annual Light Up event tonight.  To be honest, I usually dread this event.  It's dark so it's harder to keep up with everyone, the lines for food are SUPER long, and the food is supposed to represent different countries . . . so, not kid friendly.  This year, though, we came prepared.  We went to McDonald's beforehand, so kids were eating Happy Meals, while mommy and daddy were able to fight through the food lines.  Although, no fighting was necessary because we got there 10 minutes early and there were no lines!  So, Blair and I munched on tacos and empanadas, while the kids munched on cheeseburgers and fries (I did throw in some apples, too, so as not to be completely unhealthy.)

Here the kids are before the party during some forced holiday fun in front of the tree.  You can imagine me spurting out any lines I could think of from Disney movies to try to make them smile and look natural. 

As you can see it didn't really work . . .

The night was fun.  There were lots of kid activities, and even a petting zoo.  If you know our Sweet Girl, you know she loves animals.  Goats, geese, bunnies, and ducks were there.  I don't know if you know anything about adult geese or not, but they are MEAN.  We are not fans of geese in this family after tonight.  Our dear little Sweet Girl loves the animals so much and stood by the fence to see them.  Well, along comes a goose out of nowhere and takes a snap at her finger!!  She was very scared.  I could hear the gasps around the circle of the fence when it happened.  It's like he came up just to snap at her - mean thing!  Thankfully, she wasn't too scarred and still ventured to touch a bunny and a donkey's rear end.

The best part of the night actually happened on the 3 minute drive home.  We pulled onto our street and I commented for the 800th time how much I love our outside Christmas lights.  Blair did a great job on them!  You can see our Christmas tree through the front 2 windows and it looks like a scene from a very happy Christmas movie to me.  I look at it, and I think I'm glad I get to live in there with these people.  This picture doesn't really do it justice, but here it is nonetheless . . .

Yeah, it looks pretty lame in the picture, but I promise in person, it's really pretty.  So, Little Guy, says to us, "But, you can't see my angel."  We ask what angel, and he says, "I moved my angel around the back, so people could see it from the window and know that Christmas is about baby Jesus."  I was shocked silent for a minute.  I was hit on 2 levels.  1 is that he is thinking on his own that Christmas is about Jesus, and 2 that he wants other people to know that.  It was an amazing moment.

Here is the picture of the ornament.  He just colored it in church last Sunday.