The Start of Advent

I really try to make advent special...We celebrate each day with a little activity and count and wait...On the shortest day we celebrate both Daddy Joy's birthday and that Jesus is the light and hope in the darkness. We are moving towards longer days, more light, and brighter times, even if it is only by 3 minutes a day! ;0)

This year we read The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas by Madelin L'Engle we also read lots of other Christmasy books.

We started out the month putting snow sugar on some cookies...

 Quickly moved into decorating the living room...

 Pip NOT sharing the kindle movie she was watching.

This is us watching White Christmas Together...Friendly really liked the first half...I never did get to finish that movie...

We made Cranberry garlands for the Cardinals and sparrows that play in the bushes by our house...

 Pip even got into stringing her own little string!

Friendly made hers THAT long!!!

 And we made Bird feeders using cookie cutters, cotton yarn, peanut butter, and bird seed...

Wrap the cookie cutters thickly in coton yarn.

Spread peanutbutter over the cotton yarn.

Roll peanutbutter covered cookie cutters in birdseed

And hang up for the birds to enjoy! We added some cranberries for good measure...The cardinals have been visiting quite a bit!

We made snow topped Christmas Cookies

Why yes I like to enjoy some quality time with the ipad from inside a Christmas box...Doesn't everybody? Pip is a quirky kid.

The kids played Train several days...Which involved delivering presents and lots of bread crumbs. Don't ask me.

Paleo and Vegan Christmas Cookies!

snuggles

We made Snowflake Ballerinas and wreaths along with our traditional Christmas Chain this year...

 And for St. Nicholas Day the kids recieved some special Crayola Model Magic- Friendly LOVES the stuff...we all do actually!

But she especially likes working on her cakes.

This year I also tried to make it a priority to take each of the kids out on a special date to shop for other family members... This was a lot of fun, though I think next year we'll draw names from a hat! shopping for multiple presents in each trip was a bit of a headache! :)

Friendly picked special crayons and a sticker book for her sisters a coffee mug for Nana and candycane boxers for Daddy

Roo picked out beautiful earrings for Nana, a computer Mouse for Daddy, and 2 special books for her sisters

Pip carried her purse all through target and insisted she help me carry our shopping basket as well. She was so unbelievably little and sweet. She picked out Christmas socks for her sisters, a new wooden car for her, and oh yea she needed a pair of socks as well (thankful I directed her to the dollar section at Target!)

My favorite night was probably Tree Night... The weekend before Christmas we got out the eggnog, the iced cookies, and some marangues, and we curled up by the light of the tree and I read out loud from my Dad's Norman Rockwell Christmas book. It brought back so many cozy memories of my childhood and Friendly and Roo really seemed to enjoy it too. Tree Night lives on!

And then there was Christmas...But I will save that for another post on another day! It is looking like I might actually catch up on blogging before Roo turns 7 and we celebrate a New Year!