Party of Five

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Christmas Elves

These three were hard at work today! Trying new foods (strawberry yogurt):

And these two worked in the "downstairs office" sticking address labels and stamps on our Christmas cards. Brinley thought several of them looked better with stamps in alternate places, but they have all been fixed. :)

Follow the Star to Bethlehem: Photos

Our two oldest kids were both in the children's Christmas program at church this year and were so cute as little shepherds!

Brinley:

Shepherds, having lost their staffs, herded their sheep by whatever means possible, including Sunday School building blocks...

Brayden is in brown with green hat, third from right.

Bristol entertained herself in a variety of ways. First, she ate the camera case:

Then she moved on to eating a cup:

She looked adorable in her Christmas tutu and her shirt that matched Brinley's dress, if I do say so myself!

My sweet boys

Follow the Star to Bethlehem

Brinley is in the front row blue with yellow hat on the right. Brayden is standing on stage, second from right, in green and brown.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Kindness of a Stranger

Amid the chaos of the holiday season, and despite recent reports of senseless and even random violence, I am reminded that the world is full of good people. Earlier this week I had a brief amount of time to run errands at Target (alone!). I was picking up quite a lot of stuff for a number of different things and my cart was overflowing with bags and two large-ish boxes as I exited the store. The rain was torrential. I wrangled the cart to the car with my umbrella, trying to cover the few things that could be damaged by rain. One of the boxes was heavy and long and I needed to get it in the car first, so that I could put all the other stuff on top of it. As I tried to get it out and hold the umbrella, the cart would start to roll away. Then, a kind stranger appeared! She held the cart and the umbrella for me while I got the box in the car, and then helped me put all my bags in. It was a small gesture that made a big difference for me on a rainy day. What can you do today to show kindness to someone?

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Little Sponges

We often have K-LOVE Christian radio on in the car and their jingle is "Positive, encouraging, K-LOVE." Recently we were talking about our neighbor named Kayla. Brayden sang, "Oh, like positive, encouraging, Kayla?" They are little sponges, these kids of ours. Soaking it all in, even when we think they may not be listening. Love this little boy!

Monday, December 5, 2011

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

The kids had such fun decorating the tree this year- mostly because we let them stand on the little stool and hang ornaments! When we finished the big tree, we moved on to the little tree in their room with all of their ornaments and the mini tree on the kitchen table and we still need to do the little tree in Bristol's room. Brayden & Daddy hung lights and garland on the porch outside and put up the big inflatable Santa. The stockings are all hung

These foam gingerbread house kits are SOOOOO much easier than the ridiculous mini houses we tried to do last year from a kit. These don't break, they're not messy, the kids can decorate all by themselves and you're not tempted to eat all the candy!

I love how it looks like it's snowing here, but it's really just rain. If you squint, you can see Rudolph's red nose glowing down to the right of the plant by the door.

The kids are so excited to see Santa each day when he "wakes up from his nap!"

Can you believe that I've never actually see the Nutcracker? I just like these and happened to pick up a few on clearance after Christmas for a few years!

One of my favorite ornaments: dried flowers from our wedding that my Mom saved and made into ornaments for us for our first Christmas! Breakables will remain off of the tree for a few more years...

Love this ornament that we made last year at You Made It with the kids thumbprints.

Brayden & Brinley play with this manger and assorted people and animals on a daily basis.

Ta-da!

Truth in the Tinsel: Week 1

I discovered this e-book at the end of November and it's been perfect for our advent activities for both of my older kids (ages 3 and 5)! It's $4.99 to purchase and download and includes a Bible reading for each day (the TRUTH), clues that you can put in a calendar and a step by step ornament to make each day (the TINSEL). We're adapting the ornaments slightly so that we can use craft materials we already have on hand. From the author's website (www.truthinthetinsel.com):

"I want my children to know and love Christmas, not for gifts or trees, but for Jesus!

I really believe December is one of best times to impress God’s Word on your kids’ hearts. Our whole country turns its attention to Christmas–stores are playing songs of worship to the newborn king, movies are playing on cable that show the real meaning of Christmas and people even decorate their yard with Bible characters!

I try to leverage this Jesus-centered month by helping my kids meditate on and learn the real story of Jesus’ birth. That’s how this ebook was born. Out of a daily advent-ure with my daughter when she was only 1 year old. Every day we read a passage of Scripture, made a simple ornament and then talked about the story. As we talked and created, God’s Word was sinking deep into her heart. She was meditating and focusing on Scripture–in her own preschool way."

We have been working on the ornaments each day. We had to skip one day because of our schedule, so we made two ornaments the next day. No big deal. Simple! There's still time to download and get started if you haven't already! Here's the start of our advent journey...

We had a store-bought calendar on hand already, so I just opened all the windows and tape the clues in for each day and closed the windows again. Day #1 (candle) is open below.