getting ready for christmas

the weeks leading up to christmas flew by waaaaaayyyyy too quickly. i had high hopes of churning out christmas crafts, teaching the kids some new christmas carols, and reading christmas stories all month long.... well, we did do a little of this and a little of that, but not to the crazy-christmas level that i'd hoped! but speaking of crazy christmas... here's a shot of my living room in the midst of wrapping presents one night! i have so much fun wrapping gifts... and it was an added bonus to watch singing in the rain for the first time while wrapping away. :) i did want to share a couple of new things we added to our christmas stash.... and to my horror, they are completely absent from my photographic documentation of christmas 2010. i can't believe it. so thank you, google images. what would i ever do without you!?


ethan first saw this playmobil nativity set last year at his cousin's house, and i just knew he'd love all the little pieces this year. the day that it arrived, ethan played with these guys every single minute of the rest of the day. it was a hit! the wise men have gold, frankincense, and myrrh that can go in little gold boxes... and the boxes can hang from the camel's saddle. we had to laugh that the angel comes with a magic wand. umm.... not exactly how the Incarnation happened. :) my biggest laugh came when the very first thing caroline did was put the angel's halo on mary. and then came the emphatic reminder that we do not worship mary!!! i completely recommend this set for reenacting out the christmas story. little hands will be so happy! but if you're at my house, the wise men have to go visit Jesus and mary at a lego house, not the cardboard stable that comes with the set. :)


last year after christmas, i found a great stencil book on sale. i thought that ethan would really enjoy it this year, but actually... he and caroline both loved it. so much so that i'd wished i'd bought two!


well friends....this is when procrastination pays off! i'd already begun writing this post when i found the stencil book yesterday! at some point, i put the stencil book on top of the fridge when i was cleaning off the table, and we totally forgot about it until last night when i cleaned off the top of the fridge. (are anyone else's kids like that?? totally gung ho about something, but then it's outta sight, outta mind? you'd think they'd remember it if they really liked it!) i was initially frustrated that the book did not get packed away with the rest of our christmas stuff... until caroline asked if she could do some stencils last night. of course!!! then mommy can get a picture of you with the book for her blog! so just pretend this was taken a month ago.


our jesse tree was a special part of our advent season again this year. i admit that we had to play catch-up a couple of times due to starting late after we got home from disney and just the busyness of life, but the kids didn't mind getting to hang 8 ornaments in one day! i love, love, love this tradition we started last year. i love that every day (well, every day in theory), we are taking a look at God's promises to His people. every day, we are reminded of God's plan to bring about the coming Messiah. every day, we are praising God for the gift of His Son, Jesus. i can't imagine christmas without our jesse tree.


our hallmark happy tappers have been a hit with the kids every since they were given to us a couple of years ago... and this year, amelia was especially fond of them. she carried these things all over the house, and she got really good at turning them on and off. we were really glad when she figured out how to turn them off. :)


when amelia wasn't happy tapping, she was busy bringing presents to me....


for awhile, she did not even notice the pile of gifts under the tree. until.... i put bows on all of them. bows. should've saved the bows till christmas eve... funny that the bows are what attracted her when she doesn't even keep a bow in her hair.


every morning, the kids woke up asking to "move baby Jesus" to the next number on our countdown. now that i think about it, i think you're supposed to start with 24 and work down to 1, but i had it hung the other way... so i took this on christmas eve. oh well. maybe next year, i'll read this post and remember to hang it the right way!


the kids decorated their first gingerbread house this year at their friend lola's birthday party. that's kind of pathetic that we've never done that before... but i don't like gingerbread, so i've never been dying to decorate the houses with the kids. that reasoning makes absolutely no sense at all because my kids didn't even eat these houses. they sat there and got nice and stale on my counter throughout december. so next year, i hope we can make some time in december to decorate some gingerbread houses. here's a great tip for easy construction! (and she uses graham crackers! why didn't i think of that?)


one day, caroline and i set out to make a necklace that she could wear with her red sweater on christmas day.


ethan wanted to string beads too, so i got him busy with some pipe cleaners and beads. before too long, ethan had churned out 3 candy cane ornaments! he was so happy with his little project. and especially because he could flip them upside down and exclaim "j is for Jesus!" yes, son, it is!


aaaand caroline put 5 beads on that string and called it quits. (sigh.) but she really needed a christmas necklace. (my declaration, not hers.) so guess who finished that necklace?! mmmhmmm, and i get to borrow it anytime i want to!


two happy big kids at the table= one mischievous toddler doing something she's not supposed to. shouldn't i have learned that by now? i left the bead making to find amelia with caroline's little pink bible in hand. no damage had been done yet, but look at that face... you know she was just about to be up to somethin'.


here's a little shot of the cousins singing with the children's choir one sunday during advent. they sang "we three kings" and "angels we have heard on high".


the kids had fun picking out gifts for each other this year. and they had even more fun wrapping them in secret! :) caroline did not want ethan to know that she'd bought him some legos, so we had to do a little disguising of the box... here's her "tricking" face.


and ethan could not wait to give his sisters the gifts he chose for them. he did a great job wrapping their gifts!


we had several "christmases" with different parts of our family, so stay tuned of our 12 days of christmas! hopefully all squeezed into one post. :)