Advent Calendar- December 7th

December 7th

Learn a Christmas Song

I wanted to do Away in a Manger. I thought it would be a pretty easy one. But the kids insisted on Jingle Bells. We did listen to Away in a Manger, though.

Jr. had fun with the singing. He learned "Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells. Jingle all the way," but wasn't interested in the other part. But after I sang, "in a one horse open sleigh," he'd call out "Hey, hey, Hey!"

Here's how the singing went with Nichole.

Mommy: Nichole, do you want to sing with us?

Nichole: No. I can't because my singing is sick. But I can dance.

We'll put more effort into our activities when we're feeling better.

Advent Calendar- December 6th

We missed church due to our colds, but we still got to watch The First Presidency Christmas Devotional of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This was thanks to the internet in our own home.

Jr. was asleep when it started but woke up while it was on. Nichole was awake when it started but fell asleep while it was on.

Advent Calendar- December 5th

Well, the Christmastime colds have hit and we're pretty miserable, but we pulled it together to

Make a Holiday Treat

We picked an easy microwaveable peanut brittle. We'll do some more involved recipes later. We just don't feel up to it right now.
We plan to share treats that we make while we're healthy.

Advent Calendar- December 4th

Tomorrow our ward is picking up canned foods and dry goods for a food drive, so today's countdown activity was

Help Others by Gathering Canned Goods

Our family is blessed in so many ways. There are a lot of things we don't have, that we have to sacrifice at this point in our lives, but there are a lot of people out there who don't even have as much as we do. To share what we do have, we filled a paper grocery sack with canned and dry goods to donate to help others in need.

Advent Calendar- December 3rd

Christmas Crafting

We used pipe cleaners and beads to make shepherd crooks.
There were shepherds watching their flocks when an angel told them of the Savior's birth. When we see candy canes or other things shaped like the shepherd's crook, we can remember those shepherds.

We also made wreaths and added bells for a little more fun.
The wreath is in the shape of a circle which never ends. It reminds us that Savior's love for us is never-ending.

Advent Calendar- December 2nd

Today's activity counting down (or rather up) until the celebration of the Savior's birth was:

Christmas Light Show

Sometimes my kids are scared of the dark, but when a light is on, they're not scared. Jesus is the light of the world. When we follow Him we don't have to be scared. So when we see Christmas lights this season, we can remember that.

A friend told me about this Christmas light display only 10-15 minutes from where we live. As you drive up, you tune your radio to a certain station, and you can watch the lights on the trees and decorations "dance" to the music on your radio. You can learn more at http://holdman.com/christmas/

I think it played about 5 different songs while we were parked on the side of the road. And since we were not going anywhere, we let the kids climb up and sit on our laps while we watched the show. You can see videos of the display on the website, but our kids really enjoyed seeing it in person.

Advent Calendar

This year we decided to put together an advent calendar of cardstock or butcher paper with activities for the season- especially emphasizing on counting down until the celebration of the Savior's birth on Christmas. At the last minute (meaning November 30), we changed our minds to doing it with balloons. Each day, Jeremy will make the number of the day out of balloons and with it will be a piece of paper saying what our activity is.

Today was December 1st and our activity was our ward Christmas party.

It was a busy day as Jeremy and I both had parts in the program. I'm also on the activities committee so there was a lot of setup which which I was involved. After the program, Santa came, and Jeremy had been asked to be his special helper making balloons for the children.

So even though I'm on the activities committee, I didn't help much with the cleanup because I was running around with our kids. Many ward members helped with cleanup, though.

Nichole felt bad that Santa left, because she had forgotten to tell him Thank You for her candy cane. We just might have to write Santa a letter and send it to him care of a certain person in our ward who may be able to contact him.

Note: Yes, that is a balloon Rudolph that Santa's holding.