advent

last year, we began an advent calendar. we celebrate each of the days of december leading up to christmas with an activity. these activities are done as a family and include serving others, making gifts and decorations, and spending time together.

decorating our tree actually occurs on thanksgiving day while we watch the macy's thanksgiving day parade, but here are a few pictures anyway . . .

breakfast with santa . . . we were planning to attend breakfast with santa as a family until i was stricken with the first bout of strep throat. (yes, i said first. i had strep throat twice in december. it definitely altered my original plans for the season. oh well.)

but, josh was so sweet and took them by himself to the most disorganized event since the easter egg hunt. he even put himself in this photo rather than miss out on this classic memory.

and, when he asked on the way home, they all said they had fun and that is all that matters.


writing letters to santa . . .

peter, i mean miller, wrote . . . dear santa, i have been a good boy. for christmas i want: lego R2D2 watch (the one with the little guy).

and, miller made sure to tell santa that was what he wanted at each visit. i hope santa was listening!

zoo lights with friends . . .

painting coffee mugs for family gifts . . .

snowman doughnuts for breakfast . . .

making graham cracker gingerbread houses . . .

we used a glue gun to adhere them together before the fun began.

everyone thought their house was fabulous . . .

but only one thought it looked good enough to eat!


the enchanted forest . . .

and even meme came along for this outing.

and lots and lots of crafts . . .

we made glitter bells and stacking trees and cardboard trees. we used mostly recycled items to make our crafts. next year, i will have to start earlier. and, i would love to tie more of the crafts in with our books. maybe next year i will be more organized . . . maybe ;)