Peppermint's Birthday Party

In the middle of December, one of our webkinz friends had a birthday and all the other webkinz were invited.  

There were games.  

There were presents.  

There was a craft. 

Fun was had by all.  

Tinsel the Elf

We enjoyed having our elf visit us again this year from the North Pole.   His name is Tinsel and he's quite the little monkey.  Here are a few of the things he was up to this year: 

Hangin' out with our snowmen.  

Riding our giraffe on the shelf.  

Toilet papering our Christmas tree.  

Peeking in a box under the tree.  

Photocopying himself in the printer.  

Taking a bubble bath in my good dishes.  

What a trouble maker!  

Christmas Sleepover

We had our very first annual Christmas sleepover last night.  The kids had no idea.  After dinner we told them to go upstairs and get their covers, pillows and "friends" (stuffed animals they sleep with) and we told them the plan.  They were SO excited!  I can't remember where, but I read about a family that sleeps under their Christmas tree one night every year as a tradition.  I loved it and so we've taken the tradition and made it ours.  Well, technically we don't sleep under the tree . . . . there's too many of us to fit.  LOL!

Here are the kids watching a little Christmas movie before going to sleep.  

After they were all sleeping, I snapped some pictures.  I love pictures of the kids sleeping.  

Samara - still with the hat on!  

Victoria - all cozy!  

Austin and Denver - they somehow ended up on the same mattress  Too cute!  

Frodo - so happy to be able to join us for the slumber party!  No crate for one night.  

Mike - playing on his iPad - not quite ready to go to sleep when the kids did.  

We all slept really well and we're looking forward to carrying on the tradition next year!  

What we've been up to

We still haven't all been feeling 100%.  Okay, honestly, it's just me.  I'm coughing like crazy and kinda sore all over.  So I haven't been able to do as many Christmas activities as I had planned.  But we've been hanging out and just enjoying each other's company.  Oh ya . . . and I'm coughing. Did I mention that?  Sigh . . . I'm tired!  

Here are a few things we've been up to.  

The kids made these cute candy cane cards.  We got the idea from here.  We don't often do needle and thread type crafts - I think we should more often - but they all worked hard and the cards turned out really nice.  

Victoria's creation - she made it into a beautiful thank you note for her dance instructor

Denver's creation - even with some assistance his candy cane ended up a bit funky - but it's cute and he was happy with how it turned out.  

Austin's creation - he got frustrated partway through and crinkled up his paper. So we worked with it and ended up flattening it out and inking it.  It turned out looking really cool.  

Samara's creation - she did it all by herself and then added the words 

I just had to show the inside of Samara's card.  She's really into writing lately and I loved all the words she added on the inside.  We had just read Luke 2 the day before making these cards - thus the "two Luke".  And she also added in "Bible" because she explained to me that the Bible is a gift that isn't found under the tree. Smart girl!

Since we have no snow outside yet (boo!), we added some to the inside.  We thread balls of cotton onto fishing line and hung them in our window. (idea found here)  I think it could use a few more strings but it still looks kind cool.  

We attempted snowflakes with hot glue (idea found here) but it was really tricky.  We tried it with dish soap on the wax paper and without.  With the soap, it was really slippery and the glue wasn't sticking to the paper.  Without the soap, it was hard to get it off the paper.  So here's how they turned out.  I might try it again and then add glitter to them.  

Every year, Grandma has a tradition of decorating a gingerbread house with the kids.  This year she found a really cool kit with four little houses in it.  It worked out really well because each child got their own little house and they could decorate it how they wanted.  Each child got to be creative in their own way and each house was unique.  So fun!  

Austin made a cool Christmas tree at his boys club at church. I loved it and wanted to share it here.  It's a string art tree and he did a really good job on it.  

I have a few more things planned for the next few days.  Also, some of the things we've made are gifts, so we'll have to share those after Christmas.   

Daddy on TV

We all gathered around the TV and watched as Daddy was interviewed on 100 Huntley Street.  It was really exciting for the kids to actually see someone we know on TV . . . and it was our very own Daddy!  So cool.  

Good job telling your story hon . . . we were really proud of you!    

Oh, and the kids thought it was pretty neat seeing our family picture at the end.  So there . . . now we're all famous too!  

All about Christmas

I was talking to a friend at the end of November about school and other things and I was saying that I was trying to figure out how long to carry on with our regular curriculum before taking a break for Christmas.  I said, half jokingly, that I was ready to stop right then.  Later that evening, she sent me a link for a blog post of a lady who teaches her kids at home and they started the tradition many years ago of putting aside their regular curriculum and focusing on Christmas the entire month of December.   I loved the idea right away and it didn't take me long to decide that’s what we were going to do too.  Mike and I are both excited about the fact that Christmas will be so much more meaningful for the kids (and hopefully us too) this year. 

So we’ll be doing Christmas crafts, activities, games, baking, reading, etc.  To help us focus on Advent, we’re using this study.   

We're also making our own Jesse Tree using the study from here.   

So far we aren't as far as I thought we would be due to illness.  I had a little slip and fall incident last week plus Mike and I have both been really sick with the cold virus that's been going around.  I still have a ridiculous cough but I'm hoping one of these nights I can get some sleep and gain some energy back again.  The kids have been watching more TV than ever this past week since mom and dad have been "out of commission".    So hopefully next week we can get some more snuggles in and do some fun Christmas stuff together.  I'm looking forward to it.  

Christmas Books

We're starting a new tradition with the kids this year . . .  counting down to Christmas with books.  I saw the idea here.  I wrapped up all our Christmas books and we're opening and reading one a day until Christmas.  Here's our stack of books: 

This is the list of books we'll be reading, not necessarily in this order:

A Fruitcake Christmas – Max Lucado

Merry Creature Christmas – Dandi Daley Mackall

Mouse’s First Christmas – Lauren Thompson

The Christmas Star – Barbara Shook Hazen

A Charlie Brown Christmas – Charles M. Schulz

Usborne Lift-the-Flap Nativity – Felicity Brooks

A Special Place for Santa – Jeanne Pieper

The First Night – B. G. Hennessy

The Greatest Shepherd of All – Holley Gerth

Tomie’s Little Christmas Pageant – Tomie DePaola

Josie’s Gift – Kathleen Long Bostrom

The Night Before Christmas – Clement C. Moore

Clopper, The Christmas Donkey – Emily King

A Christmas Journey from creation to the Saviour’s Birth – Susie Poole

The Wonder of Christmas – Dandi Daley Mackall

The Little Shepherd Girl – Juliann Henry

What Happened to Merry Christmas? – Robert C. Baker

Clopper and the Night Travelers – Emily King

Christmas Around the World -  Brenda Trunkhill

The Shepherd’s Christmas Story – Dandi Daley Mackall

The Christmas Star – Christine Potter / Moira Butterfield

Listen, Said the Donkey – Jean Little

The Stable Where Jesus Was Born – Rhonda Gowler Greene

The Crippled Lamb – Max Lucado