christmas advent: day 20 and 21

Oooh baby these were jam-packed days!!!

Day 20. Eat all red and green foods. This is seriously one of my favorites. So, here is breakfast:

green eggs & ham & red pepper

Lunch:

green apples, snap peas, raspberries, ravioli

and Dinner:

green milk, pasta with pesto, green peas, baby tomatoes 

.... and when Wesley ate all his veggies he asked for some Doritoes

W fit a lot of other fun things in on Day 20, also. We went to Molbak's in Woodinville, the quintessential Christmas store. Ornaments, poinsettias, sparkly things everywhere, and the kids didn't break anything. I was looking for one specific thing which wasn't there, so sad.

We also delivered our Christmas cookies to our neighbors, finally.

AND then, to top it all off, we went Christmas caroling with the Activity Day girls and I wore my new light-up sweater. It was kind of amazing.

Day 21. Go ice skating. Here's the story: Wesley's school had a roller skating night last Thursday. After an appointment for flu shots and taekwondo, I was totally toast. Just toast. I didn't want to go so I sorta ho-hummed it and we missed it. When Wesley realized we missed it he was just devastated. Oops. So, I promised him we could go roller skating this week. As I started to plan, I offered that we could ice skate instead. He was super excited about that and said yes. Since this was his family activity, I let him be the lead. But Laurel was mad mad mad, she only wanted to go roller skating and she was throwing a fit. I asked a friend if she wanted an extra little girl around for a few hours (presumably to play with her little girl and keep them both occupied), and she said sure. So my cute Wesley and I had a mother/son date!

At first, he used the walker I rented for $3. I actually bribed him with ice cream to try going around the rink just once without it...

....And he could totally skate!! It was awesome!! I'm so proud of him.

My kid is freaking gorgeous. GORGEOUS. Look at those EYES!!!!

Basically... it was the best date. I totally paid, and there was a cute guy, handholding, and even kissing! Wesley was a total pleasure. He really enjoyed it. We stuck around to see the Zamboni machine. I was done way before he was.... my feet hurt! I fell once when he pulled me down, but other than that I did just fine. What a blast! I think I'll add ice skating permanently to our advent activity list.

Jesus ornaments: Immanuel, Light of the World.

christmas advent, days 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Ok ok the days are KIND of running together. Our plans have gotten a bit off.

Day 15. Make Christmas cookies. This day didn't quite go as planned... so I made the cookies by myself after they went to bed. Well, Laurel helped me with a batch during the day, and then the Ninjabread guys I cut out and baked at night. We were supposed to decorate them, but that didn't happen until later...

Day 16. Deliver cookies to our neighbors. That didn't happen yet either... I was supposed to go to a cookie exchange in the morning, and then plate up all our treasures for our neighbors, but instead I was doing this:

I changed my own tire and then waited around at Discount Tire for them to tell me it was shredded and that I needed four new ones. Merry Christmas to me! Thanks Santa for the iPad, new tires, and new computer.... It's a very adult Christmas for me this year.

So, we missed the exchange. The Ninjabread men weren't done. I put off this activity until later, also.

Day 17. Go to the Ward Christmas Party. Now THAT we did! We all wore PJs, ate plenty of food, and had an awesome time.

There was a North Pole Post Office where they could write letters to the Bishop & missionaries:

There was Ms. Claus' Kitchen where they could decorate an Oreo pop:

And of course, Santa:

Day 18. Watch the Christmas devotional and play Bingo. Um, we didn't do this at all. But we DID decorate cookies!!! It was glorious! I tried very hard to stay calm.

After they went to bed, I plated 13 gifts for our neighbors with my cookies, a plate my cookie exchange friends made for me because they felt so bad that I missed it, a clementine, a muffin left over from the ward Christmas party, etc. They still need to be delivered.

Day 19. Decorate gingerbread houses with our friends. This is maybe the 3rd or 4th year I've hosted a gingerbread house decorating party for my mom friends. I had two friends come with their kiddos and it was awesome, as always. Great to chat with the moms & let the kids go wild. This year I made my own gingerbread (I was mad the Fred Meyer kit was $12 and I knew I had a container of molasses at home so I had no excuse), cut it out (using cutters I got off eBay years ago), and assembled it. I did the assembly this morning... the secret, according to my ex-mother-in-law-but-still-favorite-person Eileen is straight up melted sugar. The stuff is bulletproof and hardens so fast. Yahoo! The last time I did this I assembled it with a hot glue gun!

The kids had a blast. I stuffed royal icing in two Pampered Chef piping accordions and let them just go for it. Candies in a muffin tin is an awesome decorating hack, too.

I hope this afternoon we get all the cookies delivered. 

I'm having a blast! Christmas is fun!

Jesus ornament words:  Christ. Redeemer of the World, Lord of All, The Messiah.

christmas advent, days 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

Oops, I got behind. That's OK! I had a birthday to celebrate and a trip to Canada to attend to. But we're back.

Day 9. Call the Grandmas and go "phone caroling." Wesley didn't really participate, silly boy, but Laurel did and we sang Jingle Bells to both Grandmas in two phone calls. It was a busy busy busy day, so I had planned just as small activity I knew we could squeeze in.

Day 10. Have a birthday party with Laurel at Build-A-Bear. I'll put some pictures of this in another post. This was actually the only day this entire month where my children were not at my house all day to pick out of the advent stocking.

Day 11. Read Christmas stories for bed. The truth is... we were too tired. Or maybe Mom was too tired? In any case, the scripture story will have to count.

Day 12. Happy birthday Laurel! And go to a Christmas party. I knew last month sometime that a big single adult FHE would be the night of her birthday, and I asked her if she wanted to go or if she wanted to do something more birthday-ish. She said she wanted to go! I let her wear our cool "It's my birthday!" necklace, and she ran around and ate lots of treats and had fun. Then one of my friends, towards the end, got on the microphone and announced we should all sing to her! She was kind of stunned, as you can tell. What a sweetie.

You can also see my stunning ugly sweater.

Day 13. Drop off our Secret Santa gifts. These are the gifts we purchased last week. It turns out I'm just working with a group of moms, not an actual organization, so I'll just trust our gift will go to good use and they'll take care of things!

Day 14. Make snowflakes and decorate the house. It's always fun to work on this.

Me, her, him, all with our scissors and our creativity. Then I gave them all pieces of scotch tape and said go put them anywhere they wanted. They're in all kinds of fun places around my house.

Christmas is a blast!

Jesus ornaments for the last couple days:  Little Lord Jesus, Son of God, Lamb of God, the Lamb. And some more I guess. I'm loving all our Jesus names.

christmas advent, day 8

Day 8. Shop for our service project family.

While I was making the advent, I looked for service projects. Usually we do something for the missionaries, but this year we don't have any in our ward. I do have making/delivering cookies to our neighbors on the schedule, but I also like to do something else. Last year we got tags off a tree and went to the store and bought gifts for other children, and I like that experience for my kids. So when I saw a post about adopting a family on a local site, I checked it out. We adopted a 3-year-old little girl who likes princesses, Paw Patrol, and bath toys.

I had some things in my stash to contribute too, so here is our contribution to our Christmas friend:

We have Santa PJs, a pretty dress, a coloring book, bath set, bath squirters, wand, blanket, Christmas ornament, and a few candies.

I think the kids had fun shopping for someone else. It was nice to see them being thoughtful.

Jesus ornament:  Bread of Life.

christmas advent, day 7

Day 7. Set up the Nativity and read the Nativity story.

The kids kind of love this.

The Nativity is in a big cardboard box, and I told them to just go for it but be quiet as I read. When I talked about Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the shepherds, the angel, etc., I had them find the character and place it where it should go.

Thanks as always to Grandma Twining who got us the set years ago. We love it every year.

Today's Jesus ornament:  The Carpenter's Son. Wesley didn't quite know what this meant, so I need to explain it further. Now that the Nativity is out and Joseph is a tangible person, I think I can explain it. 

Also... in Western Washington... it is coooooold. SO COLD.