Advent Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of our advent activities. You can see everything we "plan" on doing here.

This morning, the first words out of Channing's mouth was "where is Snickerdoo?".....he eagerly ran around trying to find him (he was hiding on our pot rack). WE then moved our little snowman to day 2 on our calendar read what the day had in store for us on our card.

We read a book that I've had for years called "Woody's Christmas". I guess it's a newer version of the book above (I found it on Amazon and you could buy it used if you were interested). It looks exactly the same book - apart from the extra word in the title. It's a cute little book about Rosie and Robin, who go and visit their uncle Woody. They all go upstairs to the attic and get out the nativity and Uncle Woody tells the story of the birth of Jesus.

We set up our own nativity and talked about the story again. We have some more pieces to add to this nativity in the next few days (I'm waiting on our Bethlehem and Wise Men set to arrive). We have another nativity set that is really cute but we keep that one way up high on a bookshelf and don't really let the kids touch it - Little People are much better for little hands :-)

Later on today, I got out my number order bulb printable (I'll post the printable for you tomorrow)....Channing LOVED this activity. I just hung a piece of yarn between the speakers on our surround sound and away we went. Little Sully kept taking off with our bulbs but we finally got it completed :-)

Day 2....another success! Check out these fun things I've spied from some of my readers:

Elle Belle's Bows made a cute glitter stocking with her daughter.

Jada Roo Can do made some orange pomanders with cloves and oranges.

Holly at Stay and Play has an AMAZING "around the world" Christmas unit....it has cute little printable passports and everything!

Sippy Cup Central made some really cute snowmen bookmarks with her girls.

Thanks for the inspiration ladies!!! I can't wait to see what everyone got up to day!

Advent day 1

Priceless!!! This is the face of one VERY excited boy when he found out little elf "snickerdoo" hiding on our TV cabinet.

We read the book that Snickerdoo left us "The elf on the shelf" and talked about the "rules" (we can't touch him and he can't talk to us). Channing ran out into the student home and told the 11 other "big" boys all about our new visitor.

We read Day 1 of our Christmas activities and he's what we did:

First, we moved the little snowman to day 1 of our Advent calendar.

We read "Merry Christmas Splat" by Rob Scotten. It's a cute little story about a cat who wonders if he's been "good enough" for Santa to leave him a present. He decides to be "extra helpful" just in case. Channing asked for me to read it 3 times, so I guess he liked it :-) We then made our own "splat the cat" craft.
We made splat by watering down some black paint, putting a blob or two on the paper and then Channing used a straw to blow the paint in all direction (I helped him by moving the paper around but he did all the blowing himself). Then we glued bits of yarn all over him to make him furry.

We also ended up going on a bit of a candy cane hunt.....quite by accident really....we were playing hide and seek and I remembered that I had a candy cane, so I hid it while Channing counted and then he came to find it.....I used the words "hotter, colder, warmer and cooler" to help him along the way :-) This kept his busy for at least 30 minutes!

We had a little time left over to do some of The Christmas printables I created - this one he particularly liked (he tried to estimate which tree had 10 bulbs on it - typical - he wanted the biggest).

Later, we relaxed and watched "Elmo's Christmas countdown". Channing is not really into Elmo anymore but he LOVED this DVD last year and was excited when the paper said we were going to watch it.

He yelled "I LOVE THAT MOVIE!" All in all, a fantastic "first day of advent".....I can't wait for tomorrow's activities! I'll be looking around at what you did today too :-)

Traditions

Traditions........I LOVE them! I didn't realize that I loved them so much until I moved to the USA and discovered/started to make some really fun ones. I had some Christmas traditions growing up that I looked forward to each year,like opening one present on Christmas eve, leaving cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer,singing Christmas carols as we walked up the stairs to be, and following the "Santa string" leading to the presents in the morning..........in the USA though, there seems to be traditions everywhere and I am in LOVE!

Some of the traditions that we have started (or are going to start)with our family are:

*Channing and I make Gingerbread Men to hang on our tree - last year, they lasted until a few days before Christmas until we noticed legs and arms missing off them :-)

*We were given this lovely Advent calender that was handmade by my sister-in-law. Jody.........I LOVE it and Channing loved moving the little snowman - this year I know he'll be REALLY into it.

*We also make or buy a new ornament each year for the boys so they will have it as keepsakes when they grow up.

*The boys and Daddy go and choose a tree.

*We always open a Christmas PJ present from Mike's Mom on Christmas Eve - they are always snuggle and very cozy to wake up in!

* Last year we started leaving the cookies and Milk out for Santa and the carrots and water for the reindeer.

*We had most of the boys presents under the tree (most of which are from US - we only have a few things from Santa).....but the "big thing" was found by following the Santa string.

*This year we are going to start the "elf on the shelf" tradition - I was given it as a gift last year and can't wait :-)

*We're also going to have a little fun and "elf" some people (more about that tomorrow!).

So...........onto the "main part" of the post. This year, I would like to start another tradition and I hope you'll join in the fun. I didn't know if I could pull this one together as I've been pretty sick this week with some weird chest infection....however - somehow I made it! I made a series of cards with each day leading up to Christmas. Each card has the book (or two) title that we'll read that day and what activity we'll do (some days a craft, some days a cooking project and other days a "family thing"). I may be a little ambitious but we'll see. I hope to write a post each evening showing our day's adventures (again, this may be a bit ambitious but we'll go with the flow). I am really hoping to make lasting memories with my family this Christmas :-) What fun traditions do you have?

Turkey hat

We needed something to keep us busy....so I whipped up these little turkey hat/headbands for the boys.

Here's how:

Cut some brown construction paper into strips.

Staple two pieces together and then measure your child's head. Staple the other side in place.

Add a face, beak and wattle and google eyes to the front and some colored "feathers" to the back.

Poor Sully is getting over Roseola (he has the rash part) and was not too thrilled with the hat.........Hopefully he'll give it another try at our feast tomorrow - Happy Thanksgiving everyone :-) Hope you enjoy the day with treasured people that you love !

I have MANY, MANY things to be Thankful for!!