Advent Days 5-9

Day 5 - Read Christmas Books

This is one of the "easy" days I like to fill my calendar with. Before December I go on Amazon.com and order a bunch of new Christmas books for the girls and let them pick out 1 or 2 every time one of these days pop up. This year I printed off a few extra labels of "Read Christmas Books" to take the place of whatever we were doing that day just in case our day gets hectic and we don't get around to actually doing that activity. This strategy comes into play in a couple days and is VERY convenient because we can read the books at bedtime.

Day 6 - Go See a Movie at the Theater

Back in my original post, today was going to be a shopping day. After talking to the hubby we decided to take the girls to see Frozen at the movie theater as a special treat. They had a BLAST and the movie was GREAT!

Day 7 - Go to a Christmas Party

Today we got to go to hubby's company Christmas party. They always do a great job of providing the kids with a good time and the parents with some time to let down. The girls got to jump in bounce houses, make Christmas ornaments, get a balloon animal, and sit with Santa/get a present. Plus Lia got to try a deep fried candy bar. If you know Lia this was probably the highlight of her day!

Day 8 - Read Christmas Books

This is the day the extra labels came into play. I had originally slotted to make cookies with the girls today. Instead after church we cleaned the house and had friends over for dinner. So we read a Christmas book before bed and everyone was happy :)

Day 9 - Bake Cookies

Today we made up for yesterday and made Monster Cookies (a family favorite). Here is the recipe I used:

Monster Cookies
(yields 4 dozen)

3 eggs                                      1/2 tsp salt                               
1 stick butter                            2 tsps baking soda
1 1/2 cup peanut butter            1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar                              4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cup brown sugar             1/2 cup M&Ms
                                                 1/2 cup choc chips

Combine all ingredients. Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 mins.

The girls are old enough to really get to help and had a blast.
  

Advent Days 3 & 4

Day 3 - Watch a Christmas Movie

Today I took a mommy shortcut. Every day in the afternoon we have "rest time." During this time the girls are required to lay down with no talking and watch a movie. If they fall asleep GREAT if not, they at least get a break (and who am I kidding? so do I!). Earlier in the day we went to the library and rented a couple fun Christmas movies for the girls. They got to watch one of these movies during rest time. 5 minutes before bedtime I realized I hadn't done the advent activity so we flipped the card and read that we were supposed to watch a Christmas movie. So I turned to the girls and said "We got to watch a Christmas movie earlier today didn't we?" Worked for them, worked for me, activity short cut complete! (For those curious we watched The Care Bears: The Great Giving Holiday and the girls loved it.)

Day 4 - Make Gifts for Teachers

Today we made gifts to give to the volunteers that work with my girls in their Moppets program while I'm at MOPS every other Thursday. We started with the intention of making enough for all their Sunday School volunteers, gymnastics teachers, etc. However two minutes into the project Mommy realized there was no way their attention would last that long. So we stuck with the 8 Moppets volunteers and we will work on more another day. 

I got the idea for these Hot Chocolate Reindeer from Pinterest. Here is a link to the original tutorial.

 We started with our supplies: piping bags, hot chocolate mix, mini marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, googly eyes, red pompoms, brown pipe cleaners, and rubber bands.

 We put the hot chocolate mix in a piping bag then closed it off with a rubber band and trimmed the end. Then we placed that bag inside another piping bag and added mini chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. I think this was the girls' favorite part (plus they may have snuck a few chocolate chips and marshmallows :).

 Then we were ready to add the eyes, antlers, and noses. At this point Lia had lost interest completely (well except for eating the marshmallows). So Sophie helped Mommy place the nose and eyes on with glue dots and bend the pipe cleaners into antler formation.

I hope the Moppets volunteers enjoy our little reindeer when we deliver them tomorrow!

Advent Days 1 & 2

Day 1 - Decorate the Christmas Tree

Sophia was old enough this year to help Daddy put the tree together! 

 After Daddy had the lights up it was time for ornaments!

All finished!! (I forgot to take a picture of the star. . .mostly because it took a little finagling to get it to stay on . . .)

Day 2 - Read the Nativity Story/Nativity Sticker Books

Recently I went to a friend's Usborne Books party and found these gems. I could not be more happy with the purchases. These are both great books. The first is a board book which has a great rendition of the Christmas story that is perfect for little eyes and ears.  The second is exactly as it says, a Nativity sticker dress-up activity book.

Both of the girls loved playing with the sticker books after we read the story!

Christmas Advent 2013

Yes, it is December 2nd and although I have had my list of advent activities for this year compiled for a week or two I just now got around to finally putting my board together. Procrastination is one of my strongest attributes :) So here is a picture of the completed board, hung on my wall, ready to be "attacked" this Christmas season.

 

I made this board last year after getting the idea on Pinterest from The Girl Creative. You can find her tutorial for the board here. It worked well for us last year and we're looking forward to using it for many years to come. Last year I printed out all my "activities" on mailing labels and put them on the back of the cards. This year I just printed new labels and placed them right over the top of the ones from last year. I also decided to laminate my cards so they would hold up a little better over the years.

This is my list for this year. I've included links to ideas from Pinterest.

1 - Decorate Christmas Tree

2 - Read Nativity Story/Usborne Nativity Sticker Books

3 - Watch a Christmas Movie (Max & Ruby)

4 - Make Gifts for Teachers (includes all teachers in their extracurricular activities, church, preschool)

5 - Read New Christmas Books

6 - Buy a Present for Your Sister & One for Charity

7 - Go to a Christmas Party (@ Daddy's Work)

8 - Bake Cookies with Mommy

9 - Make CD Snowman

10 - Watch a Christmas Movie (Golden Winter)

11 - Read The Jolly Christmas Postman

12 - Go to a Cookie Decorating Party

13 - Make Santa Handprint Ornament

14 - Visit Santa

15 - Watch a Christmas Movie (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)

16 - Make Snowman Handprint Ornaments

17 - Make & Play with Christmas Play dough

18 - Read New Christmas Books

19 - Make Christmas Tree Ornaments (Craft Kit from Michael's)

20 - Decorate a Graham Cracker Gingerbread House

21 - Go see Christmas Lights

22 - Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's

23 - Make Christmas Treats

24 - Read Twas the Night Before Christmas

25 - Christmas Day

 

I'm hoping to be able to blog about each of our daily adventures. Some are a little more exciting than others but I'll be sure to include them all. I might even add in a few mommy crafts I'm working on this month :) Stay tuned. . .