I love traditions and I knew early on in our marriage I wanted to hold onto some from both our families and also start our own. It's interesting celebrating that first Christmas together and realizing your families might have done things totally different. Not that one way is better than the other but just different. When Sam and Maggie were pretty little we started doing an advent activity with them. The first couple of years were the advent calendars with little pieces of chocolate behind the doors. Then I started making up my own treats and treasures but quickly found that what they were getting were "things" and the expectations were getting pretty high. So several years ago we made the shift from our advent being about "things" and more about activities and being together. I can't say enough how much the kids love opening the envelopes or bags each morning to find out what's in store for that day.
Friday was Day #3 and Gingerbread house day. Most of our activities are the same ones each year but the kids don't care at all....in fact if I change things up too much they don't like it.
Before you're too impressed you must know that I do not cook the gingerbread and thanks to Costco I didn't even have to assemble it this year. It was like a manufactured gingerbread house in a box~all we had to do was decorate. I'm learning to let go of perfection and just let the kids enjoy.....
....and I must say I think it turned out pretty darn cute! And just in case you're wondering and for my own records day #1 was warm cinnamon rolls and letters to Santa and day #2 was getting our Christmas tree. Day #4 was supposed to be attending our little town's annual Christmas parade but with the cold weather and very strong winds we opted out and instead hunkered down for some good ol' college football. Hmmmm....guess who we were rooting for?
I couldn't pass on this picture. The view from our backyard and the gorgeous sunset we enjoyed the past two nights. We ended our weekend spending time with some very dear families that we used to do small group with. It was a sweet time with great friends and so fun to see how much our kiddos are growing. To think when we started meeting together Sam was only one. It was a full weekend but full of the good stuff. Now I plan to go fill the kiddos shoes with a few little treats because day #5 is the Feast of St. Nicholas. And then I'm looking forward to spending some time in my Bible in front of this......
Happy Sunday
9 comments:
Love your ideas.... I totally need to get on board with the advent activities:)
Perfect!
Such a good idea - I love the "family activities" instead of the "getting stuff" switch up! I'm going to have to do that next year (although I'm not so great at planning ahead, but we'll see). :)
Love all the Husky gear (well, I love the idea of it) - it looks like our house on game day (only we're all in Beaver black and orange on Saturdays around here). :)
ps. I love the shirt - THANK YOU!!! After a couple of days my husband finally asked if I was going to wear it to church, too. I *might* have gone overboard with wearing it the first week... ;)
Oh, I love these advent ideas! I really want to something like this next year! So neat!
Cute Christmas ideas...you are Huskies fans too? Must live in Washington!! We are in the adoption journey too...would love to stay in touch with you since you are local!! BKMulder@hotmail.com
So glad you were rooting for the Huskies! Loved seeing the kids in all their gear on Sunday!
Advent has been so much fun! I am so thankful that kids can enjoy the simple things!
Okay, so my 6 year old caught a glimpse of the gingerbread house and totally freaked out! "Mommy! Someday, can WEEEEE make one of those?!!!" Looks great!
I didn't know of another family that celebrated St. Nick until now! :) You need to check out my blog (Dec. 1) post on family traditions. It sounded so much like yours--I really enjoyed reading through your Advent activities.
Ooooooooooooh Shannon!! SOOOO COOL about the SHOES! We celebrate St. Nicholas Day on the 5th we put out our shoes and on the 6th there are little treats inside them! We started doing this after we learned about the tradition when we lived in Vienna! SOOOOOO FUN to see you do it tooo! :) I LOVE LOVE LOVE your Advent ideas... What a special way to celebrate each day in DECEMBER! ♥ ...We will have to put that in play in our crazy home next year! :)
Post a Comment