Each day Emily and Andy hang one Jesse Tree ornament and one Name of Jesus ornament and we read the companion books on both sets of ornaments. Then they took turns to do the Advent calendar.
We decided to put up the Nativity scene in the front yard instead of spending three hundred dollars to hang the Christmas lights on the roof. Emily helped Daddy to put the Christmas lights around the yard.
This singing reindeer brought so much laughter for the kids. It was the best $5 toy ever. We had it for four years now and they still loved it!
The second week into December, we had a big icing weather. School and church were all closed. We were chilled in for four days. The kids had a lots of fun with the ice.
Ice in front yard
Ice from backyard
Nativity scene with ice
Emily and Andy had fun knocking down the icycles and collecting them into a big bowl
I wish I dug the compost hole before the weather turned bad. The bucket was full. I put the rest outside in the containers. These containers were all frozen.
The kids played games with Daddy in front of the fireplace
We made unleavened bread and had elderberry juice for our home communion on Sunday. We talked about lessons on Samuel and made "I Will Pray" necklace.
We made the Gingerbread man cookies for Andy's classmates
I made homemade foam hand soap and shampoo. The foaming hand soap was a big success. I think we'll never buy it from the store any more. The shampoo was too oily for my hair. It made Emily's hair more curely though.
I also made these wool dryer balls as Christmas gifts for Emily and Andy's teachers.
See what Emily did with them? She made them into caterpillars and played with them. Then she got really creative and used them as braids "Mommy, I am a pirate now!"
We also made the reindeer food. In the past we used the glitters but Emily tried to eat the glittered oats. So this year we replaced the glitters with the salt and food colors. Worked wonders!
Emily and Andy had Christmas parties and Christmas program on their last day at school before Christmas. They had a great time!
Andy's class party finished first. We joined Emily's class party afterwards
Andy got extra treats at Emily's class
Andy did so good at his first Christmas program. After the program, several friends came over to tell him how well he did. They said he did everything right and timely. We were so proud of him.
We took a picture before Emily's class performed singing.
We didn't watch "The Gift of Christmas" show as we did for the last several years. Our church friends the Newhouse family blessed us with the Gaylord Texan Nutcracker Ice Show. Emily's socks and pants were wet from the rain that morning and we didn't have time to go home to change before we went to the ice show (We attended David's aunt's funeral that morning, then interviewed one piano teacher for Emily). We had an extra pants for her in the car but no socks. Poor Emily! She was the only one there with a dress shoe and no socks. Her feet were freezing. But she pushed herself through. She watched the Nutcracker at her ballet class. We also read the book that Diane bought us about the Nutcracker before we went so these characters were quite known to the kids.
We walked around the lobbies inside the hotel. There were a lot to see.
Emily was smelling the hot chocolate from David's mouth. She had such a nose that nothing David ate can escape her nose.
This giant Ginger bread house was all made of candies and cookies
We were treated with a Mexican dinner afterwards. Andy loved playing with the fish there.
We watched the Christmas lights at our old Deerfield neighborhood and looked for baby Jesus. This "Wise Men Still Seek Him" sign was still our favorite along with the Nativity scene below.
We visited the Santa's village in Richardson on the last open night. It was cold. But the kids didn't mind it at all. We stopped at several stations, tasted the cookies, made the ornaments, and listened to the Christmas music.
Andy is very good at sharing. We knew how much he wanted that cookie at such a cold night. But he let Daddy take the first bite of his cookie. See David trying to take the smallest bite from it.
This Clifford was a live one here. But the lighting was so bright inside the room that he looked like fake one.
The kids visited Santa at our Church's Angel Tree activities. They were excited to tell Santa that they both wanted balloons and balls. I don't know many kids at their ages who still love balloons and balls that much! I started thinking about balloons. I remembered seeing a balloon artist at Golden Corral and the kids really wanted the balloons. So I dropped by Golden Corral afterwards to see whether the balloon lady was there. She wasn't. I asked for a name card from the restaurant manager and called her. She said she was out of town until after New Year. Then I went to Craigslist to look for a balloon artist and found one in Allen. I called her. She said she only does it for parties. But she referred us to a guy she worked with. I called him. He said he would go out of town the next morning. He could make two balloons if I was able to get them that night. On the way to his house that night, David asked me how much he charged. I said I didn't know. I began to think how much I could afford to pay him. "You'd better ask!" David said. So I texted him. He replied "You don't need to pay me anything for two balloons." What a blessing! I paid him $5 anyway. And we got the balloons: crown and spiderman!
Our kids were always happy to see our friend Cindy
The kids kept asking how many days until Christmas. Christmas Eve finally was here! We spent the Christmas Eve at Amy's house. We decided to let the kids act out the Nativity scene from Luke 2. This was the first time we tried this. Everyone crossed the fingers. But the kids did surprisingly well.
Emily put "Baby Jesus" into the manger before taking him to Amy's house
Chloe wanted to be Mary. Andy was Joseph. David made a donkey out of the broom. There they were on the way to Bethlehem.
The inns were full
The Bethlehem Star
Hmm, Joseph and Mary were sleeping while Angel and a wise man showed up?? I'm not sure that was what Grandpa read from the script...
Everyone adored Baby Jesus and we all sang Christmas songs
The kids sang some Christmas songs together afterwards
Uncle Kendall read Christmas books to the kids
On Christmas morning, Andy and Emily found their balloons and balls from Santa
We opened gifts at Amy's house
David got a new wallet from Dad
We had a few days to clean the house and play in the garden after Christmas. We also had chance to visit David's cousin Greg's family. We met our friends Leslie, Darren, and Keri for breakfast at Amy's house. We just love this time of the year!
One day, David found Emily's face like this. She had taken my eye liner from the drawer and put on her eye brow. She knew she did something wrong. We just couldn't laugh in front of her.
Both our kids are still snugglers. Someone is enjoying it!
Giving and receiving are major part of Christmas. God gives so we give. We are trying to pick a children related charity program to give. This year we decided to give to Partners In Progress for the life vest program since the recent stories of the children getting drowned really popped out in our mind. When we asked Emily whether she wanted to buy some life vests for the kids in Cambodia, she said other people would do that. We asked "Would Jesus buy the vests to save children's lives?" She said "Yes." "Would Jesus say 'let other people do that'?" She said "No." "Then do what Jesus would do!" She got it. We turned to ask Andy how many life vests he wanted to buy. He said four. We asked Emily how many she wanted to give this time. She said one hundred! So we honored her request and mailed a check for 100 life vests. David and I realized how important and difficult to teach kids to be a cheerful giver. We are coming up a family system to teacher kids responsibilities, stewardship, and giving this coming year. Hopefully we'll have a good report this time next year!
As a visual reminder for the kids, we printed out this picture from Ship of Life /Partner In Progress:
On another note, the Christmas story -- according to Luke -- is
not only about how blessed it is to be givers but also about how essential it is to see
ourselves as receivers.
I love what I read in a Christmas Devotional email:
My brothers and sisters, my dear friends, what kind of receivers
are we? Do we, like the Savior, recognize gifts as expressions of love? I hope
that this Christmas and every day of the year we will consider, in particular,
the many gifts we have been given by our loving Heavenly Father. I hope we will
receive these gifts with the wonder, thankfulness, and excitement of a child.
We know that “God loveth a cheerful giver,” but does He not
also love a good, grateful, and cheerful receiver?
This Christmas season and always, I pray that we will see the
marvelous gift of the birth of the Son of God through the blessed eyes of a
child. I pray that in addition to giving good gifts, we will strive to become
good and grateful receivers. As we do so, the spirit of this season will
enlarge our hearts and expand our joy beyond measure.
Hope your Christmas was a blessed one! Happy New Year!
Hope your Christmas was a blessed one! Happy New Year!
