a blog for my short and long-term memory loss




Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Thanksgiving Trip and Christmas Advent Calendar

Our family traveled to my Mom and Dad's in Clarksville, TN for Thanksgiving this year. We enjoyed a DELICIOUS, traditional, Thanksgiving meal (including my favorite - sweet potato casserole!) and spending quality time with "grandma" and "grandpa". We also traveled to Bowling Green, Ky to see my dad's extended family, including my grandmother. We had a great time. The kids especially enjoyed Grandpa's miniature farm wich includes several goats, a bull, turkeys, chickens, and a cat or two.






Grandpa and kids



Wyatt



Layla and Anna Lea on the haybales





This Christmas season, I was motivated and inspired to try an Advent calendar for our children. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, yet something that they would look foward to each morning. Almost all of the ideas that went into the envelopes were traditions that we would have done any way (like ice sugar cookies) but, doing it this way adds anticipation, and makes us more intentional in celebrating the days leading up to our Saviour's birth! Below is a picture of what I came up with that is working well for us this year. The first day we decorated our Christmas tree. Today we enjoyed cups of hot chocolate. On Sunday, we dressed up for church and tried for a family photo in wich everyone is smiling....with little luck.


Our "Advent Calendar" (made using envelopes clothes-pinned to a little rope)


Family Photos:)



Layla



Anna Lea



Wyatt





The Happy Little Family

(Many thanks to our photographer who managed to capture the stairs, cluttered with clothes in the background;)




Another thing I added to the calendar was making a birdhouse with Daddy. Rob, was not too thrilled with my awesome idea at first, but came through (as those of you who know him well, knew he would) with a perfectly cut, perfectly aligned, perfectly squared, solid-as-a-rock, birdhouse!




Couldn't resist posting this pic of Wyatt working in his cute lizard undies and socks!





The finished product!