Advent & Emotions

It's midnight, I'm wearing snuggie. I just finished putting some overnight baked oatmeal recipe in the crockpot. One of those where the recipe says one thing so I do another. That's how I roll.  Den and I started out watching You've Got Mail together, but we ended with him snoring and me crying. Crying, people. Crying during the end of a movie that I've seen more than once. Granted, it's been a long time, but still. So emotional lately. But I think it's a good thing for me just to let the tears come at will or else later on there will be a dam break and nobody wants that. We've continued our advent calendar. The kids seem to look forward to it. We haven't lit a candle once. That's okay. We usually end up doing the verse at dinner and peeking at the activity during the day.  One night it was Van's turn to open it.  He unfolded the activity and said "I have a dog." Laughter erupted, it was a good moment. I love that he attempts to read, or at least be creative in his guesses.

Day 2 - Hug a friend (preferably not in attack mode)

Day 3 - Help someone out (I promise I'm not making these up to get out of work, but I'll take it just the same!)

Day 4 - Eat a Candy Cane

Day 5 - Dance to a silly Christmas song (Muppets 12 days of Christmas, beaker is hilarious)

Day 6 - Read a Christmas book (Notice Van's red face from his total meltdown because it was time to turn off wii for a book. He got over it.)

Day 7 - Make an ornament (Make sure mommy looks up directions and doesn't rely on her memories from Sunday school.)

Verse that overlapped for the past couple days:  Luke 2:1-3 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

It was fun to see the kids faces as they understood what it would mean for them to have to go to their birth towns (for sake of example) for a census.  Light bulb moment was witnessed!

Advent Day 1

I thought I'd try to make my own advent calendar this year. I've been wanting to for a few years now, but my ideas were always to big and thus never happened. I'm thankful that I found an easy way that met what I wanted. Cut envelopes in half, tape Christmas ornaments with the names of God (found on Pinterest, but not pinned so I don't have the source), insert Bible verse advent cards found here (via pinterest) and a simple activity. Voila! I'm trying to keep my expectations simple as well.  I just want our family to take at least one moment together each day to remember what this time of year is really about. The beginning of Jesus' journey here on this earth.

Day 1 - Decorate the tree

Luke 1:26-27

 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

Tis the Season..

for popcorn stringing, candlelight gazing, nativity playing, It's a Wonderful Life watching, advent and

taking way too long to find a tree.  Though it was a beautiful day for it!

And my first born shot his first deer today. Clean shot, way to go Jesse!

November

November is always a full month for us. Full of good things of course

Voting

Eden turned 9.  What freaks me out most is that this means next year she'll be ten.  My only little girl will be in double digits.  yikes. Oh my how it flies!

She asked for a horse cake and the party planner in me wanted to protest. Um, I believe we've done the cowgirl theme already! However, how could I resist those eyes? Also, I tried to keep it a little more low key this year. I didn't even make goodie bags. She requested tacos for dinner so we had the extended family over for a fiesta meal and horse cake.

We had the honor of hosting Thanksgiving in our new home this year. It made us scramble to get a few things done, but it was worth it. I loved being able to stay home and share what we've been so blessed with.

 

October

In a desperate need for family time we took the older two on a walk while the younger two napped.  It was a perfect day to enjoy the changing foliage, signs of life and the beautiful view provided in our extended back yard.