Christmas time

This year was the third year of planned advent activities throughout the Christmas season. It makes things a little extra busy but it is so worth it. There are so many fun activities we love to do together as a family to celebrate the season that this is the way I can make sure it all happens. I've learned to let go of some of the activities. There are days that it's just too crazy to fit in the activity for that day and it's ok to just let it go. It's supposed to be fun and not added stress. But for the most part, we do them.

Worked into these advent activities are advent Sundays. I started this idea four years ago after hearing a talk by Elder Uchtdorf when he mentioned lighting the advent wreath for the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. I did a little research and worked up my own plan. This year, I even made a real wreath to light real candles rather than the foam wall wreath I made in years past. I'm not very crafty, so I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

On advent Sundays, it's like a little FHE. We sing a Christmas song, say a prayer, light the candle(s), have a little lesson on the certain part of the Christmas story and do an activity - usually a craft. I work these in to our advent activities.

So without further ado, here are some highlights this past Christmas season:

The first advent Sunday is about the angel visiting Mary. I made paper angels and the kids decorated them with glitter glue. 

Amelia didn't make any, but she loves to have her picture taken and say, "eeeeee"

 We went to see Santa at our local mall. This Santa rocks and is so sweet with the kids. He invited them back to stop by and see him any time during the Christmas season just to say hi. He really looks like the real deal, and the photographers tried really hard to get a good picture. It took Amelia a lot longer than I expected to cry, but she was very wary of the whole thing.

We saw Santa on Monday. Tuesday was Chris's work holiday party and the kids had a blast. They won lots of cool prizes and toys, played games, and made crafts. Chris and I also won a prize with a paid for romantic ride on a yacht in Annapolis. Then on Wednesday, our nephew Robert came to visit!

We made a popcorn chain

We went to see a live mini Nutcracker performance!

We made sheep on the second advent Sunday

 We went to a concert at the DC temple visitor's center and walked around to see the festival of lights there. So beautiful! There is also a life-size nativity scene and they had nativities from around the world on display inside. 

Amelia REALLY took to Robert. From the first day that he was here, she always wanted him to hold her. Forget mommy. Forget daddy. She wanted Robert. It was pretty sweet. :)

Before Robert went home, we also fit in a trip to see the lights on the bay display in Annapolis which we drove through twice, and took a trip to Baltimore where we checked out the Germantown Christmas right on the water downtown. So fun! The day that he left, we made popcorn balls. My Grandma Hales used to always make popcorn balls for Christmas. Though she hasn't made them for years, with this being the first Christmas she is gone, I thought it would be fun to try that tradition and thought it would be fun to make with Robert. They were so yummy and Robert had a bag to take home to share. :) 

Our helper in the kitchen. 

 The girls and I had fun making our traditional gingerbread house this year. I'm pretty sure Maddie ate a lot more candy than she put on the house.

That Friday was our church Christmas party. It was packed with yummy food, performances (including me playing piano, and a couple of my students playing too), and of course Santa!

There's the crying I expected the first time.

 Speaking of performances, I had the privilege of performing a lot (voice, piano, and clarinet) for the Christmas program during sacrament meeting the Sunday before Christmas. It was the cutest thing that Maddie loved to play her melodica while I practiced the clarinet. Here we are after WE practiced the morning before church. She's so cute!

We like to bake lots of Christmas cookies every year. To feed my desire to bake without packing on too many extra pounds, I give cookie plates away. As I am here for a second Christmas and now that Claire is in school, I had a need for more cookie plates this year. We ended up making nine different kinds of cookies for a total of about 325 cookies. I gave away thirteen plates of cookies. Phew! In the process, the kids "helped" me as quality control. Maddie also helped me make cute reindeer cookies and Maddie and Claire helped me make and decorate cut out cookies. 

Cookie plate - cut out cookie, m&m cookie, coconut diamond, seven layer bar, cranberry orange bars, cherry winks, triple chocolate cookies, peanut butter secrets, and reindeer nutter butter cookies.

 One tradition we started last year purely for making memories and not because we think it's comfortable or will give us a good night's sleep, is to camp around the Christmas tree with the Christmas lights on. The kids LOVE this though of course it takes Maddie FOREVER to fall asleep which can be very frustrating. Overall, it's a good time and worth the sacrifice. :)

Amelia fell asleep in my arms and then I laid her down. She's the only one sleeping in this picture.

Finally asleep. I think Maddie finally fell asleep after 11:30 that night. Amelia woke up around 2AM, discovered her new found freedom, and started roaming around the living room. When it was apparent she wasn't going to cuddle with us or go back to sleep, I took her up to her crib for the rest of the night.

Other notable Christmas activities we did was going caroling and having hot chocolate afterwards with friends, and preparing Christmas packages to send to my two nieces serving missions. Of course, there were also birthday celebrations in there which I'll save for another post. It was a wonderful Christmas season filled with memories.