Christmas Fun Week One

Wow, I can't believe we are already almost half way through December!  We've had a whirlwind of a first two weeks of advent filled with lots of fun activities and parties.  

Buddy, our Elf has been caught drawing mustaches on our photos, looking in on baby Jesus, eating the kids Lucky Charms, playing with Jett's blocks, taking Barbie for a sleigh ride, going for a ride in the dryer, playing in mommy's gold sphere, replacing our stockings with underwear, playing cards with Jett's stuffed animals and this morning he was watching Madagascar in his own afro circus costume (my favorite so far)!  

 

While we have been having lots of fun with our elf we have also really been enjoying reading our advent devotional each night and having some sweet conversations with Ava Kate about what the season is really about. This is definitely my new favorite advent season tradition.  

 

And of course we have all been enjoying our daily advent activities which have included a visit to Santa which big sister didn't want anything to do with him, our traditional White Christmas movie night (one of my favorites), breakfast for dinner our PJ's, a slumber party by the Christmas tree, making pine cone Christmas treest, watching Christmas movies, reading Christmas books and preparing a bed for baby Jesus (another favorite).   

 

And we have had a multitude of Christmas parties, birthday parties and GNO's to attend this month!  It has been insanely busy but so much fun!  Thanks to all those festivities I've now been to AbiHaus 4 times and enjoyed each visit, Ava Kate got to go on her first pony ride at Tate's birthday party and Justin and I have had a few nights out together!  

  

Advent Day 2

This morning when we got up we found Buddy in the playroom where he had a little too much fun with a roll of toilet paper.  Ava thought that was pretty funny!  Our advent activity was a new one, Christmas Bingo and it was a hit!  We had a lot of fun playing even though daddy won every round!  Our advent devotional was the Trinity which was a little difficult to explain to a three year old but hopefully is setting the foundation for years of learning to better understand and love God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 

And tonight we went to the ACU Mingle and Jingle event with friends.  What a fun night it was!  We got to see Santa and take a picture with him, watch the Grinch and enjoy an Aaron Watson concert on a blanket outside while enjoying cookies and hot chocolate!

Advent Day 1

Advent season is my favorite time of the year!  We were all so excited to start our advent activities, have Buddy our elf return and start a new tradition with our advent devotional and ornaments. 

I was so excited when I found out my friend Angelique was organizing an advent ornament party to go along with the "A Meaningful Christmas" advent book.  Each person was assigned one of the advent days and an ornament to go along with and we made 24 of each of our ornaments.  Then we all got together to trade ornaments so everyone went home with one of each of the 24 ornaments that go along with the book.  I won't lie, there were moments while making the ornaments I wondered what I had gotten myself into but coming home with that bucket full of ornaments made with love was all worth it. 

Today Buddy returned and was caught ziplining through the living room on a candy cane! Our advent activity was writing a letter to Santa. And our advent devotional was the Alpha and Omega. I'm looking forward to enjoying the fun activities of the season but even more so to using the advent devotional to help us keep our focus on the real meaning for this wonderful time of year!

And on top of all our advent fun we also had Eleanor's birthday party which was a blast and very creative!  The kids all got to paint a canvas with their initial, such a cute idea!