Hey! Unto you a child is born!

If you haven't ever read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson, I highly recommend it.  It has become one of my favorite stories to read around Christmas.  I had never read it to my kids until today.  It was today's Advent activity.  I fell in love with this story a few years back when a speaker at my MOPS group told the story.  I was completely enraptured as she was telling the story, reciting from memory and acting the parts of the characters.  If I remember correctly, it was a slightly abbreviated version of the story but she caught every feeling and emotion as well as the personalities of the characters.  It was so good.  As soon as I could, I asked my Mom if she had the book in her library.  I just wanted to read the whole thing.  It didn't take long to read because it is a very short story, only about 128 pages. 

The girls were very excited to hear the story.  I put dinner in the over and we sat down to read the book.  Adrianna lost interest because she said it was too long but Ava loved it and took over reading for a little bit while I finished up dinner.  We took a break to eat then jumped right back in.  Aaron was even listening in as we were reading (I think he liked it, too).  It's a reminder of so many things.  The number one thing is that Jesus was born for us.  Also, you may know the Christmas story because you grew up hearing it and hear it every year but so many people have never heard it at all.  They don't know who Mary and Joseph were and why they couldn't find a place to stay, who would make a pregnant lady sleep in a barn, or who the Wise Men were and why in the word would they bring perfume and oil to a baby as gifts.  It's such a great story and I get emotional up every time I come to the end of the book - that's my favorite part.  I made Adrianna come back in the room to listen to the last part, which she loved.  I was trying hard not to cry as I was reading it and had to clear my throat a few times.  I don't think the girls caught on to that.  But, I can just imagine a scruffy little kid that all the kids are scared of, dressed as an Angel standing up to tell our congregation "Hey!  Unto you a child is born!"

Christmas boxes (a tutorial)

 

Today my Mom came over to do a special Christmas craft with me and the girls.  It's one that she used to do with me and my sister when we were little.  We made ornaments out of Christmas cards.  They are Christmas boxes.  I don't know if you like getting Christmas cards in the mail as much as I do, but I look forward to them each year.  I just don't know what to do with them after Christmas is over.  I hate to throw them away but I can't keep them all.  I remember making these boxes with my Mom out of Christmas cards that we would get in the mail.  She would keep the prettiest ones or the special ones and we would get to work.  The really neat thing about these is if you are able to use Christmas cards you have received from family or friends, the sender most likely has signed the inside or written a Christmas message and you can usually include this in your ornament!  I've put together a little tutorial for you just in case you want to try some yourself!  These are so easy a 6 year old can do it.  In pj's. 

 

Wow!  Look at that messy table.

Ava hard at work!

Materials needed:
Christmas cards (I did buy a box of assorted cards at Walmart for less than $3)
ruler
pencil
scissors
tape
embelishments


Step 1:

Tear the card down the fold so the front and back are now seperate.

 

Step 2:

Use your ruler and going from one corner to the opposite corner, make an x on the back of the front of the card and an x on the back of the back of the card.

 

 (the half that is on the left is the inside of the front of the card.  the half on the right is showing the inside of the card, make the x on the back of that half)

  

Step 3:

Fold the bottom of the card up towards the center of the x and make a crease.  Do this to both ends.  Open the card flat again and do the sides the same way.

  

fold ends to center of x . . .

 

 

 

open up and fold sides to center of x . . .

 

 

Step 4:

Make a cut on a fold in each corner to make the tabs (follow the pictures, this part is hard to explain).

 

Step 5:

You want to be able to fold the tabs on each end in to make the box.

 

 

fold tabs in to form box . . .

Step 6:

There will be a little extra sticking up at the top of each end, fold this over to secure the tabs and tape down.

 

use a little piece of tape on the inside . . .

 

Step 7:

There!  You have the first part of your box done.  Now do the same with the other part of the card to complete the box.  Make sure when you are folding the back of the card for the bottom of the box that the "greeting" or signatures are on the outside.  That way you will know who sent you the card!  Also, Christmas cards usually have a Bible verse written inside so this will also be on the back of the box.

 

Step 7:

Glue ribbon or bows or embellish as you wish.  You will also want to make sure you add something to hang the ornament with.

We will be using these as gift tags!

Now you have a pretty little ornament and a sweet keepsake!

Have You Jingled??

Have you jingled your neighbors? We have! The Advent activity for today was to "jingle your neighbors". This is the same idea as "Booing" that people were doing around Halloween. I thought it would be cute to do something like that for Christmas. I also thought I was going to have to write a poem but a little internet research turned up "Jingled" along with a poem. You can print the poem and elf picture from this website.

We printed the poem and made the "treat" last night. I packaged it up in cute little Christmas themed Chinese take-out boxes.

Yummy! These are addictive! Thanks to a friend who got me hooked on these :)

The girls were so excited about this and they begged me to do it as soon as we got home. Of course we had to wait until our neighbors got home . . .

Someone was being very silly . . .

They tried to be sneaky . . .

set the treat by the door, rang the doorbell and RAN!

They had so much fun with this and wanted to do the whole neighborhood :)

You can Jingle your neighbor's, too!

Yesterday

Yesterday's Advent activity was for the girls to take a Christmas Tree to their teacher's. They made these super cute trees with their Opa a few weekends ago. He let them pick out the ornaments and decorate each one how they wanted to. I think they turned out great!

Now off to make some more Christmas crafts!!

Let's Decorate!

We decided to put our tree up tonight!  I usually wait until it's closer to Christmas because I start having an anxiety attack just thinking about putting up the tree.  It's just makes such a big mess!  THEN you have to take it all down and put it away when Christmas is over.  I don't know what has changed this year but I have been so excited about decorating.  I have so many ideas for more decorations that I'll be working on.

This was actually the activity on the advent calendar for today (hmmm . . .  wonder if that was planned?  wink wink). The girls got up early this morning, eager to see what would be on the advent calendar.

Decorate the tree!

 

 

 

Adrianna was so excited that it was "decorate the tree"! 
 At first she was mad that we were going to wait until this evening to do it so she pouted and stomped around.  However, she got over it and they went to my Mom's for the afternoon.

 

We've been counting down the days with fun stuff to do

With the Christmas music turned up really loud, the girls jumped right in!

They concentrated really hard with the placement of the ornaments . . .

Making sure all the "holes" were filled . . . 

Stepping back to admire our work every now and then . . .

Reminiscing as we went through the Christmas ornament boxes . . .

 Checking to be sure all the ornaments had hooks . . .

Fluffing and rearranging to make sure everything was in it's place.

 The girls take turns each year placing the star on top of the tree.  We couldn't remember who did it last year so they flipped a coin.  Ava won.  Adrianna pouted.  

It wasn't an easy task!  And a very precarious perch in order to reach the top.  A very unsteady Ava made for a very nervous Mommy and Daddy.  Aaron was holding onto her but I still was ready to catch her if I had to.  Thought she was going to topple here!  Hence the blurry photo.

The finished tree!  We went with purples, blues and greens this year :)  I love this color combination! 

The Advent Event

Yesterday I decided that I better get to crackin on that Advent Calendar I had been planning to do.  I mean I started planning this a few weeks ago thinking that I had PLENTY of time to make it.  Well, December is slowly sneaking up on me!  I started off with the idea that I was going to sew it using Christmas material.  I sketched it out and had a plan ready.  Problem was, I didn't have any Christmas material.  Solved that problem when we visited family in Ohio over the weekend and went to a Joann's fabric there.  They had some Christmas fabric for $2.50/yard!  I couldn't pass it up!  So I purchased more than enough to make the Advent Calendar. 

I had Monday off and was all set to make the calendar.  However, I was tired.  I mean really tired.  I laid my fabric out, got out my cutting equipment, had my sketch and notes by my side and was set to jump in.  But I was tired.  Did I say that already?  I thought, there has got to be a quicker, easier way to do this.  Then I thought about a family calendar I made last year using a cookie sheet, scrapbook paper and magnets.  Ah ha!  This would be easier AND the kids can help (which may or may not be quicker).  I was excited about my idea, searched Pinterest for ideas - there were a few but nothing I was excited about, threw my clothes on and went shopping for supplies.

As I finished up shopping for my supplies and searching for some sparkly dress shoes for myself, I was getting excited about having the girls involved with this craft.  While they did their homework I set up our work station.  Dinner was in the crock pot so I didn't have to worry about that. 

The girls totally didn't get my explanation of what we were doing but they were eager to help.  Armed with scissors, scrap book paper, clear stones, stickers and glue I got them started on making the numbers.

They worked really hard . . .

Were very quiet . . .

Didn't argue or fight . . . 

And were super cute while doing their job.

It went really quickly!  The girls did a great job with their part and I got the rest of the board ready.  Before we knew it we had it done! 

 

 The girls put number stickers on pretty paper . . .

 

glued the numbers to the back of a clear stone . . .

 

I hot glued a magnet to the back of the finished stone . . .

we added some extra stickers . . .

 tied a pretty bow . . .

And there we go!!  Our finished Advent Calendar :)

It's not perfect but it's ours and I think it's lovely!  The girls are very excited about it.  The funny part is, I haven't even printed the activity cards for each day yet!  They don't even know they will have something fun to do each day counting down to Christmas :)

BTW . . . anyone know where I can get sparkly flat shoes for myself??