Yesterday all of the kids had a snow day, which thrilled them to no end. Katrina and Zane headed out in the morning to go sledding on Big Butt, and stayed out until they were completely frozen. They watched a movie and read books, and we did our Advent activity: "Do Christmas Crafts."
I left it purposefully vague, because i have found, in previous years, that some of my kids *coughZanecough* don't really enjoy some of the crafts that i pick out, but they DO enjoy doing other things that i wouldn't necessarily choose. And so i gave the kids a few ideas but let them do their own thing. Turns out, Katrina, Houston, and i all wanted to do the same thing: a contact paper/tissue paper/black paper stained glass window nativity scene. They took a while to cut everything out, but the end results are really pretty.
Zane initially decided to make a paper wreath, but after essentially having me do all the things for almost the entire project, he abandoned it and instead made a pop-up Christmas card for Juanito. It's super cute, and he had fun. Yay.
Juanito and i abandoned the kids for a few hours in the afternoon for dinner and to do some Christmas shopping. Our Christmas shopping actually mostly takes the form of "this material, and some thread, and laminating sheets, and yarn." We went to Michael's, JoAnn's, and Hobby Lobby, and while we did buy a few small gifts, nearly everything was stuff to use to make other stuff. About half of the kids' presents this year are homemade, and most of the rest of them come from China. We are apparently terrible Americans.
Today i worked on Christmas presents in the morning and then wrapped all of the finished presents. Years ago i started wrapping presents in cloth so that we could just reuse it year after year - it's cheaper, pretty, and better for the environment. It also takes a LOT longer to wrap presents. Last year i bought pretty Christmas paper and wrapped everything in it, and this year the kids asked me to please go back to cloth. So. Yay for the environment! Boo for extra time wrapping!
And then tonight, Beth and i went downtown to walk around and look at Christmas lights. Our town is all pretty and lit up, and it was fun to wander around and see it all. Of course we chose the coldest night of the year so far to do our wandering, so we were fairly frozen, but it was still fun!
While we were downtown, the kids did the Advent activity of the day: make paper chains. Katrina made one long, long chain and one small one that counts down to Christmas and has one link to be removed each day. Zane made a cute short chain with really fat links. I can imagine him doing it for a short time and then getting bored.
And Houston made little chains for Juanito and me, with a note with a few words on each chain. It's SO sweet and cute and i love it. Mine says, "Dear Mommy, Thank you for being my mom. You are by far the best mother i could have ever asked for. You always support me and forgive me quickly. Even if i did something that you specifically told me not to do and i get hurt, you will help me through the pain. Overall, you are an absolutely amazing person. -Houston Moore." Awwwww! He's such a sweet boy.
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