Last weekend we bought a small tree and decorated it. All of our Christmas stuff is in storage. My mom has a few decorations, but they are in her storage shed, behind everything else we put in there. (Repeat after me...we have TOO MUCH stuff!) So we made the decision to just buy some decorations. The kids picked out some decorations at the Dollar Tree and we bought lights. We may make a few ornaments too but haven't yet.
When Nathan was about 2, World Traveller bought a set of mice books that are put in box as an advent calendar. You take out one book (they are numbered) until Christmas Eve. After reading them, they go on the tree. The books are simple board books but even still the kids enjoy them. It's a tradition they love. I am so glad I remembered to not pack them and to bring them to mom's house.
Last year, World Traveller bought a Lego advent calendar. The kids loved it so he bought one again this year (it's different from last year's.) Each day they take turns opening a box and putting together the Lego mini-item. Some of the thins they have put together this year are a snowman, a mini-fire truck, a couple of people and a fireplace.
The other advent tradition we started two years ago is reading an advent book. This year is the third in the series--Tabitha's Travels. The other two we've read the past two Christmas's are Jotham's Journey (this is the first book in the series) and Bartholmew's Passage. The kids and I love these books! World Traveller would enjoy them as well but we have found that he ends up missing most of it because of his Christmas travelling schedule. You read one section in these books every night. The books are fiction stories set right before the birth of Christ. I highly recommend them with one work of caution-very young children may find them a bit scary. The children in these stories are separated from their parents at some point. (The endings are happy but I won't give them away.)
I noticed that Arnold Ytreeide, the author of the advent series has an Easter book out too. I am definitely planning to purchase one this coming year for Easter.
Ok, onto a new subject. To finish off our obedience unit in KONOS, we had a medieval feast. The kids took turns serving food and entertaining our guests. We ended with a play. It was fun, turned out well and the kids asked if we could do it again. (We said not anytime soon but we can do something similar at the end of our next unit-but we will make it more simple.) To see better pictures of the feast, head over to this post from my friend, Aleah. (I am a bit jealous of her photography skills!)
On Sunday our church had a family Christmas program which the kids participated in. It was fun to watch and we enjoyed it immensely. I haven't uploaded the pictures but when I do, if they turned out ok, I may share a few here.
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