That Sunday I began a short advent devotional with the she reads truth app, and I've so enjoyed it. This year with the kids I decided to do this that I found last year from our Jesus Storybook Bible, with a little ornament to color each day.
Here's what we've been up to:
December 1st: Choose an animal to give from the World Vision catalog.
I became super emotional as we were going through the catalog and reading the options to Isabella and couldn't stop crying. It was a little concerning to Isabella who reasoned we should just get some buckets of water from our sink and take them to the kids with no clean water. She still asks me if I'm sad about the babies that don't have medicine and the kids with the bad water. Anyway, she finally chose a sheep to give. We watched the little video about it and she was excited about the sheep.
December 2nd: The kids and I had started getting sick this week. Our plan was to go to the lighting of the commons at OC. But it ended up just Michael and Isabella went.
December 3rd: Read the story of candy canes and choose a candy cane.
December 4th: Make cookies for our elderly neighbor Ms Virginia and go visit her.
December 5th: Make gingerbread playdoh- this was a big hit last year, so I wanted to do it again! We use this recipe here.
Benjamin did his part to eat as much as he could sneak until I would see it.
We've done a pajama light drive starting well before we had kids. I'd read a post last year about making a ticket for your child and putting it in their bed and surprising them at bedtime with a ride on the "minivan express", and I thought that would be a fun addition to our drive. Well the whole day at been a little bit of a disaster, and we probably should have just had an early bedtime, but we decided to go anyway. Apparently Isabella doesn't know what a minivan is, and thought we were headed out for a real train ride and was super disappointed. And the night went further downhill from there. Not sure if I want to laugh or cry looking at her excited face before we left. Haha! We did go to an awesome house around Sooner and Sorgum Mill that had lights set to music. And the kids got out of their seats and we watched for a while and they really liked that.
December 7th: Serve a meal at the Ronald McDonald house with our small group. Turns out they don't allow kids in the kitchen, so Isabella had a blast playing in the play area with her friends, but when we left she said- Mom! Did didn't make the food for the families with kids the hospital!!! And was a little confused about what happened.
December 8th: Choose three toys to give away. I thought this might be a struggle, but it went really well.
December 9th: Build a bear night and Santa pictures with Nana and Cappy.
This is a fun night that the kids enjoy and always involves peppermint chocolate chip shakes from Chickfila!
Isabella filling her princess puppy with fluff
And tucking the heart inside.
Thanks Nana and Cappy!
December 10th: Take Rachel and Katy their favorite starbucks drink. Our church does a free mother's day out program for members Wednesday mornings that the kids go to sometimes and this day we took the girls that have ran it this semester their favorite drink.
And then that night at church the kids decorated cookies that we took to the neighborhood fire station.
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December 11th: We were going to make cookies for a progressive treat day Michael had at work, but he realized he needed them for a different day, so we ended up skipping this day.
December 12th: We went to see the lights in Yukon with Cappy and Nana.
It was a much better Christmas light drive than the last one! :)
The girls on the train
I left my camera at home so just this grainy phone selfie. And the hat I wore all the time this summer has been replaced by this hat I'm wearing all the time this winter. :)
December 13th: I hosted a brunch for women from church this morning. And Michael took the kids downtown to the downtown in December activities. Isabella make a couple of cute crafts and saw real reindeer and did some other fun things that he took no pictures of. But I can't really say much seeing as I have taken so few this whole month! :)
I've been trying to focus on showing kindness and love to others and the responsibility we have from the many gifts God has given us, especially through Jesus, to be loving and giving to others. And there have been some great moments where Isabella has really grabbed hold of that. And then plenty of typical moments with a 19 month old and 4 year old that do not reflect kindness at all. They are a work in progress, just like me.
love all your activities! and will be copying some to add to ours!
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