Advent 2010: week 3

This week, it was Sawyer's turn to be sick :( I guess the good thing about having had both of the kids' sick is that they're getting it overwith before Christmas :) This week, in spite of 3 days being home sick, we still...

Talked about and decided on the "special gifts" we are going to give this Christmas (ie to those in need and to our community)

Had a Hot Chocolate Party

Delivered poinsettia plants to some special people

Listened to some of our favorite Christmas Music

Drove down to Tacoma for a fun evening at the Point Defiance Zoolights and a fun visit with Uncle Taylor, Aunt Kaitlin, and cousins Alyssa and Alexandra (thanks so much you guys!)

Visited the Reindeer, Camel, Donkey & Trains at Swanson's Nursery (twice!)

...and we're headed downtown this evening to decorate Christmas Cookies this evening with some friends

We started the week off at Swanson's Nursery and ended it there as well. Our kiddos would be happy to go every day to Swansons!

Mama's pretty little flower fit perfectly into this big planter!

Both Sawyer and Aspen love to look at our Nativity Scene. Sometimes I have to hold myself back from gasping when I notice that Sawyer has pulled up a chair to the set and is picking up the pieces to admire (I don't want to discourage the conversation we can have during such a moment, but at the same time, don't want him to drop and break one of the pieces! ahhh, 2 year olds!) Anyway, it has been a treasure how Sawyer looks forward to reading about baby Jesus each night. Because of our kids' ages, this year instead of our usual advent readings, we just read books about Jesus and we read the St. Luke version of The Christmas Story - pretty much every night. We read by candlelight, and Sawyer loves to blow out the candles when we're done and ready for bed. He is so excited each night, it makes me think we should just read our family scriptures each day by candlelight all year round :) But the candles are what make this time of year - and the focus on the Christmas Story - so magical.

I can hardly believe we are so close to Christmas! This season is flying by - and there is still much fun to be had!

Advent 2010: Week 2

The week got a bit of a slow start with Aspen running a high fever for three days, so we were house-bound for half the week. But then, when our girl was feeling her stellar self again, we made up for it.

This week, we:

Baked some goodies to share with others

Celebrated a little friend's birthday AND saw the Train Village at the Seattle Center's Winterfest

Listened to some live Christmas Music

Had a "family movie night", popped kettle corn, and enjoyed that mean one, "Mr. Grinch"

Jacob and I enjoyed our date night out and saw the play "The Very Best Christmas Pageant EVER!" at the Greenlake Bathhouse Theatre (a wonderful production, btw).

We went to a Christmas Party (at our church)

We even hosted a little Christmas Party after watching the Christmas Ships at the beach by our house with a bunch of our favorite people.

And, we did a couple of Christmas Crafts...

one of which is this wreath I made for our front door.

I had been looking around for DIY wreath ideas for a few weeks, and I found a few great ideas, and some of them were pretty overwhelming. I love to "browse" all of the handmade goods on Etsy, and I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon Anna Hailey's shop. But I loved her stuff and decided I'd try my hand at a yarn+felt inspired wreath. Seriously, it was an easy and fun project. Took me just a couple of hours one evening. It cost me about $10 to make and I get the satisfaction of having created something unique for our home - although I totally ripped off her idea. (sorry Anna!) I wasn't sure if I'd love it...but I actually really like how it turned out. It adds just the right splash of color to our white door :)

Here is Sawyer watching the trains...

and Aspen's first time at the Train Village.

She spotted her first train going by!

I just love seeing my kiddos faces light up. It's the best gift!

Thanks to the handful of AWESOME families and GREAT friends who joined us on the beach this evening to watch the Christmas Ships and hear the Carols. And for warming up our home and allowing me to get excited about a little party. It is such a blessing to be surrounded by such wonderful people and marvelous friends!

I hope everyone else had a festive, fun - or at least, relaxing, - weekend!

Advent 2010: week 1

Thus far, we have:

"Decked our Halls"

Mailed our Cards and Packages

Finished (most) hand-made gifts

Enjoyed lights, music, food, and friends at Figgy Pudding

Marched to the drum line down Bellevue's Snowflake Lane

Enjoyed Hot Chocolate a la mode (w/ peppermint ice-cream)

Read LOTS of Christmas books

and even wrapped a few gifts and put them under the tree.

Not bad for the first week!

Below enjoy a few images from downtown last Friday night. Thanks to the Judkins for joining us!

It was a great start to our advent. Sawyer gets excited every night to burn our candles and read about Jesus (and maybe Mr. Grinch, too) We usually read about Jesus and then he picks out a few other books from our STACK under the tree. I put a ton of Christmas books on my cue at the public library, thinking I might wrap them and have him open one each night. BUT. He is fine with the gifts under the tree and hasn't tried unwrapping any (neither has Aspen, surprisingly!) and I didn't want to focus toooo much on the "presents". So we just put the books under the tree and that is a treat enough ;)

Sadly, the past two days little Aspen has had a high fever. Tomorrow we'll go to see the doc since it's been 72 hours. Poor little girl. We didn't make it to Swanson's this morning b/c she's sick. Hopefully soon she'll be better because we've got some FUN stuff planned this week and weekend!