Almost Christmas

It is getting so close to Christmas, the party's have started, presents are wrapped and so much family time.

Living in Oregon our Christmas weather is not quite as cold and snowy as others.  The kids were able to run outside with out coats (or shoes on some of them) and feed ducks during our family gathering.

 It has been a high light to my Christmas season.  There is something special about Aunts, Uncles, Great Aunts, Second cousins, Grandparents, cousins all getting together having fun. 

 Holidays are also a time for Christmas performances.  Our Pastor's wife, Sue, came up with some great, easy costume ideas.

 My favorite was mustaches on a stick for the wise men.  Along with a sparkly paper crown they were the perfect touch.

 Grandma Kelly has a whole box of Christmas books that only come out during the holidays.  So my girls were eager to find stories they hadn't read all year.

 It was a special treat for my girls to read on Grandma's bed.  Normally her room is off limits, but they were mesmerized by the decorations and calmly reading.

 During the holiday season it is important to teach kids about keeping a balanced budget.  Our budget is so small we simply balanced it on the table.

 Seriously though, our family tends to eat at different rates so having something to do while we wait for someone to finish can be nice.  And trying to stand a handful of change on end does the trick.

So another busy week is over, but with Christmas days away I think we will stay busy for a bit longer.

Christmas Cheer

We are working hard to make "happy childhood memories" this year.  And boy is it fun!

 We went to the mall to see all the decorations (my mom was with us so I get to be in the picture).

 We took a picture in front of the "coffee tree" at Starbucks with Grandma and Aunt Coral.

 Them on St Lucia day we had our traditional Scandinavian celebration (sadly no cookies).  This year my youngest was very excited that she is the one who fits the dress.  Merry found out balancing a wreath on your head is hard.  Charry was happy to have a star head band.

 This year we decided to include a few cousins, since we were at their house.  I learned the boys get to wear cool pointed hats with stars on them, ours were more party hat size instead of wizard hat size but they didn't mind too much and a bit of tape kept the hats from falling off while we took pictures and sang a few Christmas tunes.

 It is becoming a family tradition to be a bit late getting our tree up, all the other decorations have been out since we moved (right after Thanksgiving) but the tree has been missing.  So there was lots of excitement as the tree finally made its appearance (although it will probably be replaced be a real one before Christmas.)

 The tree is a hoot, the girls decorated it all themselves and you can tell.  They grouped ornaments from the same set together (like the fairies Charry receives each year from Grandma in on section and the star wars M&M figures we each got their Dad in another.)

 As an added holiday treat Grandma came over to try out our new-to-us oven.  And thankfully it works!

 Cookies were handed out to the workers when they finished the tree.

 I did my own version of baking, I frosted little leaves on Little Debbie cakes to turn them into "Yule Logs.

 I also made some sugar cookies for the girls to frost.

The hat makes the memories more festive.
I hope everyone else is taking time to make happy memories and spread holiday cheer.

Christmas Traditions

So this year is just like all the others, our Christmas is not quite normal.  Right after Thanksgiving we moved so we are setting up house and staying busy.  But I'm working hard on making Christmas memories for my daughters.

We are reading Christmas Fairy books at bed time.  The girls are loving that their dad inserts his own random comments into the story and does all kinds of voices (most don't quite fit like the little girls having deep voices.)

We are also making Jesse Trees.  It is a somewhat unique advent tradition that looks at the promises of God through out the old testament.  Because we are planing on celebrating the 12 days of Christmas leading up to Epiphany our Jesse tree will End with John the Baptist.  Then we will focus on the people involved with Christmas (Mary, Shepherds, etc.) I enjoy how hard the girls work on finding the promises as I read the scripture.  So far we are up to Abraham and his children blessing all nations.

A final Christmas tradition I am working on is fun.  Just having fun as a family.  It is easy to put the girls in front of a movie or have them play in their room, it is harder to take time to laugh and play with them.  It is work that is well worth it!