Holiday Happenings 1

For sure, December is a month full of fun and activities. We have some long-standing Christmas traditions, but every year there are new activities to try as well.

*Last year we started the tradition of getting matching Christmas pajamas. The biggest problem I've run into is finding pajamas that will span the sizes of kids age 3-13. Poor Aubree didn't get matching pajamas again this year, and I'm afraid this was the last year for Bryce as well unless I find a better supplier.

*Aubree's wonderful Sunday School teachers invited their class over for an end-of-the-year/holiday party. Aubree and Audrey are the only girls in the class. There are at least 8 active boys. The girls aren't really complaining about that ratio.

They had a great time at the party. They had teen-appealing food, played silly games, and had a gift exchange.

*Our Parent Partnership Program offered a field trip to try Whirlyball. I'd never heard of it before, but when I looked it up and realized it involved bumper cars, I knew I had to sign my kids up. 

When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I would get to play as well as Aubree, Bryce, and Thane. Whirlyball is basically lacrosse in bumper cars.

The kids were all a little nervous to begin (Aubree volunteered to stay out and work on a story she's writing), but it didn't take long for everyone to decide they loved it. It made for a really fun afternoon.

*One of the traditions the kids were most looking forward to was decorating graham cracker houses. We invited the Jacobson's over to decorate with us, and that made the whole evening extra enjoyable. 

 

I thought two full bags of leftover Halloween candy would be more than sufficient, but I think we managed to use up almost all of it! The kids have become experts at figuring out ways to include all their favorite types of candy in their decorating.

After we finished decorating, Sister Jacobson brought out a surprise: bells! She is the primary music leader and had put together posters with the bell chords needed to play a variety of Christmas songs. The kids loved getting to play through the various songs; I was impressed with how well they could follow along (especially Graham and Nellie).

When Nellie got bored of the bells, she wandered over to Brother Jacobson. She took a pillow with her, and when Brother Jacobson saw it, he read aloud, "I Love Reading." Nellie, not realizing he'd just been reading the quote from the pillow, took his statement at face value and ran off to get a pile of books. Ha! Brother Jacobson was a good sport and spent the rest of his evening reading to a very happy Nellie.

*Another favorite Christmas tradition is acting out the Nativity. So far, everyone is still really enthusiastic about this little play. This year, much to the delight of my children (especially Graham), we invited over the Sherwood family.

Graham got to be Joseph while Silvie was Mary. Silvie is a family favorite (she once declared herself Nellie's babysitter, and now she has Nellie's complete devotion).

The play is always more chaotic than I think it should be, but everyone was happy at the end, so we'll count it a success.