Y'all - it's December 1st.
I know you are aware of this but I just can't believe it came so quick!
Since today is the first day of December we have dove deep into our Christmas celebrations and counting the days until Jesus' birthday!
I thought I had lost our elf, Madeline, but thankfully she showed up in one of the Christmas tubs "right where I had put her". ha! My girls have watched the Elf on the Shelf movie on TV about 399 times and have been so excited for her to come! She brought new Christmas pjs and a message written in skittles.
These little sleepy eyed girls were so excited to find her this morning.
They were so excited and were talking to her and one of them hit the table and knocked her over. They were so worried Santa would be mad so Harper wrote this note. ("Magic" or Scott fixed her while they were getting dressed).
My MIL got the girls this cute Christmas magnet tree at Thanksgiving. They LOOOOOOOVVVVEE it. You put a new ornament on each day. We put it in their room and they are so excited to count the days!
Another thing we love is Ann Voskamps book "Unwrapping the Greatest Gift". It's a great book for the whole family to read each day. You can get ornaments to go along with each day and decorate a Jesse Tree. I haven't done that yet but maybe we will one of these days. I have seen several of my friends do this in very creative ways!
I also have a neat collection of cards from Naptime Diaries that we hang a new one each day and they each share something about Jesus. We look forward to hanging one each day of December - it looks sparse right now but is so neat by the end of the month!
We have a couple of nativity scenes around the house that the girls love to look at and act out. I love every day to have a way to discuss Jesus and his birth with them.
And today we went to see Santa at Harper's school. I completely expected Will Holden to cry and the girls to be smiling. What I didn't expect is for Will to be as happy as a plum with Santa and Hollis clung to me and cried and REFUSED to be in the picture. Strike one. We are going to try again with our traditional mall Santa that we do every year. I hope I can get all three kids in the pictures somehow.
Also - Will had this precious plaid romper on (ignore his mess of socks) and everyone kept calling him a girl. Santa said "well look at that BIG OLD GIRL" and I just had to laugh. Clearly he would have a big bow on his head if he was a girl! I follow a very hard rule with both babies and suspected pregnant women. If a woman looks like she is going to deliver any second, I still never bring up her pregnancy unless she does first. And I never claim a sex of a baby unless their mother mentions it first. Unless the baby is wearing pink and an enormous bow. And even then, I'm cautious.
What are your favorite ways to celebrate the Advent season with your kids?
