The advent and The elf--day 7

Advent day 7 (18 days til Christmas)

We have a lot of trees in our yard....and a lot of birds.  Last year we made pinecone birdfeeders and hung them under our kitchen window awning.  We (and our cats) had so much fun watching the variety of birds that came to visit our feeders all winter long. 

Just pinecones, peanut butter, birdseed and twine...instant birdfeeders and the kids had so much fun making them!

Today Gus chose a lookout spot in Tiny's stocking...you better be good for goodness sake!!

The advent and The elf--day 6

Advent day 6 (19 days til Christmas)
When we woke up this morning this is what we found..........

Our adorable little elf, Gus, had built himself a Goldfish pond and was happily fishing away....the kids let him fish in peace although our cat, Rufio, was not quite so considerate!

Our advent for the day was......

Growing up our family used to go to an amazing live nativity in Highland, IL called the Journey to Bethlehem.  The church that it was held in went all out--there were donkeys and chickens in their fellowship hall, vendors of all sorts, beggars, food stands and craft for the kids.  Every year I got to make a "God's eye" ornament so this year, even though Journey to Bethlehem has long since ended, I decided to teach my kids, but first I had to refresh my memory....

http://www.caron-net.com/kidfiles/kidsapr.html

This website gave great instructions on how to loop the yarn.  I had already pre-glued popsicle sticks together so we set to work.

Tristan caught on really fast and made a mass quantity of purple ones.  Kaelan made one, decided it reminded him of part of an Indian dwelling and left to find more popsicle sticks, cardboard and glue and build the rest of the Indian hut to go with his God's eye!  Addie worked really hard on finishing one, then asked ME to make some for her to give to her friends.......yep, amazing how a simple project like God's Eyes can bring out their true personalities.

Our evening included going to Emmanuel Free Methodist Church for their annual Foster Family Christmas Dinner.  The kids were really looking forward to it and we all had so much fun (Dustin unfortunately had to work)  The kids were on their best behavior and were such great helpers with Tiny all night long.  They loved their gifts from Santa and have been busy playing with and putting them together.  Little Tiny got a talking purse but was too tired to really enjoy it....

Addie got a LaLaLoopsey doll which is "just what I asked Santa for!"  She loves it and can't wait to see Annie and Audrey so they can all play with their dolls together!

The boys both got Kreo sets (kind of like Legos) and stayed up tile 10:30 putting them together!

We are so blessed....

The advent and The elf---day 5

Advent day 5 (20 days til Christmas)
The kids had so much fun working on their Christmas cards for friends yesterday afternoon.  We had had a bit of a "horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad day" so being able to focus on our friends and the joy of Christmas was the perfect way to spend our evening : )

This morning we found a rather confused Elf hanging around with a leftover Thanksgiving decoration.  I know, I know....that was last month : )

Although it was only 32 degrees today, our special advent activity was.............

Our homeschool group, Grace Home Educators Together (GHET), meets monthly at the local Salvation Army so participating in the Christmas season bell ringing is a great way to give back to them and our community.  We had the 10-noon time slot at the Alton Schnucks and boy was it chilly!  Although we all had runny noses, cold toes and frozen fingers by the time it was done we also had a lot of laughs, got to meet a lot of people and all-together had a lot of fun.  (Dustin and Tiny stayed home, of course, due to the cold and prepared a yummy potato pie to warm us all up!)

Tonight the boys will be joining some friends from our missional church group to ring the bells outside our local Kmart store before heading over to a friend's house for hot cocoa and cookies!

The advent and The elf--day 4

Advent day 4 (21 days til Christmas)
Apparently our little elf friend, Gus, has had his eyes on more than just the Turner children.  We awoke this morning to find him canoodling with Christmas Barbie in her pink convertible!

Addie wanted to know how Gus was able to drive her Barbie car all the way downstairs because "it is not even a wind up or a battery car".........I guess that's just a little bit of Christmas magic : )

Today was Addie's turn to scratch off the advent card:

The kids were listing all of the friends that they want to send card to during our lunch.  We will probably work on those this evening after we go to Addie's 1st indoor soccer game!  Go Red Hot Chili Peppers!!!!!

The advent and The elf--day 3

Advent Day 3 (22 days til Christmas)
Today Dustin and I had to be at adoption certification training in Springfield all day so the kiddos  spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa.  We got up very early to scratch off the day's advent card and find our elf--Gus.

After getting home from all day training Dustin promptly fell asleep on the couch (he had worked a double shift and not slept at all the night before) and I settled in with the kiddos to watch the movie.......Tiny and I were both asleep by 6:30!  We all had a long day and everyone was tired but it was so nice to have all of my kiddos snuggled up on the bed together.

Gus had chosen a great place to watch over the happenings of the day...in a Christmas wreath on the living room wall : )

The advent and The elf--day 2

Day 2 of Advent (23 days til Christmas)
Today when we awoke we had 2 surprises waiting for us.  The first was that our Elf Gus had made a little bit of mischief while we were sleeping by spilling a white powder across our hall table and making snow angels in it!  The kids decided that he really must miss the snow at the North Pole. 

He must have been very proud of himself because we found him perched in the Chrismas swag just above his masterpiece just waiting to see our reactions!

Our second surprise of the morning was finding that our Christmas trees had grown beautiful crystals on them while we were sleeping!

*Recipe for growing crystal trees: Mix 1 Tbs water, 1 Tbs bluing, 1 Tbs salt and 1/2 Tbs ammonia together in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake until mixed. Pour the solution into a dish and set your little cardstock or thin cardboard Christmas tree inside (we found that thin cardboard works much better and holds up longer!) Then just wait for the magic to happen : )

After examining our little crystal Christmas trees we finally got down to the business of scratching off the days advent card. 

Although we did not get around to cutting out snowflakes until long after Daddy had gone to work and Tiny was fast asleep, the 3 big kids and I enjoyed the time spent together.  Addie had a hard time cutting through all of the layers of paper so I cut hers out for her and then she got to open them up and see what kind of a design had been made!  The boys enjoyed trying to out-do one another with more and more elaborate designs.  When we were finished I taped the snowflakes to our French doors to be enjoyed by all and kept safe from litte fingers : )

The advent and The elf--day 1

I am not a very consistent blogger (as you can see by my last post date being more than a year ago), but this Christmas season I am going to try to post our daily activities in the hope that all of the special moments of the season will not be forgotten in the hustle and bustle.
There is something almost magical about the 1st day of December.  I remember as a child feeling that "finally, Christmas is almost here!" just because the page on the calendar had been turned.  Our family has always used advent calendars to count down the days until Christmas, but this year I decided to get crafty and make a special one for my kiddos.

 Each day we get to scratch off one card and see what the day's event or activity will be.  Some are big--visiting the Missouri Botanical Gardens as a family, and some are small--watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas and snuggling under the covers.......but each is special.  Today was Addie's day to scratch off the event:

This took a bit of running on my part as I realized that finding Mrs. Stuart's laundry bluing was not going to be as easy as I thought it would be.  Schwegels to the rescue!  The bluing was found and bought late yesterday afternoon.  This morning after the big reveal the kids and I made cardstock Christmas trees and set them in little dishes with a mixture of water, ammonia, bluing, and salt.

The theory goes that by tomorrow morning we will see magical little crystals growing on our paper trees!

*Recipe for growing crystal trees: Mix 1 Tbs water, 1 Tbs bluing, 1 Tbs salt and 1/2 Tbs ammonia together in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake until mixed.  Pour the solution into a dish and set your little cardstock or thin cardboard Christmas tree inside (we found that thin cardboard works much better and holds up longer!) Then just wait for the magic to happen : )

Also, each year our family gets a new book to enjoy throughout the Christmas season.  This year we got the "I Spy Christmas Book"

The most special event of our morning came when we let our dogs out for the morning.  Lo and behold some Christmas magic had appeared on our doorstep in the form of a wrapped Christmas package thank you Grandma ; )

The kids really could not figure out how it got there or what was going to be in it.  Inside was our very own Christmas elf!  We sat right down to read the story of how he came to join our family and christen him with "the perfect name"....they named him Gus!  Today he has taken up residence in our small fake tree in the living room...I wonder what he will see today and where he will be tomorrow?