As I went back through all of these pictures to make this blog post I realized that we had a very full December and Christmas Season! It was a very sweet time for us, and I can't believe that next year we will have a baby here!
This past Christmas, incorporated Jennifer Naraki's Slow + Sacred Advent into our Advent routine. We loved it and I think it is something we will cherish doing together each year!
Advent activities are even more fun when your friends are doing the same advent curriculum and invite you over to make the Orange Cake with them!
Another one of the activities was making cinnamon applesauce ornaments! We had friends over to make them with us!
Cutting sticks to make wooden stars...
Another activity that we did this Christmas season was to do a 12 Days of Christmas Secret Nativity drop off for 2 of the girls neighbor friends! We ordered the Safari Ltd. Nativity Toob and printed the tags from this blog. The girls had so much fun attempting to secretly deliver a nativity piece each day! Attempting is the key word there, I'm pretty sure they got caught at one of the neighbors every single time! On the last day we dropped off Jesus and some cookies along with a card Kenley made for them!
We made our annual trip to the Melting Pot and the Nutcracker at the PNB Ballet with the Siedenburg girls! This is another one of my most favorite Christmas traditions!
The girls had their first piano recital. Claire played Jolly Old Saint Nicholas...
Kenley played Jingle Bells...
Proud Daddy...
We have a Glass Blower in our neighborhood that did a Christmas event. We went and watched them make a blown glass Christmas mouse! He wouldn't tell us what he was making while he made it so we had to keep guessing!
We went to Molbacks with Auntie and Grammy....
At UVillage with Liam...
Kenley made Christmas decorations....
On the 20th for Claire's birthday, Brian took the day off and we surprised the girls with a trip to Leavenworth to go sledding!
Happy 8th Birthday CLo!
We arrived home to a downed tree that took out our power for 3 days!
Sometimes (especially after a 3 day power outage) you have to improvise with the advent activities and these cookies brought just as much joy as actually making cookies...
Our favorite Santa Paul! Paul is a deacon at our Church and we have a Santa Sunday where he dresses up as Santa and a photographer from church takes photos for everyone! There was a time (during our more legalistic days) when we visited a church in NC that mentioned Santa during a kids thing in the service, so we left and didn't ever return. Haha! I'm glad those days are behind us and we can just have fun with the season even if we don't "do Santa".
Another advent addition we added this year was this Story of Christmas book set. I can't recommend it because I felt like it didn't stick to what the Bible actually says and embellished a little too much for my taste. It sure is cute, but I don't think we will use it next year.
A tradition we have had for a few years is our advent candle path that Mary and Joseph travel along to get to the manger. I love it! It is my favorite Christmas tradition! We usually light a candle for the night and then all the previous nights and then read an advent Bible verse and pray together.
Christmas Morning...
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