December Activities

December was a busy month, as it always is. I'm sure I won't remember everything, but I'll try to hit some of the highlights. The month started out with Kendall giving me an early Christmas present that he made for me! Isn't she a beauty?!?
The top is granite that he polished up for me and then he got a table for free off Craigslist and gave her a little face lift with a new paint job and a new top. The granite is so beautiful! It is black with gold and blue flecks that sparkle in the sunlight. When the sun shines in through the windows in the morning it really shines!!

Next up was playgroup at our house. I held a Polar Express party. Everyone came dressed in pj's and we read the story and then watched the movie and had hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun and as you can see we had a pretty full house! This was a picture of most of the kids as we were getting the movie started. The moms had a good time visiting.
The following night was our church Christmas Party. It was also a Polar Express theme, which is why I wanted to get the little ones interested in Polar Express before they went, so that they would be excited about it. We all went dressed in pajamas (again), only this party had a special visitor.
The primary kids sang a Christmas song. My children, however, chose to just stand there and listen. :) Silly kids. Just after this picture Sadie decided that she didn't like being left out, so she went right up with the other kids.
Next up was a little project that Avri and Daddy worked on together. Avri was invited to a birthday party that had a "Harry Potter" theme. We were just a little more than excited. And Avri designed this wand and together she and Daddy made it as a gift for her friend Campbell. He just LOVED it!
The rest of the month was filled with Christmas and winter-related activities. Last year we bought an advent calendar that has 26 little presents and each one is a wooden box with an opening door. So the idea is that we have a different activity or surprise for each day in December. One of the activities was playing in the snow. The ever so wonderful Kendall, went outside and made, not a snow man, but a snow dragon! Talmage named it Elliot (after Pete's Dragon). We got quite a few comments and people that came by to take pictures of the great big huge dragon in our yard. It used almost all of the snow that we had!
After it had been in the yard for a while we got a warm spell and it started melting. So Kendall then turned it into a slide. :) After the 60 degree day and rain that we had it is now just sort of a smallish pile of snow.

Other advent activities included the Festival of Lights, Christmas coloring pages, writing letters to Santa, playing games as a family, cutting out snowflakes, going to Chuck E. Cheese, reading Christmas stories from the Friend magazine, delivering gifts to the neighbors, and having movie parties together as a family with Christmas movies and dinner on a blanket in front of the TV. It was a very fun-filled month. But it is somewhat nice to be back to the normal craziness of having a "routine." At least as much as we can have with four little kids. :)