Advent

 

Advent wreaths! Got the idea from here.

 

On sunday nights we burned the candles for a few minutes during dinner.

 

Tree time!



I like this pic of Elia becasue it shows how warm it was the day we got the tree.  Bare foot!

Lights Up

And done!

 

 

St. Nick's Day





Hello Kitty Jelly beans, gold coins, and christmas tree pen and paper.



Twas the Night Before Christmas

We started the evening out with some homemade mini pizzas. Second year in a row, and I hope to keep the tradition up! Its fun for the girls to pick their toppings.

We opened presents from family members, and something tells me that this is going to be a very Elmo Christmas for Boom. We set out treats for Santa and of course, the carrot is for the reindeer!

What a difference a year makes:

Once the girls were snug in their beds, we took the stocking advent calendar down and put their stockings up. We put out the Nativity scene with Jesus in it, and put all the presents under the tree.

Can't wait to see their reactions! See that Elmo bag Santa left? Elia is going to go ga-ga over it!

Merry Christmas to all!

Ornaments

So excited for the ornaments I picked out this year! Every year we give each of us an ornament so that we will have one for every year. I love this tradition- one that Chris' family does and we decided to carry on. I LOVE Pier One's ornaments so I try to go there each year. When I saw these, I couldn't NOT get them, right?

When I was pregnant with E and found out it was a girl, Chris kept saying wouldn't it be cool if we had a brunette girl? Then we would have one of each(a blonde and brunette). And so far, that is exactly what happened!

I got these for Chris and I- the rougher bear is for Chris and the smoother, prettier bear is for me.

We are getting sooooo excited for Christmas over here. Gianna probably asks me twice a day if tomorrow is Christmas. She is getting way excited. My Christmas shopping is done so I can enjoy the rest of advent. Yay!

Last Day to Teach

Today was my last day of teaching Preschool Playdates. There is one more next week, and then Gianna will be going on to preschool in January! Sniff sniff.

We learned about St. Nick and the letter J. J is for Jesus (duh!) and St. Nick made a special stop to the kiddos while we were at preschool. It was a fun last day.

St. Nick came to see us!

Decorating St. Nick's miter (hat).

Last week, I went and visited my future class. I'm not going to give too many details out on the blog-o-sphere, but I can tell you a little. It is a brand new school (this is its first year!) in a very nice neighborhood. There are 20 kids in my class and they seem like a good enough bunch. I read them Our Teacher's Having a Baby to them and we talked about how excited they are for their teacher to have a baby. After teaching preschool today and seeing the 3rd graders a few days ago, it has just reaffirmed how I am way more cut out for 8/9 year olds. You have to have way more energy and patience for 3 year olds than 8 year olds. Not only that, but you have to have EVERY second planned or the 3 year olds go crizazy. Who knows, I might be singing a different tune in 2 months! I plan to visit 2 more times in Jan/Feb. The teacher is due February 16th, so as soon as she "goes", I'm in. It is so bittersweet. I am truly looking forward to working again (and earning a paycheck :) but it will be so sad to leave my girls with someone else. It will all be worth it in the end!

St. Nick's Day

St. Nick's day was a big hit here! G insisted on putting out her shoes she is wearing for the wedding. We put some of Elia's out too. Gianna kept getting St. Nick's name wrong and was starting to call him Uncle Rick. (What??:) These little girls are plum spoiled with the Advent calendar AND shoes full of chocolate and a kaleidescope. I just know Christmas is going to be soooo fun!

Advent

We had a great Advent calendar growing up- it was made out of felt and had pockets with candy and little toys and little scripture notes. Well my mom gave it to Megan so I needed to make one myself. I found quite a few cute ideas online, but really liked this one I saw on a blog last year. So I went to Oriental Trading Company and bought 24 little stockings. Then I strung them together and used felt to make numbers. For each day, the girls get a chocolate and a little toy, and there is a slip of paper in each stocking with them name of a family member or friend to pray for. At prayer time we pray specifically for the name on the slip of paper. Gianna thought she was so cool the day we pulled her name out of the stocking.

Every morning has been really exciting for the girls to see what they get! So far they have gotten little trinkets, nail polish, etc.