Sharing some things we’ve been doing for the past few days getting ready for the Big Guy in Red to make his visit.

Feet and hands making a reindeer. We couldn’t find our googlie eyes so we made do with stickers.

Three Santa handprints from a five, a four, and a one year old hand!

We’ve added a few new titles to our Christmas book collections. “Charlie and the Christmas Kitty” by Ree Drummond is the book each of them received from Santa at the Bush’s Christmas party. Charlie is a sweet basset hound living on a ranch, feeling like he is “King of the Ranch!” In the story Charlie gets a gift he did not have on his list or expect…a kitty! He quickly learns to accept, appreciate, and even enjoy his new friend! The illustrations are beautiful and bright of this ranch family and there is even a cookie recipe at the end of the story.

We also added these two titles. I loved the title “J is for Jesus,” by Crystal Bowman. This is a great story about the candy cane tradition and it’s meaning and reminds us all that the candy cane represents Jesus’ birth. The kids and I also enjoyed pointing out that each of us have a letter J in our names… Jackson, James Steven, Abigail Julienne, Isabela Jolie, and Julie.
The last title we added was “Who Is Coming To Our House,” by Joseph Slate. This story was my favorite! The children loved the animals on each page getting their house(barn) cleaned and ready for a visitor. I asked them to predict throughout the story who the visitor could be. At the end, they learn this is a nativity story and that the visitors are Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus!

The true meaning of Christmas!

Love and candy canes.

Early stages of our tree. A couple feet shorter than years past, but at least we haven’t had the issue of a falling tree and broken ornaments!

We also cut down several little pines from behind our house for our flower beds and boxes. This little tree we decided to bring indoors to our sunroom for our handmade crafts. Probably our favorite Charlie Brown tree, and it was free! Our tiny silver star, on loan from Abigail, made from one of her fairy wands.

This is an example of our nutter butter snowmen we created. We also made peanut butter blossoms, mint pretzel hugs, cut out sugar cookies, and other bars and brownies. The hit was our reindeer munch with M&M’s!

Yummy, we have not gone hungry!

We have been filled with fun!

Decorating our gingerbread Christmas village.

We have loved all the sweets, present wrapping, and Santa prepping.

Another cozy fire and “the stockings hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nick would soon be there!”

This was the start of what Jackson and Abigail put together for Santa’s snack.

One last photo and off for another bedtime story. Baby sissy is already tucked in bed! They are so excited. It has been my goal to not make it about one day or one event. I have wanted them to happily experience all of the moments for a long Christmas season. For weeks we have tried to be full of joy in all we have done. My wish is a special holiday filled with many fond memories and traditions we can build on each year. Keep the spirit of Christmas little babies!

December 26, 2012
Categories: Literature Favorites, Memories, Moments of Joy, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: 1 Comment