Monday, December 12, 2011

December so far

 I can't believe it is already almost half way through  December. The days are passing so quickly.

My kids are counting down the days until Christmas but honestly I didn't do any kind of advent type things this year. December crept up on me before I had anything planned out. But that hasn't stopped us from reading a bunch of Christmas books, learning some new Christmas songs or going to our usual Christmas activities.


We of course went to the Christmas Creche Exhibit.  We saw many lovely nativity sets from around the world. The kids had fun going on the scavenger hunt through all the rooms looking and trying to find the nativity with a shepherd holding a chicken or one with an angel in a pink dress. My kids always look forward to this event and are thrilled to see the marionette show performed in the children's room.  Molly really enjoyed the dressing up and finally getting to touch and play with a nativity set.  It is hard to have a 2 year old in a place where she can't touch anything.
We also took a trip to Bethlehem where we get to walk through the Christmas story. It is the same show, usually even the same actors but every year it is a highlight of this season. The pictures throughout this post were all taken while we were at this event.

The kids love seeing the animals and the different booths that are set up to see carpentry tools, foods, natural dyes, pottery and games from that time and place.
We have also had a number of parties to attend. My husband in particular is thrilled that the Ward Christmas Party has come and gone. He was put in charge of it this year and he was a bit stressed having to plan and carry out this event for 200+ people.  But it was a wonderful evening, everything seemed to run smoothly and everyone had a good time.
Everything is packed into the first two weeks of December.  Most of our yearly Christmas outings have already come and gone. We are now at the waiting.... waiting.... waiting sage of the Christmas season. We still have a bunch of pictures books to read, a number of Christmas movies I plan to introduce my kids to, and I plan to have Jim Dale tell us the story of A Christmas Carol.

There is still lots of things in which to fill in the next two weeks. Christmas day will be here before we know it.

1 comment:

Bibliophile said...

I rather envy your family and the excitement of Christmas. I still haven't gotten out the Christmas tree or the decorations, but I guess I will have to do that this week. I barely took down and put away the Autumn things. Every year I struggle to find the Christmas Spirit, which wasn't difficult when all the children were home. It's as though Christmas is happening for everyone else and we're looking through the window at the celebrations. We don't even put up the outside lights any more and I have to put up the Christmas tree all by myself, which is not very exciting. I'm always being asked, "Is your Christmas tree up yet?" and I have to admit that it is not. I hope I feel better about the whole season by the time Christmas does come around.