Happy Advent!
This is absolutely my favorite time of year, and we've been having so much fun with it! Granted, some of our usual traditions have been set aside for a year, and the majority of our Christmas decorations are still in their bins in California. Our Christmas tree, however, is being featured at our church in California, all decked out with international flags and nativity scenes for their children's pageant. If we can't enjoy our tree, I'm glad it's available for our friends!

As usual, Advent kicked off with the lighting of the first candle at church, and we get to break out the Christmas hymns. We even got to do a little decorating that afternoon. We set up the two nativity sets that came with us (the matryoshka set and the pop-up paper one both traveled nicely), and I was thrilled when Daddy and the girls surprised me with a 4-foot tinsel tree and a box of ornaments from Five Below! I really didn't think we'd get a tree this year!

A little later in the week, the girls and I pulled out our craft supplies and spent a couple of hours handcrafting more decorations: chrismons for the tree, snowflakes to hang from the curtains in their room, wreaths for doorknobs, paper chains for the tree and the dining room chandelier, and some toilet paper tube angels to sit in the kitchen window. Eventually we found a foamy nativity kit at a craft store, so the girls could have a nativity scene they were actually allowed to play with. It was kind of a milestone actually, because the girls were able to put it together entirely on their own. All I had to do was hand them the unopened box, and tell them to have fun!

Hot cocoa + craft supplies = hours of fun + Christmas decorations!

I was very pleased not only with how our chrismons turned out, but with how well the big girls could come up with the symbols on their own or explain the meaning behind the ones I suggested. It was also fun to listen in later when Monkey and Bug would explain all the chrismons to Goose.(For my readers who aren't familiar: chrismons are "Christ Monograms," handmade, gold and white ornaments that are all symbols of Jesus. For example, a crown for Christ the King or a shepherd's crook for the Good Shepherd. Usually, we have two full-sized trees--one for chrismons and one for the assorted adorable handmade ornaments you acquire when raising three girls!) The girls also got to make chrismons at church one Sunday for the trees in the chapel there.

We took a break from our usual Bible characters readings to do special Advent readings (Thank you, Focus on the Family website!). We read a few verses every morning and talk about what it has to do with Christmas. Some of those Old Testament prophecies can be pretty puzzling to little ones!

The girls and I got to participate in an unplanned Christmassy event, when we happened to visit Home Depot the morning of the December kids' workshop (apparently, these workshops are monthly free events that we are totally going to take advantage of in the future). The girls each got to hammer together and decorate three lawn ornaments each--a snowman, gingerbread man, and snowflake.

And, of course, we have to go shopping for Christmas dresses! I'm not one of those moms who goes for coordinating outfits--I'm all about individual expressions of style and learning how to shop wisely. They can pick out whatever "fancy" dress they want, but it has to be machine washable and within a set budget. All three girls were very pleased with their outfits this year!

The family tradition of Sunday nights being movie nights continued, but this month with Christmas movies! We featured the usual favorites--Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Muppets Christmas Carol, and The Polar Express. On the afternoon we made the girls fleecy blankets, we did it while watching the American Ballet perform The Nutcracker (I managed to find the whole ballet streaming on YouTube). The girls also had fun comparing this rendition to the version we've always watched before--the one Maurice Sendak designed (sadly, not available as a streaming video this year). The girls also managed to have several other days during the week when they were able to get lessons and chores done and still have time to watch some of the shorter films like The Grinch who Stole Christmas, The Toy Who Saved Christmas, and Charlie Brown's Christmas.

I'm definitely considering it a parenting win that as we got farther into Advent, the girls began to realize with dismay that most of the Christmas movies we watched and songs we heard on the radio didn't talk about the real meaning of Christmas. Bug was particularly upset about this. She pointed out that even if there weren't presents or decorations or parties or anything, it would still be "the most wonderful day of the year" because Jesus was born! How could all these people just ignore that!