The Week Before Christmas......

We packed A LOT into this week......

CAROLERS!!!


The Bowden family came to our house caroling & this year they added the Pates & Ann Hill to the group.   Seriously, does it get any better??    Lance Pate & Kristen Sharp in the same group!!!    We lived it up.....sat on the porch listening to them all the way down the street.    Max, Jack, Rose & Sam were so sweet to hand out cookies & Mrs. Ann had candy canes.    Daniel & Laura Ann thought it was the grandest thing ever.   And Laura Ann was thrilled to get a hug from Mrs. Kristen.    I was really proud that we actually had on pajamas this year & weren't on the porch in our underwear!! :-)


BUSY ELVES!



CHRISTMAS FUN in the KITCHEN!



THE TRUTH IN THE TINSEL

I found a blog with the best advent devotional for kids and had the best of intentions to follow along all month.   We did do the scripture reading each day & lit our advent candles, but I totally dropped the ball on all of the cute crafts that went along with it.....maybe next year.    I picked out a Christmas song to go with each devotional too & we would watch a youtube video of the song.    Laura Ann's favorite was Selah's Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanual.    It became a regular......I'm sure we watched it no less than 20 times!    Her favorite part was the close up of Mary looking at baby Jesus.    She would always say at that part, "That's my favorite!".



SPREADING CHRISTMAS CHEER

One morning, we found our elves with my bible & a note that asked us to read I John 3:17-18.

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or in tongue but with actions and in truth."

The note suggested a good way to do this was to visit the nursing home.   We found out that there is an angel tree there for the residents who have no family, so we adopted one!   After a visit to the dollar store to pick up some decorations, we headed to the nursing home to decorate her room for Christmas. We also got her the items on her wish list and she will get those at their party on Christmas Day.  Our angel was sleeping while we were there, but we prayed for her & hoped that the decorations we left in her room would make her smile when she woke up.   Then we passed out jingle bells to the residents in the hallway.    It was a really sweet time.    Our only melt down occurred when Daniel's reindeer antlers were broken before we ever got out of the car.   After a few minutes of tears & Laura Ann's offer to  have her antlers, he decided he could accomplish the mission antler-less!!  :-)


WE LOVE MAIL!
They both were thrilled to get singing Christmas cards from the Coueys!    And Daniel was super thrilled to get a letter from Santa himself!!   His class wrote letters to Santa earlier in the month & apparently, Santa writes back!   So fun!



LOTS OF PLAYTIME
.....and for Jeb & Daniel, most of it was outside......



It has been a fun filled week & we are super excited about our Christmas Whirlwind Weekend with family!!!