Advent Calendar: Week 2

Day 9 – Attend a Christmas Play.  This one was really fun.  I saw that The Best Christmas Pageant was being performed by Bright Light Players at a church in Wooster.  It is one of my favorite Christmas stories.  If you have never read it, I highly suggest it.  It is a short read, but so good!  The girls loved it.  And I thought it was a pretty good performance as well.  I even got teary eyed – not because the acting was so amazing, but at one point Imogene (one of the Hendersons… “bad” kids in town) has a moment of transformation.  It is a powerful part of the book when connected to the birth of Christ, and it was just a good reminder that Jesus came for all of us.  We went out to get some ice cream afterwards.

Day 10 – Check out Christmas books.  One of my favorite days, and one of the easiest.  I just took them to the Dalton Library, which I love, but I kinda wish we would have gone to Orrville or Wooster just to do something different than our normal stop.  It didn’t really matter; they enjoyed this.  It is fun to read all the holiday books.  Oh, and we got to look for the library’s Elf on the Shelf.  It is not something we do in our house, so the girls had fun participating in this tradition.

Day 11 – Go to a band concert.  We went and watched the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades perform.  Nothing fancy, but I like that they hear instruments play, and not just people sing.  Madison said she would like to play the trumpet maybe.  Ellie thought maybe a flute… or a violin or piano (if it was just any instrument).  A really grainy selfie of us there…

Day 12 – Make a caroling video to share.  This was more fun than I anticipated.  We “caroled” three songs in our living room, and then we sent it out to family far away and close.  Jeremy was the star of the show!

Day 13 – Make cookies.  This gets easier every year because the girls can pretty much cut the cookies out on their own. Madison was even rolling her own dough this year.  They did a great job.  I don’t remember how many we made, but they didn’t even tire out!

         

Day 14 – Frost cookies.  Again, this gets easier.  The results are always fun to see.  Sometimes, they use LOTS of frosting..  Other times they are light-handed.  Sometimes, they spend a lot of time designing something.  Other times, they just slap frosting and sprinkles on.  I think they turned out pretty well.  Some of them will be eaten by us, some will be given to teachers, and some will go with Grandpa to coffee corner to minister to others.

       

Day 15 – Watch a Christmas movie.  They chose A Dog Named Christmas.  They watched this with my parents since they were staying there overnight.  It got rave reviews from everyone, so I probably should watch it myself.  They also cut and frosted cookies at my mom’s house!

    

Day 16 – Make Christmas Cupcakes.  Yep.  This didn’t happen on Day 16; we put it off until day 17.

Day 17 – Deliver treats to your neighbors … and Make Christmas Cupcakes.  I figured they would be tired of baking and frosting, but I was wrong.  They were both excited to do this today.  I had pulled a few ideas of some easy, but “fancy” ways to frost a cupcake for the holiday – an ornament, Santa, a snowman.  The girls did these and their own creations.  Ellie’s are on the left; Madison’s are on the right. Then, we took them to three of our neighbors.

       

Day 18 – Take a donation to an animal shelter.  You know from last post that it is risky taking my kids to a place where animals can be purchased to bring home.  Last time, it ended with a lot of whiny kids.  It ended better this time, mostly.  We stopped at RKO to buy some kitty food and dog toys to donate to the Wayne County Human Society.  We checked out some cats and dogs while we were there.  Madison fell in love with a kitten (under a year, but not tiny) named Greta.  (The short haired one on the left.)

There was a dog named Marty that we were going to ask to meet, but then he was snatched up by another family, and I think adopted.  There was another dog named Paris, a pure bred Bichon Frise.  She was four and had been in a breeding situation.  She looked so timid and scared.  I felt sorry that her life had been so miserable.  She had just arrived and was not up for adoption.  We are on the verge of adopting some kind of pet, but it is so hard to commit to all the time that any pet besides a fish and hermit crab takes.  Which, by the way, the girls spent their own time one day making new backgrounds for their pets homes.  It was pretty neat.

    

Until the end… I will post the last few activities – all fairly low-key – as well as Christmas celebrations sometime between now and the new year.