muffin tin moments

 glimpses of some of our December muffin tin family advent fun...

lots of cutting and creating of felt ornaments (while Luke slept)

and once the sleepy boy got up....

 ...we hung the tree!

 ...and decorated! :)

 this might be one of my favorite activities/crafts we have done!

 making paper strip Christmas trees...scissors, glue sticks, and paper strips to FLING all over (if you are Luke!)

 paper plate snowmen

 Luke just like the gluestick...a lot!

 sponge paint snowmen

December 1--Parade and Town Hall Lighting

There is a good chance that I won't be faithful in blogging consistently for each of our 24 days of family fun advent activities (just look how long it was between posts after I climbed back on the blogging horse!).  However, I hope to try...if nothing else for something to look back on.  The days are flying by...and honestly, in the midst of them, they are hard and exhausting, and sad but true, often I am too overwhelmed to really savor them like I know I should. My blog has always been a place for me to remind myself of the heaps of "good"...like the title, the "blessings all mine".  It is not that I want to pretend that there aren't really hard hours and days and seasons...there are...it is not that I want to plaster on a smile and not be real....it is that I want to be able to smile...now, in the midst of the hard...and blogging does just that for me.

That brings us to December 1, 2012...kicking off our month of fun with a big one...the town parade and tree/town hall lighting.  Our fab friends came over for dinner first...gotta love that they came bearing a big ole' pot of white chicken chili for us adults (the silly kiddos scarfed down some homemade pigs in a blanket ala moi).  We have a particularly prime location for parades, etc...as we don't have to drive...just a nice walk down the street!

It was a fabulous night...I think most all of us adults ended up sans coats before the night was over...who could expect upper 50s for a parade on December 1....unseasonably warm, just like the fourth of July parade!

 CANDY!

 Maybe it is the "lake-goer" in me, but I liked this simple but fun "float"...I mean, you might as well just keep the boat on the trailer and deck it up!

 These people had bubble machines built into the float...and TONS of LED lights...so fun!

 Luke and mama

 Here comes Santa and Mrs. Claus....they don't bring the presents at our house, as we choose to focus away from that, BUT really, it is Santa, and how fun is that for any little kiddos, even the ones who just think of him as a fun red bearded dude in a red suit. :)

 Waiting for the tree and town hall lighting

 Someone charmed the crowd and wandered until mama got tired of chasing him down and confined him with a sucker...he wasn't too sad about the deal :)

 Jilly, daddy, and Kate...counting down for the lighting of the tree

 Ta-Da!  We had front row seats

 Miss Carrie and Rilla

 Family sans mama :)

 Look, here I am...I do exist AND I actually let them take a pic of me AND posted it on the blog

 Miss Elizabeth is getting way too big, way too quickly!

Daddy and Luke :)

decking the halls :)

 As has become tradition, we decked the halls the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

 Everyone was SUPER excited to see the tree come out of the box (I know, I know...someday when keeping all the people fed, clothed, and alive is not so much work we will have to do the whole go out and cut down our own tree thing...but for now, FAKE!)

 Luke boy and the tree

 Libbers helped mama string the lights

 Everyone helped with ornaments....even Mugho :)

 Luke is especially excited by the jingly bells :)

 Once the halls were decked, we had some sweet, dear friends over for for a post-turkey Mexican fiesta the next evening.  Here are Luke and Greta taste testing the tortillas mama and Aunt Jill were rolling out and cooking up.

 ...of course Uncle Nathan was acting as a jungle gym...Elizabeth was trying desperately to convince everyone she was not, in fact, Spiderman but rather "Shining Armor"...the prince from My Little Ponies :)

I am so thankful for memory making....even in the midst of chaos!

muffin tin advent family fun

December is one of my very favorite months...and I always make it my goal to be finished with the shopping and scurrying so that we can thoroughly enjoy the month while moving at a slower pace.

 

This is one of my very favorite Christmas traditions....our [mini] muffin advent calendar....made with love several years ago after I saw the idea on a blog.  The cards are 2 1/4 inch cardstock squares with fun embellishments, but what is under them is the "good stuff"...folded slips of paper with 24 (actually 25 this year...I doubled up one day) fun (and very frugal) activities...outings, crafts, favorite Christmas traditions, etc.  The kiddos will rotate who gets to remove the slip each day...counting down until Christmas.  We do a more spiritually focused advent as a family, but this is our purely for fun activity focused calendar.

For those who are curious, here is what I put in this year. Kate helped seal each one with a sticker, which really excited her...bonus that she is not a proficient enough reader yet to have decoded the messages on each slip. ;)

-ice cream cone tree decorating

-family game night (with a scavenger hunt to find a new game beforehand)

-Christmas with Uncle H and Aunt S

-salt dough ornaments

-snowman and reindeer mini donuts while watching "Rudolph"

-Christmas light scavenger hunt (in PJs....as a bedtime surprise)

-cookie baking day

-delivering packages of cookie goodness

-tortilla snowflakes

-making "Grinch floats" and watching Grinch

-Jolly Days at the Children's Museum

-going downtown to see the lights

-making cakes in a mug and watching Elf

-perler bead ornaments

-felt snowman kits

-cocoa and a Christmas movie

-macaroni snowflakes

-Christmas with Grandmommy, Poppy, and crew

-button and felt Christmas trees

-sponge paint snowmen

-paper plate snowmen

-scrapbook paper strip trees

-drink melted frostys while watching "Frosty"

-build and decorate a massive felt tree

-hometown Christmas parade and Town Hall lighting

 

By some miracle I am actually ahead of the game this year...the calendar is hung AND the slips are actually carefully placed (I am typically writing the slip and shoving it in the calendar moments before the kiddos are opening it up!).