If you are one of the three people who read my blog, you may recall that last year, we tried to do an Advent Celebration and do a Christmas activity each night in December. My purpose was mainly to help us stay focused on the Savior during Christmas, but also to build excitement and just kind of strengthen our family. It ended up being like a Family Home Evening every night in December. We had a blast, but trying to do that and Christmas shopping and finish up the Semester and Blog about it all was a little much for me. And when I say "a little much", I mean it almost killed me and turned me into an unkind person for a few days. And we all know how great I am at blogging promptly. Ha!
So. This year, we decided to just to a 12 days of Christmas Countdown with activities. We still used our amazing advent calendar (specially made for us by Matt's uber talented sister, Paige) for the whole month of December. Each little box holds a treasure for that day. But once we got to December 13th, we did an activity each night, read a passage of scripture and sang a Christmas Hymn or Song. We had so much fun! 
Isn't our Advent Calendar darling? Thanks, Paige!
So instead of sharing each activity with you, I'm just sharing two posts with highlights from some of our activities:
Making Gingerbread Houses!
After careful advice from a few friends, I chose to buy the pre-made kit to so that the kids could decorate our houses. Maybe when they are all older, we can try to make our own and construct the houses, but I wanted them to have fun and be able to decorate! I would definitely do this again, we had so much fun!
Another reason I liked the kit was that it required very little from Matt and I... and I don't me n that in a lazy way, but just that I wanted them to be creative and have complete control over the process. Hard to believe that ever happens with a control-freak like me for a Mom, but I try.
Finished product:
The is our reprise of the Gingerbread house building. Daphne had a really nasty cough and was experiencing some breathing difficulties, so we kept her home from school on the day her class made Gingerbread houses. We had all the supplies, so I just let she and Tori make some at home.
It was a really good activity- Daphne's kept falling, but we figured out how to manage, both the house and her emotions! :)
This night we focused on the Star. We read scriptures about the Wise Men following the Star and made our own stars!
The finished products:
Daphne even made up a song about her star! She chose to use lots of different colors. If you read the lyrics, it really does rhyme, you just have to hear her rhythm and notes. I love her creative spirit and sweet heart!
On this particular night, we read the book, "Memories of the Manger". We sang Away in a Manger and Made our Own Mangers with little peanuts for Baby Jesus.
(Daphne used gloves since she's allergic to peanuts)
Our finished Products:
This week, the kids worked on memorizing Matthew 1:21:
"And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS, for He shall save his people from their sins."
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