Advent Calendar: Day 5

Day 5: Paint a Snowflake Picture on Canvas

Smocks are on.  They're ready to paint.

Not too much painting done before
the exploring begins.

And no painting activity would be
complete without Myles using his hands
instead of the brush (no biggie)
and, of course, sampling the paint.
Thank God it's non-toxic or we would
never paint.  Ever.

The final products! Myles' is on top;
Nora's is beneath.
Good decorations to save from year to year.

Advent Calendar: Day 4

Day 4: Watch a Charlie Brown Christmas with Mom and Dad

After dinner, we got into our pjs and
made hot chocolate (Dad's addition).
We're ready for the movie.

Easier for the little boy to drink to warm chocolate
through a straw.  

Me? Director of the Christmas play?!

Tired and enjoying the show half way snuggled by Daddio.

All of us sprawled out 

Advent Calendar: Day 3

Day 3: Put Christmas lights up in your rooms

Nora's room
(she requests them on while she sleeps - I
turn them off before I go to bed)

Myles' room

Advent Calendar: Day 2

Day 2: Decorate the Tree 

I love the enthusiasm for simply pulling
the card out.  No clue what it says yet
but she's excited.

Decorate the tree

I had some eager helpers in the beginning.

This was Nora's handy work when
I told her we needed to put the lights on the tree.

Hmmm... what's this button do?

Oh! Turns the lights on... 

.... and off (and on and off and on!)

Is this how it goes, Ma?

With the kids in bed, the lights are now
finished.  No camera tricks -
those are red and white lights.
I like white, Dan likes color.  This
is our compromise.

The ornaments will have to wait until tomorrow.

Advent Calendar: Day 1

This year, I decided I wanted to do something a little different than the traditional piece of chocolate advent calendar to count down until Christmas.  I wanted to focus more on family time, activities together, and giving back to others. I took my DIY advent calendar from last year (muslin bags with a number painted on them) and put a piece of cardstock in each with an activity for Nora and Myles to do everyday.  As the kids grow, I'd like to do more service type activities but this is a great start.

Day One: I'm ready to go to the very genuine Christmas tree lot of Home Depot when Dan decides to clean out the gutters quickly before we go.  So I take out my camera and finish up putting the lights out on the bushes.  I put my camera down on the ledge at the back of the house.  Dan moves to the gutters in the back.  I later go to the back and see my camera getting soaked on the ledge.  NOOOOOOOOO!  Terrible.  Not only right before the holidays but it's my good camera, I mean, c'mon!  So we tried to set it into a bowl of rice for 24 hours.  It kind of worked - camera took pictures on some settings but not all.  Back into the rice for another 12 hours and suddenly, we're back in the game.  Phew! Thankfully, the camera is now back in commission but not before I had to take pictures of days 1 through 3 on my phone, which don't get me wrong, takes good pictures but not the same.  Anyway... day one --

Pick out the family Christmas tree!

Holmes Thanksgiving

I've always enjoyed Thanksgiving.  Family and food - what's not to like?  And this year, it was unseasonably warm so we got to go down to the Sport Court and play shuffleboard which we haven't done as a family in years.  Dan got a good look at just how much smack talk my uncles can do while playing games and how competitive my mom can really be (he's only heard the stories about how she threw the mancala beads at me and still to this day refuses to play with me because she just can't win! hehe) but not before some fun and family - and of course, eating - inside.

Aunt Patti has a princess tent!

Don't come in!

Grandpa Grandpa wants a ball too.

Anything good in Gram's purse? 

Glasses! 

hehe... bookworm

It's time to work off some of our lunch.
Nora is learning proper shuffleboard form from Gram.

Then teaches Daddy everything she learned.

It dawned on me while I was looking through pictures
that this just might be the only picture I have ever seen
of my Uncle Tim without his finger up his nose,
his tongue sticking out, or his hat over his face. 

And guess what... they had a bench swing right
next to the sport court.  

Let There Be Lights

 It's too warm not to take advantage of it.  We dug our outside lights out of the garage and started putting them on the bushes today.  Won't turn them on until after Thanksgiving -- it's a rule -- but we had to get started.

Digging the lights out of the bin.

Look at these, Mom!

All tangled and I can shake it.

Intrigue 

Then he noticed I was taking pictures
so stopped to say, "cheese!"