Our ADVENTure Wrap-up!

I thought I would do a quick wrap-up of all the Advent activities we did this year.

Day 1: Put up Christmas Decorations

Day 2: Bethlehem Revisited

Day 3: Birthday Gift for Teacher

Day 4: Christmas Cards

Day 5: Order gift through World Vision Catalog

Day 6: Family Game Night

Day 7: Leave for Oklahoma

Day 8: Oklahoma Basketball Tournament

Day 9: SBANT Party at the Airplane Museum

Day 10: Go Dollar Section shopping for family!

Day 11: Wrap gifts

Day 13: Light 'Em Up! Activity, make "Thank you" signs for the trash collectors

Day 14: Family Game Night with Snowman Sundaes

 Day 15: Granny and Paw-Paw's for Christmas

Day 16: Make chocolate pretzels for staff at school

 Day 17: Light 'Em Up! Activity, leave a sweat treat for mail carrier

Day 18: Watch "Charlie Brown Christmas

Day 19: Make Sugarplums for classmates

Day 20: Watch "I want a dog for Christmas Charlie Brown"

Day 21: Birthday Doughnuts for Benjamin's 4th birthday!

Day 22: Benjamin's Lego Party!

Day 23: Pizza night

Day 24: Open Christmas Eve gift bag

Day 25: Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas!!

(Surprisingly I have few photos of Christmas Day. It was so busy that I just barely took out my camera! I do have a few photos on my phone so I'll try to get around to posting some of those.)

I mentioned at the beginning of the month that the boys (mostly Caleb) would be doing the "Truth in the Tinsel" activities for our Jesse Tree. I was cautiously optimistic about this endeavor. I wasn't convinced that we would be able to get all 24 ornaments done for our tree. BUT WE DID!! I'm so excited that we were able to do them all. Caleb did most of them, with Benjamin joining us for a few. It was a lot of fun.

And one of my most favorite things this season was the SB Christmas Card exchange. When I came up with this idea in November, I wasn't sure how many families would be interested in participating. We had 72 families sign up to do the exchange (I suspect it will be even more next year). I was blessed almost daily with 2, 3, and sometimes 6 Christmas cards from my SB family. It was such a treat. I think I got about 40 cards in the mail.

I ran out of room!

I've got a plan to create a "2012 SB Christmas Card Exchange" book. That way I can keep these wonderful cards organized. They were such a blessing to our family. I can't wait to do it again next year! A BIG  "Thank  You" to everyone that participated.

Sweet Treats

Several of our Advent activities lately have involved making sweet treats for other people.

The first thing we made was Chocolate Pretzel Kisses. These are so easy and oh-so tasty. This is the perfect treat for kids to help out with. My boys had so much fun.

What you need:
A big bag of pretzels
Hershey kisses (we used chocolate kisses and candy cane kisses)

First the boys laid the pretzels out on a cookie sheet.

Next, they unwrapped and unwrapped and unwrapped a million Hershey kisses.

(they may have eaten a few as well)

Placing the kisses on top of the pretzels.

Pop them in a 170 degree oven for about 5 minutes.

Push a M&M into the top of the soft kiss.

Put them in the fridge or freezer to cool and harden.

Note: the Candy Cane kisses melt a lot faster than the chocolate so I learned after the first batch not to bake the two together. The Candy Cane kisses are much softer and melt quicker than the chocolate. I can't tell you enough how yummy these are. We made a ton of them, bagged them up, and passed them out to the staff at Caleb's and Benjamin's school.

Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods

What you need:

Bag of Pretzel Rods

Bakers chocolate (semi-sweet and white chocolate)

Sprinkles, toppings, whatever you want on your pretzels

Pretzel Rod bags

I decided to make these as gifts. They are easy, yummy, and festive.

You can get step by step photos by clicking the link above but basically you melt semi-sweet baking chocolate, dip the pretzel, give it some sprinkles, and put it in the fridge or freezer to harden. Easy as pie!

These are so yummy. Seriously, super yummy.

Last week, Caleb's class went to see a production of  "T'was the Night before Christmas". I ran across this sweet treat idea and thought it would be a cute gift to the kids in Caleb's class.

Sugarplums (click the link for ingredients needed)

First the boys pushed a marshmallow onto a lollipop stick.

Dip half the marshmallow into melted blue candy (candy melts).

Dip into sprinkles.

Allow drying time. Bag it up. Add the cute tag and ribbon (tag available at the link above).

So cute!

We also did another "Light 'Em Up!" activity this week. We left a sweet treat and note in our mailbox for the mail carrier to find. :)

So fun!!

Christmas at Granny and Paw-Paw's

This past Saturday we had Christmas at Granny and Paw-Paw's house. Christmas at Granny and Paw-Paw's is quite an event with 37 people, tons of food, even more desserts, and presents. The boys always have a great time because they get to see their cousins.

The kids spent most of the time outside playing basketball.

This child loves basketball.

Benjamin mostly walked around looking mischievous.

I can't tell...did Caleb like his gift?

(He got NBA Jam for the Wii. He was so excited.)

Benjamin took his time opening his gifts.

Side note on Mr. Benjamin: I've decided he is a very peculiar kid. I mentioned in my last post about him saving the bag of m&m's he got at school last week (the bag of candy is still in the pantry by the way...uneaten). Well, he got a new train track including a bridge and new trains, plus a Hot-wheels track for racing his cars, and light-up Spider-man shoes (shoes that he had been BEGGING for) at Granny and Paw-Paw's. These are all things that he loves and he was super excited to see them. BUT, he won't open the boxes to play with the toys. He won't try on his new light-up Spider-man shoes. At first I thought he just didn't want his cousins to mess with his stuff but even when we got home with his new goodies, he still wouldn't take them out of their boxes. All day yesterday I tried to get Benjamin to play with his new toys or try on his shoes, but nope, kid wouldn't do it. Today is Monday and even with Bubba at school, his new toys completely safe from anyone other than Benjamin playing with them...he refuses to open the boxes. It is like he loves them so much, he doesn't want them to get messed up. So peculiar. I've never seen anything like it. That kids beats to his own drum, that's for sure. 

Meanwhile Caleb had to play his new NBA Jam game as soon as we got home.

Our ADVENTure: Game night and Snowman Sundaes!

Day 14: Family Game night and Snowman Sundaes!

Last night's Advent activity covered 2 of the boy's favorite things: games and ice cream. First we made some "snowman sundaes". What is a snowman sundae? Well it is basically a scoop of ice cream with a marshmallow on top. We put a face on our marshmallow and decorated the scoop of ice cream to look like a snowman body. The boys got to go crazy with an assortment of sugary candy treats to decorate their snowman with. They had a blast!

Benjamin was so careful decorating his snowman. He really thought about it, he took his time. And once he perfected his snowman, he was almost hesitant to eat it. It was so cute. I see this kind of behavior a lot in Benjamin. He got a small bag of m&m's at school last week. Now any other kid on this planet would have wanted to gobble up those m&m's right away ( I know Caleb would have ). But not Benjamin. He told me he wanted to "save them". Those m&m's are still waiting to be eaten. He checks with me every once in awhile to make sure no one else has eaten them because he is "saving them".

While Benjamin is still carefully constructing his snowman, Caleb has already eaten half of his own. Two totally different kids.

Benjamin slowly savoring his snowman, taking tiny bites with his spoon.

Meanwhile, Caleb is licking his plate clean.

 After our sundae treat, we played a game of "Candy Land". Family game nights can be a bit of a challenge when you have a 3 year old and a 7 year old. It's not easy to find a game that is simple enough for Benjamin to play and still engaging enough for Caleb to enjoy. Luckily, Caleb just likes playing games so he was cool with "Candy Land".

Benjamin kept saying: "I'm going to WIN this thing!"

(I won)

Love my boys. I'm very thankful to have them. I'm thankful I get to hold them and love on them.

Our ADVENTure: Light 'Em Up! Activity

We did our first "Light 'Em Up!" activity with the boys this week. I mentioned before that Caleb read through the list of possible activities and he circled the ones he wanted to do. I doubt that we will get to all of them but I hope to at least do a handful.

Light 'Em Up Activity: Let your garbage collectors know that you appreciate them by making signs and taping them to your trash can/bags.

Caleb coloring his "Thank you" sign.

We taped the signs to our trash bags before we set them out.

The next morning I put the picnic table by the front door so the boys could watch for the trash truck. The boys waited and waited for the truck to come. Waited and waited. Caleb was so worried he would have to leave for school and miss seeing the trash truck.

Right as it was time to take Caleb to school, the truck rounded the corner! The boys were so excited. The guy jumped off the truck, saw the signs right away, and showed them to the driver. They waved at the boys and yelled "Thank you!". It was really neat. We may have to do this more often.