Winter

Apparently Pennsylvania takes this whole 'first day of winter thing' VERY seriously. We left NC with 72* temps. It was actually 65* when we left at 8am. By the time we crossed the line into PA, there was snow on the ground. We knew we were here and everyone was excited. It doesn't take long to notice your in PA. What they say about PA drivers is all true. The common courtesies and graces you witness on most roads in the south disappears there. It's every man for himself and all bets are off. If someone wants to be in your lane, they will be there, so watch out. And then there's the crazy roads. In PA if you want to go to a store on the left side of the road, you turn right- on a jughandle- hard to get used to. And then there's what Billy affectionately calls, "merge or die lanes". The interstates in the Lehigh Valley are way too small for the population, but have no where to expand. The entrance ramps are two car lengths long and then a cement wall, so it is merge or be smushed and don't plan on anyone getting over to let you in- it won't happen.
Our first day was the first day of winter and the high was 9*, seriously. We discovered that this is the temperature at which baby wipes (despite the alcohol content) freeze into a solid brick! I pulled one out in the car for Julia and it shattered- crazy! When we finally hit double digits we were outside to play. Sledding with my dad is a long held tradition. Growing up in MD, whenever we had a big snow and were all at home, my dad, sister, and I headed out with our sleds to fly down the steep streets in our neighborhood. I will never forget those days. To a kid those roads seemed like mountains and we were fearless flyers on our red plastic sleds :) We all still love it and our passing on the tradition. The kids love it and were going by themselves by the second run.
The top layer on the snow was solid ice and Julia didn't weigh enough to make a dent, so when she wasn't on the sled she was standing in her spot requesting ice to eat....
Happy smiles....
We played a wild game of ice soccer.....
I can still hear their happy squeals all the way down......
Carter and Daddy 'snowboarding'......
With Carter around you know there are lots of sports (despite the snow), after soccer, it was time for baseball....
We loved having a white Christmas, what a treat!!!

Christmas continued.....

It's been a busy past few weeks. The kids are still loving all the advent activities- especially the ones involving paint :) Here they are painting their ornaments.....
They turned out so cute!
The kids loved making dough ornaments. They are so pretty, but also cheap and easy- great family gifts :) All you need is: 2c. flour, 1c. salt, 1c. water, and acrylic paints to decorate.
Mix salt and flour. Add in half the water, then gradually add the remaining water. Knead until the dough is smooth. Once the dough is ready, make your ornaments! You can mold with your hands or with cookie cutters. Use a drinking straw to poke a hole in the top before you bake them. Place ornaments on cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees. After they cool, paint the ornaments with acrylic paint. For an extra nice touch, you can buy a shiny finishing spray or glaze at a store like Hobby Lobby, to seal and protect them. (be careful- I've heard dogs will eat these.)

We do some sort of canvas art every holiday. I was at a loss for what to do this year. Carter suggest a nativity using our hands and feet- I had trouble envisioning this one :) Thanks for the great idea Bekah! Here's our wreath.....Cut a green pepper in half (very easy for kids to hold onto). Then use fingertips to do the berries. This was easy and fast. it looks really cute in the living room :)

Here's Carter's Christmas lapbook for this month. For a kid that rarely ever picked up a crayon, he sure has turned into quite the artist.



















The other day after we did school, I told the kids to set up the nativity while I made lunch. They are so funny to listen to! Carter is definitely into details. The sheep have to be on their hill, but fenced in so they don't get away. he's very concerned that the shepherds left them behind when they went to see Jesus- thus the fence. He also insists that the stable be in the backyard behind the inn. You can't see the little drummer boy in this shot, but he was sleeping in his stable. All his animals were laying down sleeping, too.
Everyone gathered around for a closer look....
We also had our playgroup Christmas party. We have been having playgroup here every Thursday for 4 years. It's hard to believe! The kids had a great time celebrating, singing, and dancing. There were 20 kids and 12 moms, so we fed the kids picnic style.....
We are so thankful for all our friends!
What would Christmas be with out cookies? Here we are at Shana's Cookie Exchange. I have to say this buffet assortment has been my lunch most of the past weeks. I'll definitely be back at the gym in the new year!
The kids loved the drive-thru live nativity. They had a scene for each part of the story and recreated the streets of Bethlehem with market vendors, people, and live animals.
We did it twice, they enjoyed it so much. Jesus truly is the greatest gift of Christmas.

The advent calendar is going very well now. Julia got the hang of it by the third day.
They love lighting the candles at dinner and Julia is still afraid of the fire, so Carter gets the privilege of blowing them out every night.
I love getting Christmas cards! I eagerly wait for the mail every afternoon. We hang them all on our kitchen cabinets. It is such a time of celebration to thank God for our family and friends and pray for each one. They stay up for months because I just love being surrounded by the people I love :)
Well, now we're gearing up to move this celebration north to PA. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning. We are so excited to see all our family and snow!! It's already snowing as we speak and is supposed to continue every other day, including Christmas Eve! It will be quite a shock to our systems, since it's a balmy 72* here today- nuts!!- but really nice for packing the car :)So we'll talk to you next from PA. We pray everyone has a happy and healthy Christmas surrounded by friends and family and filled with the simple joys of Christ. Godspeed to all of you taking to the roads, especially those heading north. We'll miss you and can't wait to see you in the new year! Merry Christmas!!

.......and the excitement at our house. While the kids and I spend the week after Christmas in DC, my hubby and some of our wonderful friends will be installing these spiffy laminates in our downstairs! No more stained carpet- yay!! Thanks to all of you who have made this mini-moving adventure possible by moving our entire downstairs, upstairs. My playgroup girls rock!

Helpful Hints II

I did not plan for this to be a recurring entry, but so is my luck with appliances this year :)

Annmarie and I both had a lot of baking to do, so we decided it would be fun to do it all together. That way the kids would play and we could catch up with each other. All of that went according to plan. We were making cookies, mint brownies, PB balls, cupcakes, and a birthday cake for Jesus. I was working on the cake first and was apparently talking too much (I know, shocker!) because I stopped paying attention. I added double the baking soda. I scooped most of it out and thought no big deal, it's just baking soda (bad move, a little baking soda is apparently just like a little dish soap).

Anyway, the cake went in the oven first. After about ten minutes we smelled burning- strange. When I opened the oven, the two round cake pans had become chocolate volcanoes!! Remember elementary school science.....the secret ingredient to volcanoes........baking soda. There was a thick layer all over the bottom of the oven. It was too hot to clean and we had three trays left to go in the oven. So we kept on baking with the smoke pouring out of the oven. Thank goodness it was warm and we could open all the doors and windows. When everything was baked we had to run the self-clean cycle on the oven. What a nifty feature. This promptly turned our oven into a crackling fireplace. How festive! So we washed dishes by the fire. I know all my firemen friends are yelling at their computer monitors about now. We never left it unattended if that's any better and it came out squeaky clean two hours later- yay!

So the lesson for this week: a little extra baking soda is not like a little extra sugar. It is a BIG deal. Lesson learned.
(Sorry, no fire pictures. I told you I didn't leave it unattended- not even to grab the camera.)

Preschool Parties

We've had a great month celebrating Jesus' birthday at preschool. After we recreated the nativity story and read a few books. The children played their drums for Him. They made great little drummer girls and boy........
Here's Carter and Leah making their icing angels......yummm!
Let our joy be turned to dancing! They were full of spirit!
Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.........They gathered around to hear about the greatest gift. It has been precious to hear how much they understand about Jesus, His birth, the Resurrection , and salvation. Their hearts are growing every day. It's comforting to know they understand the real meaning of Christmas. Even Julia asks us every day in the car, "Who's birthday is it?" Then she yells, "Jesus!"

Christmas Poems

Advent Chain poem:
One Christmas night, so long ago.
A star shone down so all would know
That in a manger, on that night.
A savior was born, our guiding light!

Now Christmas time is almost here
A very special time of year.
When everyone anticipates
That night we can celebrate!

As you remove a link each night
Remember the star that shone so bright
And told the world of Jesus' birth
The Son of God, here on earth!

Snowflake Poem:
This is my snowflake, I made it myself.
If it were real, it would quickly melt.
It wouldn't be around forever and ever.
But there is one thing that won't leave us, no, never.
It is God's Love for each of us all.
He will never leave us, He's there when we call.
So if I feel sad or just need a friend,
I can always turn to God, on Him I can depend!

Christmas Parade

This was our first year attending the annual Christmas Parade here, put on by our Jaycees. It was a cold day with no sun, but we had a great time. with our friends! We got there an hour early to claim our strip of sidewalk.
The Voss, us, the Moodies, and the Sorgius'.Julia was a little skeptical at first about why we were sitting in the cold watching an empty street, but she was very excited when the parade started. They have a dozen macy's-style balloons, our local high school and college bands, dance groups, and floats. The handlers carried baskets of candy that they threw to the kids. Julia was sold. Several times she left with the parade, following the candy down the street :)


Both the kids loved the Thomas balloon. Julia waved and squealed she was so excited.
The music from the bands was great and kept us all dancing!
We loved the Christmas floats, birthday cake for Jesus....
....and a live nativity with real camels, donkeys, and cows!

We all had a great time getting in the Christmas spirit. The kids were enchanted and watched the entire parade- two hours! This is the first year we've been able to go because of their naps and we look forward to making this an annual tradition. We live in a great town!

Advent Anticipation

I love the Christmas season and am excited every year to make it last all month long. It is such a special season and a time to really reflect, give thanks, give back, and teach our children. In an effort to be more organized this year, we decided to make a calendar and focus on one thing each day. It's actually much easier and less stressful this way. We have a few traditions we've been doing, but are looking for a few more ideas. Here are some of our favorites:

We have an advent wreath in the center of our table. We light the candle each Sunday and discuss it's meaning (thanks Pastor Don for all the additional insight to add this year!). Then each night at dinner we light that weeks candles and review what the kids know. The highlight is blowing them out, but they still get the idea.

Every November we participate in Operation Christmas Child. It's too late to make boxes for this year, but if you've never done it, I highly recommend it. This year we actually got a group of our four-year olds together and let them watch the some of the online videos on the website.
Then we talked about the children, read books about the Christian mission, and learned a little about other cultures. The kids made cards for their boxes and we let them fill them.
They lovingly and very thoughtfully chose each item they put in their boxes.
Then we prayed for the children that would receive them. It is amazing to think that God knows exactly which child will receive each box! In the end we had filled 25 boxes!
We also save up our change to help Toys for Tots. They also add some money from each of their piggy banks. We cash in the stash at the Coinstar machine and let the kids each pick a special toy they want to give to a needy child.

This is an organization I just discovered this year, called Make a Child Smile. They represent children with life threatening and chronic diseases who could use a little cheer. Each month they choose three children to highlight. Then you can send them letters, care packages, etc. to let them know you care and are praying for them. What kid doesn't like getting mail? What an awesome opportunity. This is something we will do other times of the year, too.

We also read a Christmas book each day and open a door on our Advent calendar.

We also have a plain wooden manger that we put baby Jesus in on Christmas morning. During the month of December the kids get a piece of straw for the manger every time they are generous, compassionate, or humble without being asked. The idea is to give baby Jesus a soft place to sleep and to prepare our hearts for Him. (I got this one from a family advent book.)

Any more ideas to fill up our empty calendar boxes? What does your family do or do you wish you could do or want to try?