Advent Part 2

We last left off on December 15, so we'll continue with December 16, which was a Wednesday.  We invited Derick Wheatley over to make apple-cinnamon ornaments with us, which turned out to be more stressful than it should have been.  I sent Rex and Alice to get Derick, expecting them to take forever, because they usually do, but they were super fast this day and the second they walked in the door, they expected to be making ornaments and they didn't want to wait for me to make the dough.  They were impatient so I was impatient, but as soon as the dough was ready things calmed down and the kids each made about 3 ornaments before they got bored and left.  Rex actually made about 10.  Never the less, I ended up making most of them.  We used them later to decorate the boxes of goodies we gave out to our neighbors, but I didn't get a picture of those.  They were cute, but I didn't want to pat myself on the back too much.

Henry mostly made a mess.  He is the messiest nearly two-year-old I know, which is saying a lot because Alice was pretty messy too.

December 17: Speedway Lights!  Alice has been asking since Halloween to go to the Speedway.  While it's always really fun (we go every year), this year was particulary good.  They had the entire in section of the Speedway coordinated to random hick country songs.  It was pretty awesome.  And this year, Greg didn't even try to kill us too much on the curves due to his pregnant wife not wanting to throw up.  Thanks.  Once we got inside, we let each child choose one activity to do.  The lady driving the train then felt bad for us I guess and gave us 9 extra tickets, so they each got to do two activities.  And then we went home and went to bed.

Alice finally had a good time feeding the animals after crying the last 4 years.

Henry touched everything

Henry, Alice and I rode the "train"--it was really a tractor

Rex tried a wipe out game and ended up riding the rotating arm around the ring once.

Henry was pretty uncertain about feeding the animals.

Rex also worked up the courage to pet a cow.  I did not feed or touch animals because animals are disgusting.

December 18: Rex had his first piano recital!  It's already made it on the blog so I'll leave it at that.

December 19: Our advent activity was to make cookies for the neighbors, but I stupidly planned to make four different kinds of treats and decided that I didn't really want that much "help" so when Rex asked to play at the Wheatley's I said sure and when Henry took a nap I was even more thrilled.  Alice, my little helper, did actually help quite a bit.  But I didn't take any pictures.  That night we went to the Wilson's house-warming/Christmas party.  We forgot our white elephant gifts and Alice cried when we left but we still had fun.  I have the best friends.

December 20: Deliver treats to the neighbors.  Because I made so many treats this year, we actually had enough to take some across the street to the neighbors we've never talked to and to a few ward members who live close-by.  My packages were very cute this year with the apple-cinnamon oranments on top, but I forgot to take a picture of them, as mentioned previously, but I did get a picture of the kids before we left.

It was also Christmas Sunday and I told the kids I wanted pictures of them in their coordinating outfits before we left for church, so while I got ready they took these selfies.  Sweet kids.

 Then I took these as we rushed to church.  Henry refused to be in a picture with the other two and I forget to get a picture of just Alice, but, as they say here in the South, it is what it is.

December 21:  Family Night.  We learned about Hannah and Simon at the temple, which may or may not have occurred before the Wise Men showed up by the way.  We talked about recognizing Christ as a baby and how we can recognize Christ now, then we played find the thimble, but with the Fisher-Price Little People Nativity Jesus.  Then we went to bed.

We also had planned go to the Rec Center earlier in the day but ended up at the Bank of American building uptown watching the creepy bears sings because the Rec Center was closed.  We took the street car because then we wouldn't have to pay for parking, but it was a nightmare.  We ended up having to walk a lot farther than I thought, and then wait a lot longer than I thought, and then it got cold and we were not dressed appropriately.  We also took Derick so that was just one more kid.  I was so happy when we ran into the Siggs doing the same thing.  I was also happy when we finally got home.  The kids said they had a good time, despite a stressed and a slightly cranky mom.

Rex, Alice and Henry

Rex, Alice and Derick

December 22: We actually did a real Christmas-y thing and went with the Young Men and Young Women to a food bank.  Rex and Alice helped clean one of the rooms while Henry and I sorted toys.  I'm going to make sure to put more of this stuff on our advent for next year, because service more Christmas-y than watching animatronic bears sings.

December 23: Almost there!  But also a pretty bad day.  We planned to meet up with the Siggs at Concord Mills to sit on the free Santa's lap at 11, but then we slept in and each child threw a separate tantrum as we tried to get ready so we didn't get to the mall until 11:30 and then parking two days before Christmas.  I still wasn't concerned.  A few years back I took Amber on Christmas Eve and we didn't have to wait in line.  Well, things have changed in the last few years.  Bass Pro now has a Fast Pass System to see Santa.  We got the 2:30 time slot.  That's a 3-hour wait.  But I have a picture of the kids sitting on this Santa's lap every year, so we had to wait.  The Siggs decided not to hang out at a packed mall for 3 hours, but they did hang out with us for a while.  We looked at the fish and then we went to the play place and played there.  We checked out the Lego store.  Then the Siggs decided to go home, so we got some lunch, went back to the play place.  At 2, we headed back to Bass Proc Shop and were in line by 2:10, where we stood until we finally got see Santa at 2:40.  Henry was a mess; I was a mess; we were all a mess, but we got the *&*@ picture.  

Now onto Christmas Eve, but I'll make that its own post to really drag this thing out.

Advent

I'm currently debating on whether or not I should go into a self-pitying rant about how un-Christmasy and stressed I've been feeling lately (not stressed about Christmas, but stressed over my house.  My kids are like little tornados and I just can not handle messes).  OR I could just talk about how wonderful advent is and how much fun it is and leave out all the unpleasant-ness.  Maybe I'll go for a middle ground to keep it real, if you will.

Advent is fun.  I like doing stuff with my kids every night.  But this year, as mentioned, has been different.  We're busier.  We have more friends.  They ask us to do things, which are fun, but then our normally scheduled advent activities get pushed aside.  I like to have the house clean before we do an activity.  Alas.

The first few nights of December were really fun.  They were like old times.  Just me and the kids doing little activities (Greg was out of town).  After the first week, things got crazy.

We actually started a day early.  For the 4 Mondays before Christmas, we light a candle and talk about a part of the Savior's life.  Monday 1: Prophecies.  We read a few verses from Isaiah, listened to the Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah, then drew pictures of what we saw in our minds when we listened to the music.  Then we read about Samuel the Laminite while the kids threw rocks (socks) at me and talked about how to listen to a prophet.

December 1:  Coffee filter snowflakes.  Highlight: no crying because the snowflakes weren't perfect.  Alice doesn't care, and Rex finally figured out how to make a descent snowflake. It was a nice evening.

I hung the numbers up differently this year, which Greg didn't notice, but I thought was kind-of a big deal.  Usually I hang them on a string up higher and the kids freak out about being too high and refuse to get the numbers down.  This year, I ditched the clothes pins and height and just taped them to the wall.  No crying.

December 2: Snowman pizza.  This was the first time we did this and it was a big success.  They loved making their own pizza.

See, even Alice got her number down all by herself.

December 3: Write letters to Santa.  Rex wrote an actual letter telling Santa he could choose one of three things to bring him.  I thought it was rather mature.  Alice, who is very independent, made a collage.  I'm not sure what she wants, so she'll have to take what she gets.  Henry, he's a menace.

Busy bees.

Also that day, Alice went to a friend's house so Henry and I made cookies together.  It's been a while since I've made cookies with just one kid. We had a good time.

Earlier in the day, Alice and Henry colored and otherwise entertained themselves for about 45 minutes.  It was lovely.

December 4: Laser Light Show.  I've already written a blog post about this.  It was fun but freezing.

December 5: Did not turn out how I had it planned.  I'll spare you all the boring details, but I was helping some Young Women pay for college applications by having them sand my dining room table, which took longer than I thought and they were supposed to feed the Elders so we ended up having the missionaries over for dinner.  The table turned out really cute, but may also be the reason I was in such a bad mood for a week--the house was a mess with me trying to prime, paint and seal a table.  Plus we had no where to eat dinner.  I decided to wait until after Christmas to repaint the chairs.

December 6: We made Christmas cards for all the grandparents, which turned out pretty cute and wasn't a complete nightmare and filled the weird morning hours before 1 o'clock church.

Oh look, Henry's eating something. (It's a marker) 

December 7: was Monday again.  We learned about Mary and Joseph and how their humility and faith allowed them to parent Christ.  We acted out part of the Christmas story then watched a few Bible videos about Mary and Joseph.

December 8: Snowcones.  They turned into slushies because we used straight root beer to flavor them instead of the syrup, but the kids liked them.

December 9: Greg took the older kids to a Hornets game while Henry and I finished up the last of the Christmas shopping then did a service project with the Young Women.

December 10: A friend of mine took the older two to watch her daughters play in the Independence High School Christmas band concert, while I went to the Relief Society Christmas activity and Henry and Greg stayed home and watched a movie.  (See how our family gets all divided up even as we're doing activities intended to keep us together?  On the other hand, I'm working on getting myself adopted into this family, so they count as cousins.  These are the Wheatley's cousins and I love them.)

Alice, Rex and 3 of my beautiful Young Women.

December 11: Greg and I went to a gathering at the Bishop's house with the other members of the bishopric (Greg is the Ward Clerk), while the kids stayed home with the girl on the far left above and watched Minions.  They were supposed to watch a Christmas movie, but it didn't work out.

December 12: We doubled up this day.  Every year, we go to a real book store and pick out a new Christmas book.  We got The Animal's Santa by Jan Brett this year.  Then we went to the ward party, where Rex played "O, Come, All Ye Faithful" and the other kids ran around the building like crazy people.

December 13: We were supposed to play games as a family, but then we got invited to a friend's for dinner (we do this a lot.  We have a group of friends we do Sunday dinners with every month or so).  But then her kid got sick, and the party last minute got moved to our house.  Loud and messy but fun and no family games.  I also count these friends as cousins though, so it was kind of like a family dinner.

December 14: And we're back to our candle burning Monday.  This day was scheduled to talk about the actual birth of Christ so we took a blanket out to the back field, which is pretty dark, and I tried to talk about the shepherds and how they would have been in a dark field like this one, watching closely over their sheep, which may be one reason why the angels came to them--they were looking for Christ.  We talked about how we need to be diligent in our waiting and watching for Christ as well.  Mostly the kids ran around in the dark.  I tried.

December 15: Angel tree shopping.  We took the kids to Target to pick out gifts for the tags we'd picked off the angel tree at church.  I found watching Greg try to take 3 kids around Target fairly amusing.  He eventually gave up and took Henry out to sit in the car.

I'll leave it here.  Because 1. this is getting really long and 2. Google refuses to back up the pictures from my phone for the last week, so I can't post them here.

My Piano Protege

Ok, not really.  Or maybe.  The dad of Rex's teacher did say he thought Rex might be one of the few boys he's seen with natural talent.  Maybe he does.  I don't know.  I do know that Rex likes to play the piano; he likes making up songs--until Greg or I or both or us can't take the seemingly random pounding and tell him to play a real song. But he plays a lot.  His goal to practice 90 minutes a week.  And he usually does.  I must give some credit, or a lot, to his teacher.  She has a way about her that encourages and challenges Rex at the same time.  I hope she never graduates so she can teach all my children.  Did I mention Rex's teacher is only 14?

Anyway, tonight, his teacher put on a little recital and Rex played 3 pieces.  He hadn't practiced for about a week so he didn't play as well as he usually does.  Nevertheless, I think he did quite well.  So without further ado.  Rex playing Rex the Tyrannosaur, The Trumpet Song, and Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful.

Rex got the Hawk award for being determined, hard-working and practicing a lot.

Elizabeth with all her students

Rex and Elizabeth

He also played last week at our ward party and did a much better job.