It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

This time of year is magical. It is especially fun right now because Maddie understands everything. She loves the story of Jesus' birth and her favorite song is Away in a Manger. I find myself appreciating the true meaning of Christmas more often as I try to teach her about it.

We are doing an activity advent and I thought I'd share a few things we have done. One night we went to a live nativity at a local community event. Besides the fact that Joseph carried the plastic baby Jesus upside down, feet in the air, it was pretty sweet.

They even had a real camel, donkey, goats, and sheep! Ella loved the animals!

Last Saturday our activity was to buy and decorate our tree! It was cooooooooold but fun.



The girls thought it was all very exciting. Maddie wanted so badly to put on the star.

It is so nice to have the tree up. It smells so good and feels so festive!


Maddie has been dying to make snow angels since we read about it in a book. She was soooo excited to wake up to white one morning so she could get her snow pants on and go to work!

She didn't need much guidance--she knew just what to do!

Another activity was making gingerbread men. Although it was fun, I wasn't prepared for the MESS! By the time we were done, the kitchen looked like a cookie bomb went off and we were all covered in flour and dough!

Ella quickly learned that the dough is the best part. Guess who taught her. :)


It was really fun to take these to our sweet neighbor Doris, a spry 80 year-old widow who shovels her own driveway and has a closet full of toys for all the neighborhood kids to play with!

Tomorrow Maddie is excited to buy a toy train for a little boy. I'm sure we will continue to share our crafts and activities throughout the month!

What do you do to make Christmas meaningful?