Parade of Lights

Every year our town has it's own little Parade of Lights.  The kids and I went last year.  This year we dragged James along with us.  It was very cold, but fun.  Here are some of the sights. 

The cutest thing at the whole parade!

Antique, horse-drawn fire engine.

That's a big Santa!

And those are some loooong logs!

The kids ooh-ed and aah-ed.

Some of the participants threw candy to the kids, 

so Logan & Taylor had fun filling their pockets. 

Then we trudged back home, 10 miles, uphill, in the driving snow and wind.  Okay, maybe not.  It was really only 2 blocks, 

but it was cold.  

Taylor was wearing furry boots and was shuffling along.  

I told her to pick up her feet and stop shuffling.  

She replied, "But Gravity is pulling me down!"

Christmas Reading

We've been doing lots of Christmas reading lately.  I love reading to my kids and what better books to read than Christmas books!?!  

So far we've just been reading books from the library.  I started putting them on hold before Thanksgiving, to beat the rush.  

So far we read these:

Some of our favorites are:

(Piggies find the true meaning of Christmas)

(Kids thought this was a funny one)

(A classic! About the true spirit of Christmas)

(Another classic about what's really important)

(Logan's favorite)

(Taylor's favorite)

(fun, rhyming read)

(about the spirit of the holidays, great illustrations)

(Beautiful story about the true meaning of Christmas)

(just a fun book)

(another classic)

(We all love Llama Llama)

The kids love reading their favorite ones over and over.  I think I'm going to have to get down our box of Christmas books soon.  

Happy Holiday Reading, Everyone!!!

What are some of your favorite Christmas books?

 

Count Down to Christmas

The kids are so excited for Christmas!  More excited than they have ever been for anything before.  They pray for Christmas to hurry and come.  They have a Christmas list a mile long.  And we've been reading Christmas books everyday.  It's getting me in the Christmas mood too.  

So we decided to make an advent calendar of sorts, 

out of paper chains.

They loved being crafty.  We haven't exactly been doing lots of crafts lately.  Gotta get back into that.

The kids colored on their chains and taped them together, 

and generally just acted goofy.  We listened to Christmas music and sang along too.  

Each day the kids get to remove a link from their chain.  One day closer to Christmas!  Oh my!  Why does it take so long to get here and then it seems like it's here all of a sudden?

What are some of your holiday traditions and how do you teach children to have the true meaning of Christmas?

November Rain

An update on our rain gauge.  It rained a lot in November.

Five and a half inches! Can you see that faint line there?

I haven't been able to confirm this with any official weather... whatever place, though I tried finding it online.  No luck.  But that's what our rain gauge says. 

Hot Chocolate

"Yeah, we got it!"

Watching The Polar Express while drinking 

(and dripping) hot chocolate. 

"Hot! Hot!
Ooh, we got it!
Hot! Hot!
Hey, we got it!
Hot! Hot!
Say, we got it!
Hot chocolate!"

"Here, we've only got one rule:
Never ever let it cool!
Keep it cookin' in the pot,
Soon you've got-
Hot choc-o-lat!"

'Tis the season for hot chocolate and Christmas movies!  And the kids are enjoying a lot of both. 

Left Over Cookies?

Never, not ever, in my entire life has this ever happened before.  I have no idea how old these cookies are.  I opened the cookie jar to put new cookies in and found that there were already cookies in the there.  

Usually we eat them or give them away so fast we don't even bother with a cookie jar in the first place.  The first thing I did was try one. It was... dry!  Yeah, they'd been in there awhile.  I couldn't finish it, but the thought occured to me that they might be good dipped in milk. 

I dumped them in the trash though since I honestly don't know how old they are. They still looked beautiful though.

My kids found these "sugar cookies" in the store and wanted to make them.  

So we baked them and tasted them and I was going to put the rest in the cookie jar.  But I'm not sure if that is a good idea now.  We may never remember them if they go in there. 

Making Pumpkin Bread

I enjoy baking for the holidays, baking... not cooking dinners, especially if it's not obligatory baking.  So, anyway, I've been baking pumpkin bread lately.  

Well, today Taylor helped me in the kitchen.

 

She was so excited to help me and wear her new apron.  "I have an apron, just like you!" she said.  And she wanted to do as much as possible, all by herself.

So I taught her how to crack open an egg. 

She was so proud of herself.  Right after she finished with the eggs, I got a phone call.  While I was on the phone she whispered to me, "whoever it is, tell them that I cracked the eggs all by myself!"  It was her father on the phone, by the way. 

Adding the spices.

Happy helper.

We made muffins with the extra bread dough.

And then frosted them to make them extra yummy.

Baking makes Taylor happy, and that makes me happy too.