We have an ever expanding library of Christmas themed books. Kara gift wrapped the books at the beginning of the season and the children chose one or two to read every day from December 1st on. We had 31 books in that collection at the beginning of December, but we've been given at least two new ones. In addition we have a collection of Christmas titles in soft back and board book that we've been given or that we had before the hardback collection was started. There are 48 books in that collection with a few more added this year thanks to Grandma Vicki.
Candy canes are a holiday favorite of Viva and Jake. This year I purchased four dozen. Lincoln crunched through his first two candy canes and then I told him to suck on it. The next couple he licked and licked and licked until we threw them away. Evan had his first candy cane this year and he really enjoyed it. We never put any on the tree this year and about half of the candy canes will be thrown out next week.
The children watched a couple of movies with their dad-- one was Home Alone. They watched The Flight before Christmas on DVD. Viva requested that I record on the DVR Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (there's a dragon in this movie!). I still had A Fairly Odd Christmas recorded on the DVR from last year, so they watched it again. They watched the annual Dr. Who Christmas episode with opa.
We played the usual Christmas CDs. I added no new ones to the collection, but Kara might have? The problem with music in our home is that we don't all like the same artists and songs. The children like their CDs, but they aren't as enthused about mine and vice versa.
This year we made four different types all of which I posted on the blog. We gave some of the ornaments away as gifts. I wish we had time to make more!
Kara did more Christmas baking this year than I did! Viva made repeated requests for fudge and Nanaimo bars, so Kara made two batches of fudge and we both worked on the pan of Nanaimo bars. I made seven layer bars for Bentley and Haystacks which the twins like. Kara made almond spritz and snickerdoodles (for Matt) and two pans of English toffee. I don't think we tried out any new cookie recipes.
We watched a crystal Christmas tree grow. The tree grew in just twelve hours. The crystals were fragile so after a few days the tree started to break apart.
Kara joined a group of homeschool moms who exchanged ornaments to create a Jesse Tree ornament set. A Jesse tree represents the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Ornaments on the tree symbolize different Old Testament stories beginning with creation and ending with the coming of the Messiah. Every day in December you read a story and put that ornament on the tree. We were doing well with our reading schedule until we realized that our ornament set was not a great match for the Jesse Tree book that we were reading from. Oops! We did not know there was such diversity in Jesse Tree Advent books!
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