Friday, December 4, 2009

Our First Week of Advent

I’ve been seeing so many great posts about Christmas crafts and Advent wreaths… so many good things out there!  M is still not really into crafting, but I did sneak a couple of things in, so thought I’d share with you how our Advent is going!
First off, here’s our Advent wreath, made totally from Dollar Tree finds (at one time in my life I would never have admitted this, now I’m proud of it.  Go figure!):blog pics 010 It’s very simple… but we snazz it up a bit when Christmas arrives.  There are pretty iridescent red berries in the middle surrounding the white candle (which won’t be lit until Christmas Eve), which is sitting on a round mirror – it’s hard to see in the picture.  Also, each taper is in a star shaped holder which is also really hard to see.  Hm.  Just take my word for it, in real life it’s prettier than in this picture. ;)
Here’s our Jesse Tree so far:blog pics 001 Yep, not a single ornament is actually on the tree.  I’m not sure why M has them in the “air” but I’m sure he has a good reason in that 3 year old brain of his.  Next year we might use a piece of felt shaped like a Christmas tree – ornaments on a Christmas tree is easier to understand, maybe??
Here’s the little box we use to hold his nightly treasures, as well as the little manger with it’s daily pieces of “hay”:blog pics 004 He calls it “The Jesus box”, hee hee.  And checks it multiple times per day hoping some candy has magically appeared in it.  (He gets a chocolate kiss in it each evening.)
Also, the little tree we have on the fridge that he puts a sticker on each evening (sticker also “appears” in the Jesus box :) ):blog pics 076 Obviously it is not big enough for 22 more stickers.  Someone judged wrong when she cut it out.  So, it should be interesting-looking by the time Advent is over.
Now, for the crafts…
Wrapping paper with glitter mixed into the paint:blog pics 045 See the glitter?  I wish my camera could capture it better:blog pics 074
And, he’s been begging to do sand art, which I swore would never, ever again be done inside after our first time.  Well, he talked me into it and made these:blog pics 081 blog pics He really had a lot of fun with both of these little projects, and well, it’s something Christmassy, just not the cute crafts I was hoping for. However, I am glad that we will have these to look back on as the things he wanted to do this year.
Have a beautiful day! :)

4 comments:

  1. I really admire how well you follow M's desires. I have to admit that sometimes I still force Anna to do the craft - sometimes it works, and sometimes neither of us really enjoys it. I also liked your Advent wreath. We wanted to make one, because my husband had one as a child, but we never managed to find the wreath of a desired size. Now I know where to look next year :)

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  2. Thank you for visiting my blog. I just found yours and I love it! Thanks for sharing your ideas with us. My kids are really loving the Jesse Tree activities. They look forward to getting "the box" out everyday and building a manger for baby Jesus. These have been great new activities to add to our advent tradition!

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  3. I like these crafts! Sometimes I see moms post crafts that are just a little too cute and a little too perfect, and I wonder "hmm...was this for mom's benefit or the child's?" I respect that you go with M's ideas and let him have fun with it.

    Oh, and I was going to respond to your comments on my blog, but didn
    t know how to really do that so that you would read the response. I haven't figured all this blog stuff out. :) Ah, the checklist... I'm still working on how to fit it all into one day! I think if I did it would be an ideal day. Maybe if I can fit it into every few few days that would be good. I'd love to read your thoughts about all of this. It's so interesting to read about how other people are thinking through these challenges that we all face. I'm always looking for new ideas - guess I can use all the help I can get! :)

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  4. So, where are you getting the ideas for your ornaments? I'd love to find out because they're super cute.

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