We've had a lot of fun celebrating Christmas and advent once again
this week. I feel like I've slacked on the photos a little and we had to
do some switching around of activities this week, but we are thoroughly
enjoying it! I'm a little sad that this is our last full week for the
bucket this year. I love this time of year so much!
December 10:
We
started off the week right with a night dedicated to eating Christmas
cookies and drinking some yummy homemade hot chocolate. Little Lady got
to unwrap a special Mickey Mouse plate and mug set to use. We also
decided it would be a great night to watch Charlie Brown Christmas since
we hadn't seen it yet this year. To top the evening off, we had one of
our favorite people here to hang out with us. Katherine! She lived with
us this summer, Little Lady fell in love with her, and we always like it
when she comes over now.
December 11:
What
is the Christmas season without at least one crafting day? I had to
search a little to come up with some fun things a not quite two year old
could do and enjoy, but I think we were successful. We did three little
crafts... a Christmas tree painted using a fork and wine corks, a
snowflake (I used painter's tape on the canvas for the snowflake, then
just let Little Lady paint her heart out), and a polar bear with "snow"
paint (elmer's glue and shaving cream) and pom-poms. We both had a lot
of fun creating things, and I look forward to many more Christmas craft
days to come.
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| Finished products... this one was made especially for Daddy! |
December 12:
Today
Little Lady got to open another Christmas book... "Bear Stays Up." We
figured she would really like this book (and she does) because one of
her favorite books is "Bear Snores On," which she got for her first
birthday. We've read that book so many times, I have it completely
memorized. "Bear Stays Up" is fairly similar, but instead of sleeping,
the bear is trying to stay awake for Christmas. It's a cute little
story.
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| Reading the book to one of her babies. |
December 13:
We
made another batch of cookies on Thursday, bagged up some of all the
cookies we had made, and delivered them to some of our neighbors. We
tried to give them to our immediate neighbors first, but several people
weren't home, so we had to walk around a bit to get all our cookies
delivered. It was pretty cute when Little Lady would hand over a bag of
cookies and say, "Merry Christmas Tree," which is what she always says
right now when she wishes someone a Merry Christmas.
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| Sharing some cookie dough with Minnie. |
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| Getting ready to go, and I caught these two stealing some cookies. |
December 14:
Friday
ended up being a wrap presents and play with puppies day. We switched
things around a little because some friends of ours invited us over for
dinner to give Little Lady a chance to play with 10 lab puppies just a
few weeks old. We knew she would love it, and she did! I think it was
like a little slice of heaven for her to be surrounded by all those
puppies.
December 15:
Though
it wasn't officially part of the bucket, Saturday was a great day! It
was our little Wagner family Christmas! Since we will most likely always
be traveling over Christmas and won't typically be in our house on
Christmas day, we create our own Christmas and have a celebration with
just our family. For presents, we have decided to do one thing you need,
one thing to read, one thing to wear, a "Santa"/surprise gift, and
stockings. Seeing Little Lady get into things this year was quite the
joy for us. She would have to take some time to play with everything
that she opened before she moved on to the next gift... even every
little thing she pulled out of her stocking. I honestly think it took
her almost a half our to finally get everything out of her stocking
alone, but I like that about her. I hope she always takes time to enjoy
every little thing she gets.
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| Kitchenette from Nana and Papa |
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| Examining, then playing with each and every thing. |
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| Christmas Breakfast |
Our
bucket activity for the day was to go out for dinner and drive around
to look at Christmas lights. We kind of had a hard time finding really
good lights to look at though, so if anyone in NWA knows of good lights
to see for future reference, please let us know. We ended up going to
the Washington County fair ground. It cost $5 per car to get in, which
we didn't realize until we got there, and honestly, there wasn't all
that much to see. We also went to a house that Matt knew about that has
lights set to music, which was fun, but it was just one house. Little
Lady did get excited about some of the lights, and we had a great day
just being together all day.
December 16:
Being
Sunday, this would have typically been another movie and pizza day.
Little Lady did get to unwrap a set of Sesame Street Christmas movies,
but for dinner, we had something even better than pizza. It was the
annual
Potter's House Christmas
(click the link to learn more about this amazing ministry), a chance
for the entire Potter's House family (about 500 people) to get together,
celebrate all that God has done that year, and enjoy some delicious
food! I wish I could be more involved in all that Potter's House does,
but I just don't feel like it's the right season of life for me. I'm so
glad that Matt is able to lead a small group of 1st grade boys! He meets
with them every Sunday for a couple hours, they do a Bible lesson
together and spend lots of time playing. I love that he gets to love on
these little guys... not one of them lives with a daddy, and I know they
are in desperate need positive male influences.
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| Little Lady crashing the stage to sing with the other kids |
I
hope all who read this are enjoying the Christmas season as much as we
are. I hate that some people are going through a really tough time right
now and have experienced unspeakable tragedy. Part of me feels bad to
be enjoying life so much when others are so sad right now, but at the
same time I do not want to take one single day I have with my lovely
daughter and wonderful husband for granted. Each day is a gift, and I
don't want to forget that.
