Season of Advent

The evening we brought home our tree, we got to decorating the house. I didn't have the time or energy to put the lights on the tree but the kids got to everything else.

Monday I finally strung the lights so the kids could decorate the tree. I don't think James remembered anything about Christmas last year so it was all new to him. I like that.

 Justin was cold and doesn't really like decorating. The kids decorated him and he stayed warm.

My kids still need to work on their spacing skills.

It was probably all James.

I've been researching holiday traditions and decorations in other countries to get some new ideas. I have ancestors from Sweden so I was particularly interested in a couple of their traditions.

First up, advent wreath. There are a lot of modern iterations online but I tried to stay more traditional and wreath-like.

I used the trimmings from our tree and twigs from our crabapple tree. I already had the candles and holders and bought the tray at the dollar store so it was pretty cheap too.

 The tradition goes that you light 1 candle on the first Sunday of December, 2 candles the second Sunday, etc. We have been doing it on Mondays so that the 4th week ends on Christmas Eve Eve. Aaaaand I found out that Scandinavian countries celebrate the day before Christmas Eve and call it Little Christmas Eve so I really feel like making up that holiday was in my DNA.

I also bought Christmas chimes because they are a Swedish thing and aren't they cute? The heat from the handles make the fans spin.

 James made this cute wreath and he was so proud of himself. He hung it on his door.

 He has THE CUTEST FACE IN THE HISTORY OF FACES!!!!

The kids went a little overboard decorating their rooms. I think this lasted for 2 days before they got tired of them falling down or getting in the way of opening their dresser.

When we walked into church last week I noticed that the boys were all dressed the same. Black  shoes, tan pants, blue jacket.

 Looks like it's time to dust Justin's nightstand. I asked Erica if she drew this and she said, "Yup. It's easy to draw in dust."

 My kids are lame and don't like Muppet Christmas Carol so I watched it by myself one afternoon while I strung popcorn.

I finally nailed divinity!!!! I made it 3 times in 2 days and finally got the texture right. My next feat is to get them to look pretty like my mom does.

 I can get the first few to look like smooth duck butts but half way through they get too set and look craggy.

 This was the 2nd attempt. They set up really hard. The first attempt went from the mixer right to the trash.

 My kids got a little crazy one evening wrapping presents and started wrapping ANYTHING to be funny. There were like 20 presents under the tree. So I declared the next day Funny Christmas and we opened all the junk presents.

 I got a giftbag (wrapped in wrapping paper), a roll of toilet paper, and a marker from my snarky kids.

 Henry got his own underwear and gave James his own superhero toys.

 They get it from me but don't know it. One year my sister and I wrapped up funny presents for everyone but kept it on the down-low. It was funny until I got a roll thrown at me Christmas morning.

 Friday we took the kids out to eat and then to the Orem mall to return some stuff and to visit the Giving Machines.

 We saw them at Temple Square a couple of years ago but it was so crowded and we didn't have time to stop. This is such a cool idea.