Jonas preparing for the Christmas Eve service.

He is going to accompany to "In the Bleak Midwinter."  Love that song.  *happy sigh*

Uncle ERIC is home!!

My kids thought they were having just a regular, boring afternoon...and THEN Uncle ERIC showed up! 

 BAM!

CHAOS AND JOY reign supreme around here now! :)

Eric drove up from Kansas today, and I think he came right over because I'm holding all the Christmas goodies hostage at my house until Christmas Eve party (which we're doing here so our kids can go to bed early in prep for insane early plane rides...).  The 7 Layer Bars were calling his name.  ;)

Here is Uncle Eric playing a "Papa" kind of game with them:  flipping them end over end, over and over, on the couch.  They LOVED this.  The static electricity was going strong in this game, that's for sure.  The bonus of having Uncle Eric play this game is that he doesn't get tired of it quite as fast as Papa does.  ;)

Finn, taking his turn "counting" while Eric flipped Layla.

Now they are downstairs in the basement, riding the cars around the circle, playing with shadows, and doing circus on the swing Papa set up down there.  

Hooray for Uncle Eric...who obviously doesn't know how to say "no."  :)

Finn has figured out that lots of young adults these days have smart phones.  He said "Unca Eric, you have a game??"

Decorating for Christmas around here:

Last year I had this up in Layla's room, and she REMEMBERED that this year and wanted it back up there again! :)  However, Finn is old enough this year to not break it, so I insisted it be down in the living room where we could ALL enjoy it.

We brought out the cute paper chains and snowflakes Jonas made last year, and he put them up again!  I love them.  

Decorating the tree was a RIOT this year.  Layla was SO into it!  She wanted to be the one to put the star on top of the tree for sure, and the ornaments are in the oddest places because the kids put them there, and I haven't moved them.  :)  Love it!  I also love that every single ornament on my tree was given to me or my kids, so they have meaning and significance.  It's such a fun walk down memory lane each time we put them up!  Sue Schaefer, any chance Jonas has ornaments at your house that you want to bring to D.C. for us this year?  Or send to me?  :)  He is the only one rather absent on our tree...

An ornament Layla made at preschool this year.  The glitter:  it has begun.  

Our stocking are hung and ready to be filled!  The kids will open small stocking presents on Epiphany (January 6th), the last day of Christmas, when tradition celebrates the wise men coming to bring gifts to Jesus. 

Advent:

I just realized it's almost Christmas and I forgot to post what we've been doing for Advent this year! :)  As I waited until the last minute, the pictures aren't great (taken in early-morning light), but you'll at least get the idea:

Advent bags.

Like last year, I hung 25 little mesh bags from the top of our 4 poster bed.  Each bag has a number for the day of December it is, and inside are two pieces of candy (Starbursts--pink for Layla, blue for Finn) and a puffy sticker.  The bags for Christmas Eve day and Christmas Day are red, and instead of regular candy they have chocolate coins in them.  I'm pretty sure they are NOT dairy-free, so we'll have to figure out a trade for those, but they thought they were so cool in the dollar section at Target that I had to buy a few.  Likely a big mistake.  ;)    We do a very minor math lesson in trying to find the right numbers for each day, and then take it down.  The kids throw their arms in the air and say "Christmas is coming!!!" before eating their candy.  Then Layla is in charge of putting the sicker on the picture.  

Sticker stable scene:

This manger stable scene Jonas drew on a long piece of white paper.  It's taped to the back of our door, so when we're done with our morning candy (healthy mom prize for me!), Layla hops off the bed and places the sticker for the day anywhere she wants.  You can see how her brain works:  linear.  ;)  Then I ask her, "Layla, who are all of the animals and the stars waiting for??" and she'll reply with "Jesus to come!!"  

We then run from my room into Layla's room, and she does her two "things" there:

Eric Carl Advent calendar:

This pop-up calendar is sitting on her built-in shelving unit, by her closet.  She lifts the flaps, tears out the ornament or gift for that day, and places it appropriately on the tree or in one of the gifts below the three.  Then we run over to the back of HER door.  

Regular old calendar:

We've just been crossing off the days until Christmas, doing counting practice, etc.  She's so funny--she likes to make her "X" from number to number, not from the corner of each box to the corner of each box.  Drives me nuts, but so far I have managed to keep myself in check and not micro-manage her every developing movement.  ;)

Then we all run to Finn's room!

Finn's Advent calendar:

Waiting, and doing only ONE thing each day, has been torture for Finn this year.  Good torture.  ;)  He likes to place his ornament on the tree.  This one is felt-ish with velcro ornaments.  

Finn's regular calendar:

Isn't this a great picture??? ;)  Classic Finn "I just got up and the world is not going my way" look.  This calendar is on the back of his closet door.  I usually help him count and cross off a box, and then Layla ALSO crosses off the box...just to make sure it's done right.  As you can see, I'm a thrifty Mama who reuses the September calendar as it has the same day/number positions as December this year... ;)  However, when Layla saw me cross of the September on Finn's calendar she HAD to cross off the December on HER calendar.  

The prettiest Advent calendar:

This is the Advent calendar my Mom made for me last year.  I just love it.  :) It sits on the mantle over our fireplaces and is center stage every year.  

Layla helps me place each tag on the board and we talk about what the elves are doing every day.  The tags come from the Jan Brett book "The Wild Christmas Reindeer," and Layla also loves to read that book together.  http://www.amazon.com/The-Wild-Christmas-Reindeer-Brett/dp/0698116526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387812018&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Christmas+Reindeer

Our Advent wreath.

Every night at dinner we light 1, 2, 3, or 4 candles, depending on what week it is of Advent.  These stay lit all of dinner, and the kids love to help blow them out at the end of the meal.

Bible reading:

I have to say, I love this Bible for children.  It makes me cry almost every time I read it.  Normally we'd try to read a story from here every night after we eat, but during Advent it's been hit-or-miss.  Mostly we just do our candles and sing.  :)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Then, after dinner, we sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel together.  It's one of my most favorite Advent hymns, and I thought we'd try to learn it as a family.  Layla LOVES to sing, and she has really caught on well to the song!  I love hearing her belt out "REJOICE!  REJOICE!  Emmanuel, shall come to thee o Israel!"  Cuteness.  We only sing the first verse, over and over, in the hopes that it sinks in well for the kids.  Next  year we'll be able to add the next verse for sure, or maybe all of them.  I'm not sure if that link above will work, but it's to a YouTube version of the song if you don't know it.  :)

Our "Thank you God" candles.

We started this tradition before Advent, but we still do it every night, and will likely continue doing it every night until...well, maybe forever.  :)  We turn all the lights off except for the Advent wreath candles and the Christmas tree lights, and then we light these candles.  Each person gets one, and we each say "Thank you God for _________." and then blow out our candles.  We do at LEAST two rounds of this because it's such a hit of an activity.  Layla has gotten really good at thinking of very specific, detailed things to thank God for.  Finn?  Notsomuch.  :)  He literally can NOT focus when he has a candle in front of him:  ALL his brain can tell his mouth is that he needs to BLOW OUT THAT CANDLE ASAP!!  I was going to get a video of it, but our flip is currently not working, so I'll see what I can do for posting it later.  Jonas and I crack up almost every single time.  

Advent Reading:

This Kindle e-book was free on Amazon one day, so I've been reading these short entries for each day of Advent.  It's been nice!  Not to die for, but nice for sure.  

I think Renee recommended this book to me, and it's been great.  I also like it because it goes THROUGH the whole Christmas holiday (ending January 6th) rather than ending on Christmas day like most Advent books would.  I don't want to miss out on the 12 days of Christmas!! :)

I also have a box of Christmas books for the kids.  Some are religious, some are secular, but I don't care.  :) I try to take some time every day and sit down with them to read from the "Christmas book box."  Layla is much more into this than Finn is, for obvious age reasons I think, but he also has such a hard time sitting still for anything.  We're working on it...sloooooowly.  ;)  

So, that's it!  That's Advent in our house this year!  

Christmas Outfits:

Yesterday was our Christmas Service at church, so the gang of 5 kids wore their Christmas outfits for the event.  :)  We didn't get any pictures of all 5 together yesterday because of how crazy busy it was, but I'll post the professional photos sometime soon.  

Yes, I know Finn is wearing brown shoes with a black outfit.  It's awful, but what would have been MORE awful is spending money for a 2-year-old to have black shoes that he would wear once.  ;)

Don't piss off Mama.

Normally Renee watches my kids on Friday mornings so I can do errands, the chief among them being Costco runs for our church, and other church-related needs.  (I'm church secretary).

This past Friday morning I was in the ER with Layla from 2-6 a.m. for croup, so we didn't go over to Renee's that day.  So, my church errands did not get done, and I decided to do them today (since I know our Wednesday night service people would likely need many of the things on the list).

We went to Costco, then headed to church to drop off all the stuff.  Normally when I do that I park right in front of the church building, on the sidewalk.  There is plenty of room for it, and in fact dips in the sidewalk to accommodate cars/church vans, etc.  It's even more important for me to be close to the building now, as it's winter and slippery, I'm 5 months pregnant and so hauling stuff isn't delightfully easy for me, I can't leave the kids alone in the car for long (esp. in winter), etc.  So, that's what I did.

I was almost done unloading everything, and just about ready to go, when a guy comes walking down the sidewalk towards me.  He started yelling at me from a good 1/2 block away--screaming at me to get off the sidewalk, people wanted to walk here, this wasn't a parking lot, etc.  Keep in mind, this is a large area.  It was shoveled, and there was room for 2 people to pass easily on either side of my van.  He was just pissy, and wanted to take it out on the pregnant lady with two other kids in her van, who was doing work for the church.

MISTAKE.

When he backtracked to walk up to my van window and yell MORE at me, that's when I said no.  I rolled down my window and LAID.INTO.HIM.  (I just so happened to be on the phone with Renee when this happened too, so she was slightly confused as to what was going on at that point in the conversation... ;)  )

Telling him off felt great.  I feel sort of bad saying that, but honestly, he was just being mean.  I'm sure he has had a hard life in some areas, and I should have felt more grace for him, etc, etc, etc. But that wasn't going to happen just then.  Crazy-lady pregnancy hormones took over, Mama Bear came out, and the Lisa who doesn't exactly take kindly to people trying to threaten and intimidate her took over.  ;)

As I was driving away I had a moment of remorse:  Sheesh.  Here I am, the church secretary, and I just told off a local guy...in front of our church.  Guess that's one guy who will never be coming to our church... Whoops.  :)  However, I texted my pastor to tell him the story, and he said 1) he wished he could have seen it, and 2) I was likely right in my response, and 3) we've been in the neighborhood long enough to know when to call a jerk and jerk.  THAT made me smile.  :)

So, that's my story for today.  Don't MESS with pregnant me!  ;)

Videos from the preschool Christmas program:

"Get ready."

"Oh, Come Little Children."

"See the baby Jesus."  Layla especially liked this one, and the next one.  

"10 little angels."

"Away in a manger."  Layla was sort of enamored with this "older" girl from another class next to her.  You can also see her shove some girls with her elbow to get more "making movements" room.  Whoops.  ;)

"Rock baby Jesus."

"Go Tell It On the Mountain."  Yes, they told them to SHOUT it.  :)

This is where everything went downhill.  She is shocked she got green bells.  You can see her in the start of this video sort of try to pawn them off on someone else, then she just starts crying.  I didn't film the next two songs of her crying...instead I took pictures of her being sad.  ;)

She "sort of " pulled it together for the last song, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas."

Layla's preschool Christmas program:

Before the program started:  Photo session with her class:

This is Mrs. Nelson, Layla's main teacher.  She loves her.  :)

This little girl to Layla's right is a total riot.  I like going to these programs to see my own daughter, sure enough, but that child is nothing but pure entertainment.  :)  

Check out all these little girls!  Unwritten rule:  young girls MUST wear cute dresses for Christmas programs!

(The mother of the girl in the green "Ho, ho, ho!" shirt told me she was so sad her daughter didn't have a dress on...she didn't know about the program until this morning.  Don't I know how THAT goes!_

The blond woman to the right is Mrs. Weber, the assistant.  Layla likes her as well, for sure, but she's not as "silly" as Mrs. Nelson, so she doesn't get rank #1.  :)

During the program:  

I took videos of everything else, but this was a moment/song-or-two of trauma for Layla.  They handed out bells for three songs, and she got a GREEN one.  She wanted a red one.  Therefore, she cried and looked absolutely miserable up there while everyone else sang "Jingle Bells," etc.  So, I took a few sad pictures.  ;)

After the program:  Photos by the fake tree.  :)

A much happier little girl here!