[ C H R I S T M A S T I M E ]

We have thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas season, and hope each of you have as well. 

Our preparations began Sunday after Thanksgiving as we put up our tree. When we were married, Andrew's mom gave us a bucket of his ornaments she had collected for him each year of his life. It is so neat to have them, and it has been fun to add to them each year with different ornaments that mean something to us: one for the family, and one for each boy. The boys love pulling them out and remembering where we got them, or where we were living at the time, or what they mean. My plan is to give them to them when they get married, but I am not sure I will be able to part with some of them! This year the family got one from Nauvoo and Carthage, Gunner got Indiana Jones, Cooper got this cute stocking, and Beckett's will be "baby's first christmas".

COUNTING DOWN 

• Long before our kids were old enough to care, I made an advent book with my sister-in-laws. Each day has a scripture, religious Christmas song/hymn, and a story. This year, we have been doing this at our family scripture/prayer time each night, and the boys look forward to it!
• At this time, they also get their chocolate out of their chocolate advent calendar. These have been a tradition since Cooper was 1. 
• At preschool Cooper made an advent tree. He puts a "P" each day when he says a prayer for someone else, and an "X" each day when he does an extra service for someone. He just loves these kinds of things, and it is cute to see him coming up with ways to serve.
• Andrew's amazing sister, Artie, who has hand-made each of the boys' stockings, and our tree skirt, sent us this amazing hand-made advent calendar for Christmas this year. They boys are thrilled to have another way to countdown!

DOWNTOWN READ-AROUND

Cooper's preschool did a really cute field trip earlier this month. We started off at the train depot downtown, where they read "Polar Express" and got a bell to wear throughout the rest of the trip. They separated into groups and got clipboards with pictures of different Christmas items they had to find in a scavenger hunt around town. They were SO into this... it was cute. We then walked to an insurance company (looking for signs of Christmas along the way in store windows and such). At the insurance company they read another story and got cookies, juice and a candy cane off their tree. Then they sang them a few songs as we left. We walked to the courthouse, where they made little candy canes out of pipe cleaners and beads and read a book about a candy cane upside down being a "J" for Jesus. They then caroled for the workers there, and we headed to our final stop, Java Junction, where they got hot chocolate and caroled to the patrons. It was a lot of fun.

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY

One nice perk about the Air Force, and living on-base, is all the fun, free, things to do. This was one of them. They had tree-lighting ceremony, and then cookies, cocoa, a live band, bingo for prizes, crafts, and, of course, Santa. But, not just the normal santa trip, they got REAL toys! Cooper came straight from basketball practice.... which he is loving.

MEDICAL GROUP BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

The med-group had a nice "santa cafe" breakfast, where the kids got to order. They got chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, juice, and cocoa. Beckett liked the marshmallows. Then they got to sit on Santa and get presents. Cooper opened his wooden puzzle and said, "No! This is not cool mom! Go up there and tell him I want something else!" Needless to say, we had a talk about being thankful for presents, and gracious... but, really, how do you teach that to a 5-year-old?

WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY

This was a little stressful, as I got the random assignment to be in charge of a living nativity as people walked it. It turned out surprisingly well, and we had a few families take shifts (Andrew was just thrilled we didn't have to take a shift ourselves). There was music playing, and we got a lot of compliments. It proved to be a challenge also, because we are not allowed to have hay inside a church for fire reasons... 

Anyway, they had different people decorate the tables in different themes... we, of course, had to sit at the "BYU" themed table. :) There were LONG lines, too many people, a nice program, and santa. Is there really a good way to make a party for that many people enjoyable for a family with 3 kids under 5? The kids had fun... I mean for the parents?

CANDY CANE HUNT

The boys had a blast searching for candy canes at the Warrensburg Community Center. What a fun idea. They also did crafts, made reindeer food, and had hot chocolate and cookies.

COOPER'S PRESCHOOL PARTY

I continued to be amazed at Cooper's preschool. They put on quite the little party! Each kid went and sat on Santa's lap to tell him what they wanted for Christmas... so cute to hear what each kid said. They also got "prayer pillows" from their teachers, and little stockings.
Earlier this week, Cooper brought home this from "journal time". They take a few kids at a time to the table and have them draw in their journal. Then they write what they say as they are drawing. I just love it, cause you really get to understand what is going through your little one's head. Most of the time they are free drawing; this specific day they had asked them to draw the nativity. Here is what Cooper came up with...

SECRET ELVES... THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Since we are staying here for Christmas (not traveling to be with family), we decided to do a few more things to make it a "Christ-centered Christmas" for our kids. We bought a present for the angel-tree at church, made cookies and went caroling with our friends, the Bells. But, we also have been doing the 12-days of Christmas for our neighbors. This was a tradition in my (the Gatten) family while I was growing up, and I have such fond memories of coming up with poems, dressing up to be warm and unrecognizable, leaving presents, knocking and running away... we always did it for needy families, and my parents were always so generous with the things they gave. We wanted to do something similar... so we decided we would do it for our neighbors. They are not "poor", but her husband has been gone for months at trainings and such, and they just moved here this summer, and we knew their little girls would get excited about it. Each night, Cooper dresses up in his pull-over snow mask and tiptoes across our driveway to their side door... knocks... runs into our backyard and down our back steps into our basement. Gunner and I look out our dark kitchen window and watch them open the door with excitement and get the surprises. It has been SO fun, and our boys are talking about it all the time. It has been so fun to see them get so excited about GIVING each night. Some of the things we've given... fruit, donuts, ornaments, candy, chocolate dipped pretzel sticks, sprite (may your days be merry and "sprite"), christmas stories, a CD of christmas songs for kids, etc. We attach a little poem each night, which I have if anyone would like a copy.