Happy Advent!

Dear Friends and Family,

What a wonderful long weekend we had celebrating Thanksgiving!  On Wednesday, while Chris was at work, I decided to clean house so I could really relax and enjoy the long weekend.  When I mentioned something about lollipops for everyone who helped clean suddenly I had a very excited cleaning crew working on my kitchen!

These kids really are amazing!

For Thanksgiving Eve dinner I roasted some Turkey legs (Renaissance fair style) and they turned out delicious!  So good, that Claire pretty much ate my whole turkey leg!

On Thanksgiving morning the kids slept in past 7am (I was SO thankful!) and then we had a nice breakfast before watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  Claire was old enough this year to really enjoy looking at the balloons and floats.  It was a wonderfully laid back day.  During Will's nap time, Claire and I did a painting turkey craft with crayons and watercolors. Check out our turkeys!

After art time, I put a chicken in the oven. Later, Chris prepared a macaroni and cheese dish while the kids and I played at the park and took a sunset walk.

I'm so thankful for a husband who has become an amazing cook, these sweet kids, and beautiful Turkey Point sunsets! And, I'm extremely grateful that I have such a wonderful family and some truly amazing friends. I love you all so much!

Thanksgiving was no more than 7 hours behind us when the kids got up Friday morning, and together, we eagerly started decorating the house for Christmas!  The kids loved putting up the tree and seeing all of the lights and ornaments.  It's amazing how much warmth these decorations bring to these early dark evenings!  Here in Maryland it's already completely dark at 5pm!

By Sunday, we had the whole house decorated, our advent wreath ready for its first candle lighting, and a small village of gingerbread homes constructed!  I'd say it was a successful weekend.

And since this whole week has been nothing but rain, we also started to bake Christmas cookies!

YUM!

My kids have no idea - but living in this house, with me as their mom, is truly the equivalent of having their own cruise director.  As if we didn't already have enough fun, I managed to find a really cute download for Advent activity cards: http://lets-explore.net/blog/2012/11/advent-activity-cards/
Each card has a fun Christmas related activity, and I'm using them to fill an advent countdown for the kids.  Yesterday, they had to write and mail a letter to Santa.  Since Macy's is doing donations to St. Jude for letters mailed to Santa via their big red mailboxes, the kids and I followed up Will's 30 month well visit to the doctor with a fun trip to the mall.  On such a cold and rainy day, the kids had fun running and hopping through the mall.

The hustle and bustle of the holidays can sometimes feel overwhelming, but in the mornings when we do our scripture readings, and in the evenings when we light the advent wreath, we are reminded what this holiday is all about. On Sunday, Father reminded us that the color for advent is purple - hence all the purple on the alter and his purple robes. He said, "...that color of purple is like the morning sky just before the sun rises and the light comes into the world."

I pray that everyone has a light filled advent full of the warmth of God's love, hope, peace and joy.
Love,
Bethie