Advent Activities

I love the advent season.  This is a really fun year as the twins understand more and more.  I love watching their imaginations blossom and seeing the magic of Christmas sparkle in their eyes. 

Santa debate:
Yes I let my girls believe in Santa.  I know some think this may bring confusion about the true meaning of Christmas but my girls also know the real meaning of Christmas and on Christmas day we plan on having a birthday party for Jesus.  I can proudly say this was one of their ideas.
The reason I teach them to believe in Santa is because I think it's such a small period in their life where fantasy is really "real" to them.  It's fun to fantasize!  and it fosters imagination and creativity.  As a teacher I was so suprised and saddened by how many kids had no imagination.  How can they develop an imagination when their toys do EVERYTHING for them.  The baby doll eat, talk, pee and poop, dogs bark, and cars honk and vroom.  Now I know that simply allowing my children to believe in Santa Clause isn't going to be the magic key that teaches them to imagine but allowing them to have some kind of fantasy and believe in something so magical is bound to foster some imaginative growth.

Toys for that matter:
So I know it's the big joke that Angela doesn't like toys that make noise and most assume it's because they annoy me, which they do but that isn't it.  Besides is it really less annoying to have a child running around the house making the same sound over and over and over again....um not really.  So anyway my goal is for a high percentage of their toys to not make noise.  Watching my girls they get more enjoyment out of their simple stuffed animals and soundless dolls then anything else.  I love watching them create stories, give their babies voices, and explore all kinds of pretend play.  It cracked me up so much the first time one of their babies made it to time out watching one of the twins "discipline" their naughty baby.  I love watching them pretend.

Onto our Advent Activities:
So pictured above is our Advent House.  Inside each door of the house I put a picture of a different activity.  The starting on day 12 this year I followed this Family Advent Calendar.  I'll admit we were altogether behind this year and didn't manage to even start until the 9th.

So here is what we've done so far.


9'th    Ice Cream with Daddy
10'th  Christmas Parade
11'th  Pancakes for dinner
12'th  Hot cocoa night
13'th  Puppy Chow
14'th  was supposed to be gingerbread Rudolph cookies
15'th was supposed to be Christmas Caroling  The twins were sick the last two days, so on the 14'th we
        didn't do anything and today we will make the Rudolph cookies and we are watching Christmas shows
         instead, they need to be very low key today, lol
16'th  Grandma and Grandpa
17'th  Adventure in St. Louis day (visit the fish market, see snow show at the mall, visit Santa, top it off with
          our annual Christmas party with the Dolatas)
18'th  Cousin Paul and Jeep rides!
19th   Little People Village(poor Lillie-Kate got sick again)

20'th  Gingerbread Rudolph Cookies
21'rst Angel Gabriel activity
22'nd  PAT visit with Kim
23'rd  Twin's baptism bday party
24'th  Christmas Eve service
25'th  Happy Birthday Jesus, celebrate Christmas at home
       

Such a let down

I feel so bad for all the I have let down.  I feel like I haven't lived up to the expectations I set out for myself.  I think perhaps I bit off a bit more then I could chew and so now that I've had a chance to re-group I hope I can do what I want with this blog.  That and multiple computer issues and internet problems have kept me away.
Originally the point in this blog was to write about what the girls and I were doing with pre-school.  But we got so behind in pre-school that I stopped writing about it altogether.  We are finally getting caught up and just in time in my opinion.  I wanted to be back on track for Advent so we would be up to date with our bible stories. 
I love this time of year.  I hope to keep up with things a bit better but if nothing else at least keep up with pre-school.  As a teacher and a stay at home mom I owe that to my girls.  My goal with my blog is to use it as a sort of diary.  I want to document what we are doing in preschool as much as I can but also have a place to share our adventures.
and what a time we've had lately.  So much to catch up on and so little time to do it.
I think compared to last year I am so behind on everything right now.  This time last year the decorations were up, the cookies baked, and all presents started on.  This year I haven't even decided what I am going to make for presents this year.  The house is scarcely decorated...how sad. and we are just starting on the cookies.
But I must say I have an excuse, har har har.  We have a minor construction project going on.  We are building a wall in our kitchen.  Our kitchen opens to the basement and therefor our energy bills suck us dry.  So we are putting up the wall to close off the basement and save on heating this winter.  Our furnace went out last year and, no, we have not replaced it.  Just seriously cannot afford a furnace.  So we sold a truck and can afford to build a wall.  We will install our baseboard heater on the new wall, and between that and our fireplace try to stay warm even if it means sleeping in the living room, lol, I doubt we'll have to actually resort to that but I'd be lying if I said we hadn't thought about it.
So for now I will leave you at this and just hope and pray there is a way I can keep up with all my goals.