December 9-10
It really IS beginning to feel like Christmas. Sunday hasn’t been a church day for us in quite some time, but this second Sunday in Advent was different. We were invited to celebrate Christmas with the children’s concert at the Novak family’s church (a Lutheran one, yay). Of course this coincided with the first REAL storm… 16 inches (around 41 cm) of snow in 24 hours… great for the kids… not so hot for the roads. But with some careful driving we made it all the way safely to the church just before the special service was to begin, thankfully Andrew and his grandparents and cousins were able to save us a pew.
Waiting for the service… note the RED lipstick Bree and Veronika… did I do good?
It was a great service with the Nativity story and lots of singing and 3 of the 4 Novak boys involved. We did have to take Echo out of the sanctuary a few times to trundle around but all in all once I separated Zander and Emanuel we did rather well.
Aidan… There will be an entry following this with the picture overflow. The expressions on the boys’ faces as they did their songs and parts were just too cute to not be shared!!
Alex looking dapper
Anthony the shepherd (left)
The final group number
After the concert there was birthday cake…
CAKE
And then pictures…
Emanuel, Echo, Gavin, Zander and Trinity
11 kids!! (Gavin left)
And in front of the tree (Zander left)
Then back into the snow to head over to the Novak’s for playing in the snow…
So much snow all at once!
The second fort
Baking and decorating cookies…
Making cookies with Maggie
Darcy and the girls
Andrew manning the ovens
Visiting AND some presents! I have to say, I have never had my owls go over so well as when I give them to the Novak boys!
Present time
Andrew playing Santa
With the owls
With all that lovely snow sticking around Monday the boys bargained with me to let the morning just be outside play. So much snow and sunlight and fun for the kids!
So much bright white snow
Chill-axing
Post snow smoothies (peanut butter banana) thanks to Nana
We did not end up starting the reindeer unit as of course there was a REPEAT out in the snow in the afternoon. It really does eat up the time, but they had so much fun! Gavin DID find some time to make our Art for Kids picture of a CHRISTMAS TREE!
A tree
With brand new puzzles thanks to the Novak family we of course had two boys sit down and right away want to complete one. These were NOT easy as they are holographic! But Emanuel and Gavin managed.
Emanuel and Gavin
We ended the day with Ken and Baba putting together the tree… slightly pre decorated and rather pretty. Add to that phone calls for work and immigration, mailing to deal with and Christmas crafting to feverishly finish and we are REALLY busy! But in a cheerful and Christmasy way!
SNOOPY