tis' the season

Here's a quick montage of this past month, leading up to Christmas.

This is one of our favourite times of year, and we like to celebrate it as much as possible, in as many ways as possible too.

The little Princess was so excited to be a part of her very first show this month.

She was a part of the Christmas Pageant at the new church we've been attending.

We practiced her line with her over and over again, so she could say those few short words with as much gusto as possible.

And that definitely paid off.

She positively shone.

Our little princess was the best sparkly blue butterfly she could have possibly been.

One of our many traditions at this time of year is to be a part of a homeschooling Christmas craft sale.

We always have a great time finding ideas for things to make.

Getting ready for the sale itself is always fun too!

This year I made re-useable tea bags, and the kids made Christmas Tree ornaments.

Here's the Princess at our table.

This is one of the kinds of ornaments we made this year.
We also have quite a few hanging on our own Christmas Tree now too.

  A couple days ago we were invited to decorate ginger bread houses at a friends house.

We kind of cheated, buying a pre-made ginger bread house, that was already put together.

But whatever, decorating it is the best part anyway.

We had bowls full of candy on the table, but I think most of that never even made it onto the houses themselves.

How can you resist the sugary goodness, especially when it's sitting there, right in front of you, just begging to be eaten?

Our finished product.

YUM!

 Our family has many ways to help us count down the days until Christmas.

One is to watch as many Christmas movies as possible.

We have a very large collection, and even after a whole month of them being out, we haven't gotten through them all yet.

Mind you, we do have a few favourites that get watched over and over again.

There are several advent calendars hung up in our dinning room.

We have two that you lift the flaps and each day you get to read one more line of a poem, and the other is a short Christmas story.

The calendar with the story we've had every year for as long as I can remember.

Just looking at it makes me feel like Christmas is on it's way.



This advent calendar is new to us this year.
Every morning we add another ornament to the tree's little felt branches.



We've had this advent calendar for a few years now. We bought it was while back from one of our friends at the homeschooling  craft sale.
Each day the little crepe paper angle moves one star closer to the top.



We also light our advent candles every morning, and at dinner time(just for the fun of it, and so both kids can have a turn lighting  it each day).

 All these little things we do are what really make it feel like Christmas to me.

I love this time of year.