Yes, I know...

I skipped a day. That's going to happen though. I have a real life too. And unfortunately, my imaginary life is much more organized than my real life.

We ended up making paper bag gingerbread men and ginger hamsters. They are very cute. And since it's two days later and the kids have all but forgotten about the gingerbread cookies, I have all of the stuff. I'm going to mix it up tonight so that after school tomorrow we can dive right in with the cookie cutters. Wish me luck.

Oh, and tonight we read a bunch of books because I was desperate to calm them down. It didn't work, but we read:


Of Course Polly Can Do Almost Everything by Astrid Lindgren. It's a translation from the Swedish. I think the book is out of print, but you can get copies from amazon for cheap. Jason gave me this one when he bought every Astrid Lindgren book in both Swedish and English. So every time I read this, I am reminded of how well taken care of I am. So I like this for a lot of different reasons!


A Pussycat's Christmas by Margaret Wise Brown. Which I didn't like at all. And really, I'm not a fan of Goodnight, Moon either, although everyone else seems to be.
I really, really liked this one. It shows sand and that Joseph was wearing sandals and the shepherds were out sleeping while watching the sheep. It's good to read a Christmas story that doesn't talk about snow.

We didn't do any crafts tonight, but I have a couple of other A. Lindgren books to read with the kids and we'll make Christmas heart ornaments for the tree. We might make some other things typically Swedish, but we'll see about that. I'm getting too many craft ideas for my own good.

Oops

I just thought I had a bunch of brown felt. I don't!

So I think we'll do something like this.

Christmas, Christmas time is here

(sung in a nasally, chipmunky type of voice.)

So I've decided to post what we're doing each day to get ready for Christmas. And, maybe, if the stars align and I can get myself together, post what my plans are for tomorrow. We'll see, that might be way too ambitious.

Going back in time:

Sunday, November 30:

We read the book Cranberry Christmas and made the cranberry cookie recipe off of the back. I also remembered that I don't actually like cranberries. Oh, and I didn't have the walnuts the recipe called for, so I substituted white chocolate chips. Sadly, that didn't help and I still didn't like the cookies. The kids of course did, but Jason decided that they looked like hunks of raw meat. We gave them to the neighbor after this and I made a pan of brownies. Other than that, we liked the story.

Monday, December 1

We started on the Advent calendar from the Friend. We read a scripture and talked about it and the picture. The picture is great for Annika--she can have something visual while the boys are reading. There are a bunch of other calendars on the Friend site that I like a lot, but I'm just doing this one since it's so easy to keep up with.

It seems like we read a book, but I've already forgotten which one. It's sad, this whole mommy-brain thing.

Tuesday (today)

We read the scripture for today and looked at the picture. Annika tormented Emma with the picture. We had to kick her out so we could actually have our little spiritual moment. We made little handprint Rudolphs from Family Fun. They don't look exactly like the picture, but isn't that the point. It also would have helped if I actually had any red pompoms. But I do have a ton of little red sparkly things, so the day was saved. Oh, and Sam decided that his Rudolph needed a beard instead of antlers, so his is a little scary. But it was fun. It kept the kids' attention for more than twenty minutes which is a true miracle.

And since we had the pipe cleaners, oh, I mean the chenille stems, out, we twisted a red one with a white one and made candy canes. They were more proud of those than the Rudolphs.

At bedtime we read The Gingerbread Man. That was fun--"you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man." If I had actually planned this, I would have the molasses and dark brown sugar to make gingerbread men tomorrow. But I didn't so, I think we'll make faux gingerbread folk from Family Fun. Strangely, I do have a ton of dark brown felt.

It sounds like a lot. But really it isn't. We did what was fun until it wasn't and there was no stress. And, as you read, very little planning. I do have a list of things that are important for me do before Christmas, so we will make sure to do that and if we fit anything else in, great. If not, there's always next year!

Oh, in the interest of full disclosure, I've been trying to make this Advent calendar for several days now. I think I finally have all of the stuff, so I'm starting on it tonight. Yes, I'm starting on my December calendar on December 2!