Advent Challenge Day 24 & Merry Christmas!!

It is the final day of Advent which means Christmas is tomorrow!! I have enjoyed sharing the activities that my family has done this season. It has helped us to be closer in spite of all the hustle and bustle of the season. I hope it has done the same for you.  I have enjoyed your comments about my challenge with those of you who were doing it too as well as people who have simply said they enjoyed reading the posts and it helped them to remember the reason for the season. It is so easy to get caught up in the presents, shopping, lights etc and forget that we are here to celebrate the birth of a baby - Our Savior, Jesus! He was given to bring light to the world and to give us joy, peace, hope and love. 

We lit our final candle - the white candle which represents Jesus' light. This was the candle that I made with my friend Cheryl that we used as our Unity Candle in our wedding 9 years ago! 

Today my family is finishing up our activities by sprinkling the lawn with our Reindeer food that we made yesterday, leaving cookies out for Santa that we made a few days ago, and going to the Children's Christmas Mass at church. (and again for me as I am singing and playing flute with the choir at our 10:30pm mass tonight. Hope I can stay awake. it is worth it as the "midnight" mass is one of my favorites. so beautiful with all of the candles:)

So from my family to yours, Merry Christmas! Enjoy the season and continued prayers to those of you who have lost a loved one this year. May you gain peace and strength through Jesus.

And thank you to my friend Rachel Jones for taking such wonderful pictures of us at Happy Hollow park in September!

Enjoy your day with friends and family!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 23

It's the Eve before Christmas Eve! We had fun with our activity today - making Reindeer Food!!! Santa's reindeer need to be sure they don't miss our house after all. And they probably feel left out with all of the cookies Santa gets.

It was very easy. We just mixed oats with green and red sugar! Snow would be nice to show off the sugar, but we will still sprinkle it on our lawn tomorrow night none the less. There are several recipes for reindeer food online. Just be sure you find one with ingredients that won't harm any animals when ingested. 

What activities did you do today? Are you ready for Christmas?

Be sure to check out the deals on our 12 Days of Christmas specials. some are still running so you can still take advantage of those.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 22

It is the 4th Sunday of Advent already and the 4th and final candle is lit! I can hardly believe it!

Today's activity was to take some of the cookies we baked yesterday to a neighbor and surprise them! 

The boys wanted to take some next door so we did. They got a good end of the deal as they were invited in to play with the boy who lives there. :)

What activities did you do today? Are you prepared for Christmas and Jesus' Birth? Remember to keep everything in perspective. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just for Him and it will all fall into place. :)

Have a great day and remember to check out our last few days of 12 Days of Christmas specials! There are some great deals there!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 21

Today's Advent challenge is to give away some toys to Goodwill. We are starting with the bins we have of endless stuffed animals! Each boy is choosing some to donate. If you know me at all, you know that I am a pack rat by nature. I blame my genes :) So this is actually not an easy task for me to sort and get rid and I think my youngest takes after me while my oldest is like his dad and quick to get rid of everything! lol. But we are purging our home and it does feel good to get rid of stuff. And hopefully help other children enjoy their christmas more with some of the things we get rid of. Clutter tends to weigh people down and it is a good idea to get rid of things from time to time. Do you agree?

We also plan to bake our Christmas cookies today as well as go to see Christmas lights tonight! Fun day!

What are you up to today? Are you prepared for Christmas yet?

Have a wonderful day and remember to stop by our 12 Days of Christmas deals! There are just a couple left!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 20

The final days of Advent are here, which means Christmas is just next week already!! Since both of my kids are officially on holiday break, we decided to have a PJ day today and bake Christmas cookies! So far we have only made the dough and will roll them and bake them later today or tomorrow. We had fun! I also like to add a little more nutrition to my baked goods with this wonderful protein for baking, which we also used in place of some of the flour today.

Have you baked your Christmas cookies yet? Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out the great deals on our 12 Days of Christmas specials! Today's will be a good one coming soon and just a couple days left!

Blessings to you today!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 19

Today was SUPPOSED to be the day to go through toys to donate to Goodwill. But we got so busy and that will be a longer project so instead the boys wanted to play in the snow while it was still here. Today it has been in the 40s so they are enjoying it while it lasts. :)

What did you do today? 

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out our 12 Days of Christmas specials! A good one will be posted later today and for the next few days so keep checking in for the great deals.

Have a great day!!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 18

One week till Christmas! Can you believe it? Are you getting ready?

Today was my oldest's last day of pre-k for the year so he got to stay later and have a pizza party. I took my youngest out to lunch so he had a fun day too. We are looking forward to being able to sleep in a little more for the next couple of weeks and enjoy more family fun activities.

I had a different Advent activity in mind for today but then I saw a friend post a picture on Facebook of her kids playing with snow inside today! We did that for the last few years and the kids loved it so we changed our activity today and brought snow in to play with! It's still pretty cold outside and easier to bring it in to us. The kids think it is the best idea. :)

Have you tried this with your kids before?

Have a great day and be sure to stop by our 12 Days of Christmas sales! Scroll through to find something good for you or a friend.

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 17

When I was a kid I used to love art class. It was something I really enjoyed. But as I grew older I didn't like it very much. I remember working as a rehab therapist in CA and dreading days when we had all of the clients come and make ornaments or had an art day. I just never had the patience for the fine details. Yet, today I found myself doing a simple art project with my boys as our activity. I found this simple Christmas Tree instructions and the kids really loved it. :)

I drew this tree on two pieces of thin cardboard. And cut a slit half way down from the top of one and the bottom of the other.

The kids helped me paint it green. We actually didn't have green paint so we had a little science experiment mixing our blue and yellow paints. :)

After they dried, we cut out little ornaments and glued them on.

And then put it together!

It was fun to do with the boys and they really enjoyed it too. My oldest really loves art time at school so he always enjoys anytime we do something like this.

Are you artsy? 

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out our great 12 Days of Christmas specials happening now! Scroll through the past days. Today's was a deal on children's vitamins that we love in our house and keep us healthy.

Have a great day!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 16

Yesterday started the third week of Advent already! can you believe it? I forgot to put that and this picture of our wreath in my last Advent post. It is known as Gaudete Sunday, which means "Rejoice" in Latin. The pink candle is lit for the third week.

Today was the day for….SNOW ICE CREAM!!!! My husband isn't a fan so the boys and I made it this afternoon and enjoyed it while he was at work. The kids were so excited! There was some rejoicing in my house today when I told them our activity!

First we got a heaping bowl of fresh clean snow. Notice how Benjamin was dressed for the occasion. :)

Then we mixed in 1/2 cup sugar, approximately 1 cup almond milk and a tsp or two of vanilla extract.

Mix and put sprinkles and enjoy! It tastes pretty good and we had fun making it today.

What activities did you do today?

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the great 12 Days of Christmas specials we have going right now!! And visit me on Facebook soon too!

Have a great day!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 15

We had a busy and fun day today starting with Mass at our church when my 3 year old leaned over to me at the start and asked if our priest was God. lol! And then off to Christmas shop so the kids could each pick out a gift for each other. Our main activity was watching a Christmas movie together. It was supposed to be The Grinch (the old cartoon version) but we couldn't find it on youtube or Netflix so we decided on Rudolph. The kids got the book from St. Nick this year and were really excited to watch it. they kept asking when the snow monster was going to come out but didn't think he was too scary. :) Here are some pictures of us watching. So fun!

Did you have a fun weekend? Are you keeping up with your Advent calendar? What activity did you do today?

Have a wonderful week!

And be sure to check out my 12 Days of Christmas Specials for some last minute gift ideas for a friend or for yourself!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 14

The snow started coming yesterday night and didn't stop for over 24 hours! The boys were so excited to see it and learn their activity today was to play in it! Yay for snow! :)

Benjamin is wearing a scarf my grandma knitted for my brother over 40 years ago! I wore it when i was little too.

Did you get to enjoy snow where you are too?

Thanks for reading and be sure to take a look at our 12 Days of Christmas Specials happening NOW! Some great deals! 

Have a great day!

~Rebecca~

Advent Challenge Day 13

Today was a fun one. Our activity was to take funny and silly pictures with Santa hats. I had forgotten how funny they could be with the iPad features in the photo booth. The kids thought it was so great! 

It was also PJ day at Andrew's school today and Benjamin wanted to wear his PJs today too. :)

Here are some of the highlights from our photo shoot. Enjoy!

So you can see that we had a lot of fun today! What was a highlight in your day?

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out the 12 Days of Christmas Specials I have going right now. Every day there will be something new and great deals for you so check in often!

And all local Waterways friends - I hope to see you at our annual party tomorrow! Let me know if you can join us!

Hope to see you on Facebook soon too!

~Rebecca~