Our Christmas Advent - Week 2

As is normally the case, when something is planned, plans change :-)  Some have changed because I haven't had the time to prepare them and some because I could see what the boys were enjoying and what they weren't.  For example - pulling slips of paper out of our "tree" (above) did not interest them.  They can't read the slips and really don't care about them.  So, I have stopped worrying about those pesky papers.  BUT they do look for our special box each day and get VERY excited to see what is inside.

Days 3, 4, and 5 -
The boys were gone to my parents house on these three days so, obviously we did not do anything

Day 6 -
My original plan was to do an activity on Tuesday but, once the kids got home I had to take Josh to the doctor and found that he had bronchitis.  By the time we got back home and got medicine in him, it really wasn't the best idea to try and pull this off.

Day 7 -

 Our book today was "The Crippled Lamb" by Max Lucado.  I happened to pick up the DVD to this story last weekend and it was a great deal at $3.50.  Instead of reading the actual book, I put the DVD in and the boys loved it.  I think we watched it 20 times that afternoon.

 The activity I picked was a HUGE hit.  I had also picked up the Little People Nativity set for "a steal" this past weekend so I got it out to use with this DVD/Story.  The boys LOVED it.  (Nate's face says "what is up with your hair, Josh" . .well, no one knows.  Josh has hair problems LOL)

 In case you never realized it before, the stable where Jesus was born, was right next to a very busy train track.  It is a wonder they got any sleep ;-) hahahaha

I found this very funny - I looked out in the living room and saw the boys standing like this as the DVD ended.  Yes, they really loved it.  (Excuse the boots - the boys love wearing their boots. .. all day . . every day. )

Day 8

 Today's book was "Counting Christmas" - this is a fun little book that just deals with counting.  I also had made two different Lap Books for the boys to play with. (I must say that the book from today is the FAVORITE book so far - on Friday, Josh and Nate sat together "reading" it and Josh would help Nate say all of the numbers.)

 But I must confess, I'm glad I didn't put a whole lot of work into them because . .. the nativity was still a much bigger hit then the lap books.

 Nate did like pulling all of the stuff off because of the velcro, but he also liked pulling the stuff off that was glued!

 And . . . back to the Nativity.  I put batteries in it today so they loved to make it "sing" and then they would hold the animals and make them dance.  I'm sure the barn animals danced when Jesus was born :-)  Both boys have learned who Baby Jesus is and then know he was born in the Stable.  It's fun to see how quickly they pick up the little details.

You can check out 1 + 1 + 1 =1 for all kinds of Christmas Printables including the items I used in our Christmas Lapbooks.

Day 9

 Our book today is "God Gave us Christmas" and was given to the boys by Nana a few Christmas' ago.  This story is fabulous and I just love the pictures!  Our activity for the day was a Christmas Matching Game.

 I have to admit, the game didn't go over well.  Instead it first became "Rain" as they threw the cards up in the air and then became "Tickets" which reminded the boys about their favorite movie right now - "Boz Abc and 123" which we watched for 5 hours in a row. 

 Nate had a wild hair day :-)  And yes, that is ketchup on his face . .. or maybe BBQ sauce.

I did try to play a matching game by laying out one set of cards and try to had them draw cards to match.  Well, that latest about 2 minutes and the cards became "tickets" again.  Maybe next year

You can find the matching game over at Prepared NOT Scared! .  This blog has some fabulous games and activities that you can download and use.  I'm looking forward to printing LOTS of ideas from this site to use with the boys!
One of the changes I made to my original plan is that we are not doing anything planned items on the weekend.  Today, Saturday,  we had a family party so that was our "activity" and tomorrow, Sunday, will just be family play time :-)
Darryl asked me on Friday if I was discouraged because the boys weren't participating in the activities like I wanted them to and I told him no.  I have figured out that when I see all of the great ideas on other blogs 1 of 2 things are happening - it is all fake when the 1 or 2 or 3 year olds are doing the activities perfectly OR they have older brothers and sisters that help with the activities.  My boys aren't quite ready for a lot of this stuff yet.  But, like I said earlier, they LOVE the "box" - they both ask for it, search for it, and wait for something to 'appear' in it for them to do.  On Friday, Josh asked for more "games" - I asked him if he meant the activities from Thursday and he said "YES!!!".  So, I continue to cut back on my ideas and I've kind of eliminated all crafts for this year (they struggle with crafts right now!) and I'm just focusing on the fun.