Christmas Advent: Days 11-15

Day 11: Read the Christmas Story

Although we had just had the same scriptures read to us the night before at the Christmas party for our church, we still enjoyed reading about the birth of our Savior.

Day 12: Go to the store and read greeting cards.

For family night we went to a local drug store and read cards to each other.  There were some pretty funny ones that we found, too!  We would read a card and then try to decide who it would be the best card for.  What fun!

Day 13: Purchase a gift from a giving tree.

We went to a local store and checked out the tags for the Toy and Joy drive.  Adrian insisted that we pick a tag for an 11 year old boy and then get him something that Adrian would like.  It literally took forever to find and pick out a gift.  Note to self: my children need a lot of guidance and prompting in order to make decisions like this.  Just sayin'.

Day 14: Make a gift for a teacher.

I found several options of things to do on pinterest and showed them to the kids.  I let them decide what to make/do and then we were off to the store.  In the end they decided to take a wire whisk and put hershey's kisses in them.  This was wrapped up with a note that said "We 'whisk' you a merry 'kiss'mas!"  Silly side-note: if you ever try to do this you should hold the whisk upside down.  I was struggling trying to get the kisses to stay inside worrying that I had let them pick a craft that would be too hard for Jonathan to do.  That's when I realized that he was having no troubles at all and the time of his life simply because he was holding the whisk upside down while I was holding mine right side up!  How did he get to be so smart?!

Day 15: Go see Zoo lights at the Oregon Zoo.

This was so much fun!! I have sang at the Zoo lights in years past, but have never really walked around to look at them.  We brought a couple of my siblings along for the fun.  Parking was a lot easier than I thought it would be and the kids behaved beautifully.  Jonathan was a little disappointed that he didn't really get to see any of the animals.  It was too dark and cold for the animals to be out and about!