The Crabb Family: Christmas 2011

Jeez, Christmas was so long ago I can barely even remember it. Here's what I do remember... The first week of December, Sam got sick, followed by me, then Ellie. Nothing serious, just a yucky cold. But for about 2.5 weeks, somebody was either sick, getting sick or getting over being sick. So we didn't really go anywhere. All those Christmas parties and Santa meetings and millions of other December activities... we missed them. And it was NICE.

I mean, we still did plenty. We watched the parade and walked through Cotton Plant and went to our school Christmas parties. But I had to cross off at least half of the Christmas "To Do's" and functions that I had planned. We spent a lot of nights at home. In front of the fire. Playing Zingo or watching Christmas movies or talking about the birth of Jesus.

I had actually been praying for much of the fall that this Christmas would really be different for our family. Meaningful. I want my kids' Christmas memories to be ones of laughter and rejoicing and gratitude and reveling in the magic of our Savior born on earth. Not stuff and crowds and midnight madness shop til you drop craziness. I truly believe God answered that prayer by giving us all a good case of the snot nose!

Here's what we did do last Christmas:

First, I got all inspired by Pinterest to make my own Advent Trees. We opened a little envelope every day in December- inside was a card with a Scripture or truth about Jesus and Christmas on one side, and a Christmas activity for the day on the other. I tried to make the truth and the activity complement each other. For example, "God sent His Son to be the light of the world." / Tonight let's go look at Christmas lights around town (thank you Denvil Crow). Some days there were small gifts or ornaments for the kids to open. But even those I tried to keep focused on the true meaning of Christmas- Nativity stickers or a cross ornament. It was fun and Sam and Ellie loved it. Yay for a new family tradition!

Here are the Advent Trees on our mantle:

We put our trees up- before Thanksgiving! I love to come home from Thanksgiving in North Carolina to my house already decorated. This year we had two trees- one in the kitchen with all our handmade ornaments, gaudy beads and twinkling lights, and "my tree" in the living room. But honestly, the family tree in the kitchen was my favorite. :)

Sam and I went with his class to eat lunch at the mall, meet Santa and listen to The Polar Express at Barnes and Noble.

We made homemade gingerbread cookies one day.

We spent lots of time in our pj's...

or less...

Ellie and I joined Sam (we were all well at the same time, yay!) and the rest of the Carol Choir in Christmas caroling to some of the shut-ins from our church. One of which was our sweet neighbor, Mrs. Massey who passed away just this summer.

We made lots of ~~messes~~ crafts...
Including some salt dough hand print ornaments that all dried out and cracked. Oh well.

The Nativity by Sam Crabb

The Manger by Sam Crabb

We had a visit from our Elf, Color Bop-Bop

(after much procrastination and internal conflict on the part of Mommy :)

We saw Santa (this was the only Santa lap Ellie would get near)...

and played home school...

We wrote letters to Santa asking for 3 things, and letters to Jesus thanking Him for 3 blessings:

Sam's letter thanked Jesus for the Christmas tree, Disney World and our Christmas Cards.

I helped Ellie write her letter thanking Jesus for TV, Elmo and Mommy. Really, she came up with Mommy on her own!

The kids were able to make it to their class Christmas parties...

Ellie enjoyed a heaping plate of sugar-coated sugar at her party!

Then she and Elizabeth joined the kindergarten party.

The kindergarten class in their Christmas pajamas

We popped popcorn, loaded up the car and drove the 40 miles to Cotton Plant one night.

Sam, who is timid in so many ways, is not scared of characters at all. Although he didn't really want to get near the Grinch. Ellie wasn't having any of them, though. And she is typically my brave child!

We took the kids to see Disney on Ice.

Which Ellie loved...

And Sam hated. This is us outside eating blue high fructose corn syrup slushies because the giant whale from Pinnochio spinning around on the ice pushed him over the edge.