Narrative the doll's celebrate advent

the little ones are super excited that christmas is coming so meg and nandi decided to do an advent calendars worth of activities to help them count down the days we will post the activities each day till dec 24


dec 1 is the first sunday of advent , so they lit the first candle tonight.

eilidh explanis to crystal that “The first candle symbolizes hope and is called the “Prophet’s Candle.”

 

thank you, the dolls will be sharing a lot of our traditions this month, and coming up with some of there own!

 

dec 2
the girls got together today to pack shoe boxes for operation christmas child

first they covered the boxes with wrapping paper.


then they filled them to the brim with toys and goodies. they had lots of fun deciding what to put in, and trying to make it all fit!

they packed a girl box

and a boy box

 

dec 3
after a busy day playing, the girls were happy to cuddle up with eilidh and listen to one of their favorite books, "the best christmas pageant ever"

 

dec 4 - the very long day!

meg had a lot of christmas shopping left to do, so she decided to make a day of it

first stop chapters to get books for all the kids, she especially wanted to find a boxed set of the narnia books for eilidh

to pass the time while she was gone, the little girls worked on a giant christmas puzzle

koko decided to "help"
d
no no! bad kitty!

next stop toysrus for toys of course

dovey pointed out pieces for the other girls to put in. she had a good top view from her chair

 

then meg headed over to the fabric store to get material to make christmas aprons

as the day passed the puzzle started to come together

winners was next - the kids are growing fast and all need new clothes

they got farther...

some of the christmas light strings got broken last year, so she stopped at the hardware store for new ones

 

and farther...

more shopping at the craft store to get supplies for the advent crafts, and a few more for stocking stuffers

till at last they were done!

as the afternoon was ending meg headed to the yarn shop for some last minute christmas knitting

they were so excited about finishing that they woke eilidh up from her nap

 

last stop of the day was a store called "destination christmas" for some extra christmas decorations. with the snow starting to fall, meg headed home

"meg's been gone a very long time, do you think she is ever coming back?"
"i'm sure she will be home soon"
eildih replied

just then a voice called out "i'm home!" and in came meg with arms full of bags

 

thanks, this one took quite a while, but i had a lot of fun doing it. my cat is a terror whenever i am trying to do stuff, she wants to get right in the middle so that she gets my full attention

i found a bunch of printable bags on pinterest, resized them and printed them on cardstock

 

yeah, taking photos was a lot more fun, especially since i didn't actually shop at most of them, just drove around and took pictures in the parking lot

the puzzle is a real one, it is the smallest i can find and the pieces are about 1/4" it even comes with a pair of tweezers to help you put it together, though i didn't bother with them. there are a bunch of them and they are called "the world's smallest puzzle"s they would be a better size for my msd dolls, but work as a floor puzzle for the pukifees

 

cricket and edwin worked hard tonight string lights and setting up the outdoor creche

 

dec 6 -

today's activity was writing their letters to santa

the girls had a pretty good idea of what they wanted

so did the boys, but afraid that santa might have them on the naughty list (and for good reason) noah and emrys came up with a cunning plan

when the letters were all done noah and cricket went to the mail box and posted them all

 

cookie baking is definitely in the forecast, what would christmas be without cookies? we'll have to see if the boys remember to save some of them for santa though?

 

as a light snow fell meg took eilidh and crystal sledding

crystal brought her own sled



turns out she needs a lot more practice !

 

i have a bunch of tiny cookie cutters, they will make large cookies for the small ones but regular sized for meg. it matches the gingerbread men my mom used to make when i was a kid. they were soft and chewy and about 9 or 10 inches tall. we loved them! (now that i'm a mom, i think she did because she had to roll/cut less cookies )

thanks @SteamWitch i'm glad you are enjoying it

 

i remember sleds like that when i was growing up, my brother and i used to go sledding together. our favorite though, was when we found an old tire in the back alley (something fairly common when i was growing up) we would roll it all the way to the hill, several blocks away, and take turns riding it down the hill.

 

on the second sunday of advent kiri and annalise lit the second candle.

The second candle represents faith and is called "Bethlehem’s Candle." Micah had foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, which is also the birthplace of King David. lighting this candle symbolizes the preparations being made to receive the Christ child.

 

dec 9

today meg took the kids' christmas picture. amazingly enough even the boys cooperated!

 

thank you :

 

dec 10 - popcorn and movie night
tonight the girls cuddled up to eat popcorn and watch "the mujppets' christmas carol"


the boys claimed the muppets movie was sissy, but they came in to grab some popcorn and were soon as mesmerized as the girls

 

today was a charity day again, a day when the kids focus on giving, rather than what they will get for christmas

meg ordered cards from a few of her favorite charities as gifts for friends and family.

the kids had all decided together that they would write encouraging notes to our troops who would be away from their families this year, so they each picked a favorite place to sit and got busy thinking of what to say

the girls are writing very sweet letters

the boys decided to write their letter together, i think meg better check this one before she sends it!

 

you are welcome, they deserve to be remembered!

 

dec 12 mail and board games
meg went off the the post office to mail the letters the kids wrote yesterday,

while she was there she picked up a load of parcels full of christmas surprises,

the kids entertained themselves playing board games

 

i just went and looked and it wasn't clear that it was a work in progress, i'll change the first post in case other people thought it was a one time thing

 

dec 13 - do you wanna build a snowman?

after several days of snowfall, the girls went outside to build a snowman.

 

there are times when i think i am nuts for adding this in, but i'm actually having a lot of fun doing it

 

there was great excitement today as it was the day they all got to help decorate the tree, kiri carefully unpacked all the ornaments, crystal started putting them up on the lower branches, dovey and annalise were in charge of setting up the mini trees and nativities, eilidh was busily putting out the christmas pillows and throws.

meg and cricket went downstairs to bring up the rest of the decorations, so the boys decided to help untangle the christmas lights...

 

yes, i found them in a shop and thought the mice were adorable, they are really well done. plus they were small enough for my dolls. i actually have a collection of about 5 nativities that they can use and am always looking for other ones that are small enough to be realistic

the boys are rascals, but they have very good hearts

 

thank you

 

for the third sunday of advent, cricket and elwin lit the candle

The third candle symbolizes joy and is called the "Shepherd’s Candle." To the shepherd’s great joy, the angels announced that Jesus came for everyone, even humble, unimportant people like them, too.

 

that might have something to do with it!

 

for the past couple weeks the kids have been doing extra chores to earn grocery vouchers that they can redeem for pantry items to give to the food bank, today meg put out some big boxes and the kid put stuff in throughout the day...

 

apparently meg underestimated the kids' desire to help others

time to go shopping again

 

the girls happily spent the afternoon making giant poster paper snowflakes




noah and emrys quickly got tired of sitting, so volunteered to take the paper scraps out to recycling


oops...

 

i agree, making memories is the best part. i don't have any grands, but have fond memories of making these as both a child and later with my son

 

too true, and none of them like to brush their hair

 

today was "make a gift day" so all the kids scattered to various rooms and got to work

kiri and eilidh made memory match games for the littles


cricket taught the little girls beading so they could make bracelets for meg and the big girls


they all managed to string the beads, but needed a little help tying the knots

 

the boys made clay ashtrays, er trinket bowls out of oven baked clay


then they got creative...


after meg baked their creations, the boys painted them



elwin hid in the craft cupboard, knitting