My family got to come for Christmas this year!
My mom came out right after her student teachers were finished on Dec. 8!
She got to be around to help with lots of errands and enjoy the Christmas festivities at the kids schools!
The day she came we enjoyed a stop in Vacaville on the way home from the Oakland airport and then took her to see the Annual Nativities in Granite Bay and a Christmas Concert by our Stake Choir.
It was a fun day!
They don't let you take pictures at the Nativity exhibit...which is a bummer for me because there are so many unique Nativities, but they do let you dress up and be in a Nativity!
We were excited to welcome her to our Christmasfied home...
with lots of lights and our gorgeous Christmas tree!
We had a nice quiet Sunday afternoon...Cade played with a Nativity and just as I took this, picked up baby Jesus and took him flying...after this play session he lost baby Jesus...and we all looked for him for at least a week...including Cade...then a week or so later while looking again, all of a sudden he goes to the side of the couch, reached under and "found" baby Jesus. Funny how he all of a sudden remembered!
And when it was nap time {which included Cade, Kyle and Sean that day} we crafted. It was so fun.
My mom glued together a felt nativity puppet set for me, Ryan painted a bird house, Scott painted his Santa Castle he started 12 years ago and I worked on a different felt Nativity Set.
So peaceful.
My mom was so excited she could be in town for the kids holiday performances. Both Ryan and Sean's performances were super cute!
T
We found lots of Christmas crafts for the kids. They loved the different things we got to color...especially this guy. Gotta keep the helmet on cause you can go back out at a moments notice!
Here is one of the ornaments we found...painting in the sun catcher.
I have looked for years for the sun catcher ornaments...that you put little beads into a shape - cook it and the beads melt together. Scot made a race car ornament like this when he was a kid and just loves it. Well I found them! Finally! So we were all excited to make them. They were very particular on how they placed the colors in each opening. And then Cade bumped the pan...and made all those little beads jump...and the frame itself displace - and there was no re positioning with so many little beads. The colors were instantly mixed up. Such a bummer. Cade's was salvageable...so we cooked it and then saved the rest to fix later.
Somewhere in there...a no nap day led to this in the late afternoon.
Kyle was so proud he made this at preschool!
With my mom in town, I went in to Ryan's class twice for Art Docent. My favorite project was this Snowmen at Night project. On black construction paper, we used oil pastels and talked about blending for the glow of the moon or lamps or stars or colors in the night sky. Then they each created their own snowman night scene. They turned out so AWESOME! I really loved them all. There are my favorites.
The oil pastels on the black paper create such a great effect for a night time drawing! Awesome project!
Ryan's is the top right...snowmen playing baseball.
So on another Sunday Grandma and the boys sorted those tiny beads so we could start their ornaments again.
And stories were read...and Grandpa helped the boys memorize scriptures.
My dad came in town a week after my mom! He got to be there for Kyle's Preschool performance, he took the boys up on our hill, both my parents came to Scouts one night we were making Nativities...they came along to be extra helpers and I'm so glad they did! It really helped!
Kyle sang those songs so good!
Here is one of the Nativities we made with the Cub Scouts.
My mom helped Noah...I was so glad he got a private helper and they made such a cute set!
Grandpa's Hill trip with the boys.
And they missed Basketball games...but got to see some practices!
6 comments:
Oh... I love every one of these memories. We had so much fun and we made so many fun things. And the boys were so much fun... miss you all so much.
And not to mention the Quiet Book I cut out and colored! Now the sewing!
I think I know why Cade insisted he wanted to be a shepherd Christmas Eve. Look at the cool crook he got to hold... So while he was dressed as a wise man. He repeatedly told you he was a shepherd! AND... I got to go into Sean's and Ryan's classes and do a project with Sean's and read and discuss a story with Ryan's... LOVED IT SO MUCH!!! One of my favorite things was to see them in their class and be a part of that world even if it was just for a day!
And that smile on Noah's face makes me smile. It was sweet to help him.
Where did you find the suncatcher ornaments? WE made them when I was a kid too and I loved them!
So many good Christmas projects! Love those sweet faces all dressed up!
Post a Comment