We’ve been having tons of fun with Lucy this Advent season. Well, it’s tons of fun as long as you don’t mind runny noses being part of the joy. Yes, Lucy and Mama have been passing colds between each other for a couple of weeks now, and we certainly wouldn’t object to some healthy-time. (Is this what winter is like when all those nursing immunities stop?)
But despite sketchy health, Lucy has been enthusiastically enjoying our “Advent calendar tradition”:http://boydsnest.org/news/2007/our-advent-calendar/. Whenever we suggest checking the calendar, Lucy eagerly holds up her arms to be carried over to it. Then she opens the door, takes out the slip of paper, and hands it to one of us. She’s got the system down pat!
We’ve been enjoying some Christmas videos together, as well as fun family activities (like baking cookies with Grandma and Grandpa). Some of the activities have proven to be more lasting than others. Lucy is quite obsessed now with drawing with crayons — although what she *really* wants is to hold a crayon and instruct Mama or Papa in what to draw, usually stars (“dah-doh”) or hearts (“how”). Then she scribbles on the page until one of us looks away, at which point she promptly draws on the table, and then asks for help (“hop? hop?”) until we clean it up. Luckily, we got those washable crayons, so the marks come right off the table with a bit of water.
The only real Advent bomb we’ve had so far was Mama’s play-doh experiment. Trying to make it from scratch just didn’t work for us: the dough turned out way too sticky, and Lucy was mildly interested but soon afterward wanted her hands washed (“han? han?”). Next time, we’ll try the store-bought kind. Luckily, that day we received a box in the mail full of packing peanuts, and Lucy had a ball with those all day long. Who knew?
Our most exciting Advent adventure was a spontaneous sledding experiment while on a family walk. We were all glad that Lucy didn’t fall off and seemed to have fun on our little local “hill” to boot. (See video.) We returned home to warm up with some cocoa and cookies, although Lucy snubbed the cocoa, preferring water instead. To each her own! —continues—
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We’re looking forward to more fun activities coming up, including tree trimming. Papa and Mama are still trying to decide if Lucy should be actually *involved* with the tree trimming, or if it should just be a glorious surprise. We may just have to see how we are feeling on our continuum of _disaster potential vs. fun potential_ on that day! In any case, this calendar has been a great way to celebrate our waiting for Jesus all month long — even if Lucy may not *quite* get that part of it yet. :)
Sounds like you have been having fun! We let Benjamin “help” with the tree this year – my advice would be to at least put the lights on before starting with her – he got really bored while James did the lights and then wasn’t as into doing the ornaments.
I had to laugh that your last two posts have had a snot theme (or at least seem that way from the beginning). I’m joining you on the sinus infection, although I haven’t broke out my irrigator yet.
My mother got me a really great book called 52 Simple Ways to Make Christmas Special. There is a section on Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. I believe it’s out of print, but definitely be on the look out for used copies. There were some great ideas for the whole family as well as ideas for each person individually.