Catching up on December

Do you feel like December is running away from you? 11 days 'til Christmas is crazy. Here's a few things December has brought us thus far...

I recently posted about this activity advent calendar I made, where I covered 25 small matchboxes with Christmas scrapbook paper and put slips of paper in each one with a different Christmas-y activity to do each day:
This has been a great success, the kids love opening the boxes each day. I also copied this page from The Friend magazine and put a scripture reference in each box, so each day this month we read a scripture about Christ's life:
One of our activities this past week was making cards for kids' teachers.
Connor's card for his kindergarten teacher (thank you for being my teacher. I love you, Connor Howell, smiley face)
Isabel's card for Miss Belinda, her dance teacher:
I did not know Isabel has started writing part of her name. She has been practicing lots, and has now mastered "I", "E" and "L".
I wouldn't be at all surprised if she just teachers herself to read and write soon. She is so determined to do so.

We also have a counting advent that Brian's sister Kelley made for us several years ago. The kids love putting a light up each day, and totally have it down to a system (2 days on, 2 days off, etc)

I've done a bit of decorating this year with a few crafy things. My friend Elizabeth and I did a project where we covered a metal star with scrapbook paper, a delightfully fun project and I love the end result:

I also love this sparkly Joy sign I found - sparkle is SO everywhere, and I love it:

My mantel. This is a work in progress, have some ideas still needing to come to fruition. And the background color is probably going to become brown soon. And our homemade stockings still need to be made, so I hang our cheapy basic Target ones right before Christmas for now:
Here' a cute idea via cute Elizabeth via Southern Living. Take a white tray, fill with dried split peas, sprinkle some faux berries, add candles wrapped with ribbon/string/embroidery floss, etc. I am still needing to get 2 more candles, but you get the idea:

Love the balls hanging from the lights:

We've had a bunch of snow recently, happy day! Since I've lived in Colorado, we've had more brown Christmases than white. I prefer white! Of course, we can always go to the mountains for a winter fix if we are feeling desperate. My manly men taking care of snow business:


And last, we had our Ward Christmas party last night - it was a Night in Bethlehem. It was fantastic, super well done. We had a great time. We were all supposed to come dressed in Bethlehem-ish attire. So Brian and I went as shepherds, and the children all wore white shirts, khakis, and little fluffy tales I fashioned out of cotton balls and an empty paper towel roll - they were our little flock of sheep. No, I am offering no pictures of this event. Use your imagination. As we were noisily piling into the van at the end of the evening, Brian turned to me and said, "I'm really hoping for a Silence of the Lambs." Sometimes he's really funny.

Hope you are having a good December!