Christmas … Unwrapped

We had a great Christmas season this year. Probably my favorite memory from this Christmas was part of the Christmas Eve service at church. First, a little background… Earlier in December I read a bunch of ideas for celebrating Advent with kids…ways to build anticipation for Christmas and teach kids about the true meaning of Christmas. I found an awesome resource, downloaded it… and only did two activities with Eli. I suppose that’s better than nothing! The first lesson and activity we did focused on how the world was in darkness before Jesus came, but God sent him to earth as a light. We made a little candle craft/ornament by ripping tissue paper and gluing it to a candle cutout (see below). Eli thought it was awesome, and kept walking around saying, “Jesus is the Light of the world!” It was adorable! So, fast forward to Christmas Eve… the sermon was on the exact same passage we had studied earlier that week, and Eli was actually listening to the pastor and recognized it! He whispered to me, “It was dark,” and I said, “But what was Jesus?” Eli’s eyes lit up, and he said, “Jesus was the light of the world!!” I was SO happy that it actually clicked for him!

We’ve already had some fun with Christmas presents. Eli especially liked the Chapstick that Grammy put in his stocking…

And now every time I try to take his picture, he runs and gets his camera too! (The other day he told me, “Give me a big, huge smile!”)

This was one of my favorite gifts this year:

I’ve been wanting a growth chart for over a year now, but couldn’t find one I liked. I saw this idea on Pinterest, and loved it! Just like an old-school ruler! I told Mom about it, and she thought Dad might be able to make it as a gift, so I sent him a link to the tutorial. He did such a good job! I love it, and it’s now hanging at the top of our steps. We haven’t gotten Eli’s measurement on it yet, and we may wait and do it on his birthday now.
I also got Eli a little pair of scissors, and we’ve been working on cutting. This was his very first attempt at cutting on lines, and I think he did great!
 
This turned out to be Eli's favorite gift (which was awesome because it was the most simple and cheap!):

I have been cleaning up rice daily since then, but Eli loves to use his trucks to dig in the "dirt"!

Here are a few more detailed pictures of the Busy Book:

 

We've only let Eli play with it once so far, when we went out to dinner. He was so engrossed in it that he was busy the ENTIRE time, and we had to wait quite awhile to get our check after eating. The waitress even complimented us on how well behaved Eli was! He really is, but normally he would have been very squirmy by that time! I'd call it a success!



We were incredibly blessed by our generous family and friends at Christmas this year! We have so much to be thankful for!