Pre-Christmas Festivities

On the 1st day of December, a little visitor appeared in our entry way...Elfy the elf!  He arrived with a note written by Santa himself!  The boys were cautiously excited to see Elfy and made sure to keep a bit of distance from him (they didn't want to risk his magic leaving if he was touched.)

December 1st also marked the first day of the Advent basket that Great Nana Dineen and Aunt Donna had made for the boys.  There was a little bag in the basket for each day of December.  Owen decided he'd open the odd number days and Cole would get the even numbers.  Day 1 proved to be a hit - a nativity scene craft.

With our new house guest and a basket full of goodies, each day of December was extra special.  The boys would wake up in the morning and rush to see whose turn it was to open the next bag.  After finding the bag with the correct number for the day, they'd eagerly open the bag to discover what was hiding inside.  Another fun daily activity was finding out where in the house Elfy was.  That pesky elf kept moving around, landing on some rather strange places (like the Christmas tree!)  The boys got a kick out of finding the latest place Elfy decided to fly.  Owen was especially intrigued by Elfy.  He'd read him stories, tell him what he wanted for Christmas (a new Spinosaurus since he had misplaced his other one) and even drew a portrait of him.

Owen reading a story to Elfy

Elfy and Owen's drawing

On December 7th, Owen went to work making his spectacular lanterns to celebrate El Día de las Velitas (the Day of the Little Candles).  El Día de las Velitas is a holiday tradition in Colombia celebrating the eve of the Immaculate Conception.  On this day in Colombia, people place candles everywhere to honor the Virgin Mary.  In the past, we have put the candles outside, but it was especially cold this year (-3 degrees is WAY to cold to be outside!) so we opted to make paper lanterns for our battery operated candles and put them on our window sill, all while staying inside our warm, cozy house and listening to Christmas music.

Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving we decorate our Christmas Tree, but this year we had mudders and painters fixing the ceiling and walls in our house, so the inside Christmas decorating would have to wait.  Instead we opted to put up a tree outside...on a very cold December day. 

Just 4 days before Christmas, we were finally able to put up our Christmas tree inside the house. 

William quickly remembered how fun it was to climb the Christmas tree.

Usually putting the tree up and decorating it is a 2 day process, but Owen insisted that we do it all in one day.  And since it was so close to Christmas already, I agreed.

With the tree up, we were finally ready for Christmas!  Come Lord Jesus, Come!