VDV Four Advent Day 23: Sledding

Daddy VDV took the morning of this day off so we could all go out for some family winter fun. We got all dressed in our winter attire and went sledding in our neighbourhood. Bear was a bit unsure of this at first, but quickly enjoyed himself. I showed Bug the joys of making snow angels, and then we went home to have some hot chocolate. A beautiful day!!

Francis was running a bit behind with his North Pole chores, so he had to bring some back with him. Too bad it had to be the one of him cleaning up reindeer poop.

VDV Four Advent Day 22: Make Homemade Lollipops

One of our last advent days was making these delicious homemade lollipops. I purchased some Christmas sprinkles from Bulk Barn to use for our lollipop decorating. I set aside all of the lollipop sticks (also from Bulk Barn but you can buy them at Michaels as well) and candies in little containers, so once the candy was ready, we could work quickly before it hardened. Bug helped me measure out all of the ingredients and then while it was cooking I took over, as the ingredients got quite hot. Once it was near the 310 degrees Fahrenheit on the candy thermometer, I told Bug to go sit at our decorating station and get ready. Once the temperature was reached, I brought the pot to our working area and I quickly scooped out the hot candy into circle blobs on our parchment paper lined pans. Bug stuck his lollipop stick in the bottom of the circles and then decorated to his heart's content. These were so good...we loved this. We put the completed projects in multiple little bags and gave them away as gifts. One of Bug's best buddies joined in this fun day.

Francis got into some mischief overnight, and toilet papered our blinds and TV....bad elf!

VDV Four Advent Day 21: Make Christmas Ornaments

During my many shopping trips to Dollarama and Michaels, I found a few Perler bead penguin ornament sets (perfect for our tree that is decorated in only penguins). These were excellent for helping Bug learn about patience, counting, and of course developing his fine motor skills. He thought it was so cool to see how the beads melted with the heat from the iron. Bear doodled on some penguin pictures while we made our ornaments.

Francis was found doing some skateboard tricks on our windowsill.

VDV Four Advent Day 20: Snowman Ice Cream

Today was a delightful little dessert, where I made scoops of ice cream into a snowman. I used coloured licorice for his arms and his "carrot" nose, and chocolate chips for his eyes, mouth and buttons. The boys loved this treat!

Francis was found driving a shoe shoe train this morning.

VDV Four Advent Day 19: Candy Cane Reindeer

Today's advent day was another craft I brought forth from my childhood: making reindeer out of candy canes with brown pipe cleaners, itty bitty red pompoms and googly eyes. I got Bug to help twist the the pipe cleaners after I cut them into the right lengths, and then due to the small size of the pompoms and googly eyes, I hot glued them myself. Bear, of course simply enjoyed the peppermint goodness. We made them to give with our gifts to our extended family members.

Francis was very resourceful and made an igloo out of a milk carton.

VDV Four Advent Day 18: You've Been Jingled

This is another favourite of mine from last year, and it is the last giving day we had planned in our Advent activity list. We chose 3 neighbours (we made sure they were different from last year) and gave them a mini gift bag. We stuffed the bags with Bug's custom made Christmas card (drawn pictures that I collaborated into one in photoshop), some hot chocolate, some Christmas goodies and of course some candy canes. I also made a Christmas tree ornament that says "You've Been Jingled 2013" so our recipient has something they can bring out every holiday season to remember this random act of kindness. Bug and Bear helped stuff the bags and I put a little label with a rhyming verse to say what this is for. Then we went out on a trek through the large amounts of snow our neighbourhood got this winter and left our surprise hanging from their mailbox or door knobs.

Francis was incognito this morning, dressed as a big, white snowman.

VDV Four Advent Day 17: Making Beaded Candy Canes

This day was a special day, as my sister was in town so the boys got to have some Advent fun with their Auntie. Today's craft was something I brought back from my childhood, making pipecleaner and pony bead candy canes. It was a great activity for the boys to work on their fine motor skills, and even Bear had quite a bit of interest in it. After we made all our candy canes, I put some ribbon up in our hallway opening from the living room, and hung them to display (but not before Auntie and Bug dangled them from their hats).

I thought this morning, Francis was super clever taking the burden off of Atlas and caring the world on his shoulders for the day.

VDV Four Advent Day 16: Snowman Hot Chocolate Bath

This activity is one we brought back from last year. I took mini marshmallows and painted little snowman faces on them with black and orange food colouring paste. We filled our cups with hot chocolate and I gave the snowman marshmallows to Bug and Daddy VDV to give them a hot chocolate bath (I put Bear's in for him). We took our Christmas straws and then drank the delicious chocolate-y goodness, laughing at the melting, running snowman faces. This was a hit, once again!

Francis was found this morning just getting out of the shower.

VDV Four Advent Day 15: Ring and Run

This advent day was another one of our giving days. I got Bug to choose a house in our neighbourhood, where we would leave a Christmas gift hamper at their doorstep. The house he chose was a neighbour of ours that had this huge Frankenstein in their yard for Halloween. He loved it and it's so amazing to witness the growing memory of my 4 year old.

In our Christmas surprise, we gave a handful of items to bring this family some holiday cheer. This family had children, so we gave them some fun holiday crafts (only seemed fitting since we are a crafty family). We purchased a Christmas movie (gave them a gift receipt, just in case) and some boxed popcorn, so they could have an indoor family night (another one of our favourite cuddling activities...and the VDV Four LOVES popcorn). Some hot chocolate mix with Christmas swirly straws (that's how we drink our hot chocolate during the holidays) was also in the bag. We gave them a gift card to Safeway to help with their Christmas dinner. We also provided some wrapping paper and tape, because you always seem to run out of those right at the end. And the last item was a jar full of Hershey kisses (in Christmas colours). We made it a bit cheesy by adding a little label on the jar that said Merry "Kiss"mas (it's truly the small things that make me giggle). Once we had everything in the bag, Bug made a cute little Christmas tree card. We provided a letter, just explaining what it was for and the traditions of our family that we wanted to share with them. Then we went to their house, and Bug rang the doorbell...and we ran away! Haha...Bug's favourite part.

Another giving activity that I really enjoyed. Bug loves giving gifts, and the "Ring and Run" concept was so silly for him. Then a few days later, to make this even more meaningful and completely worth it, I saw this sign on their yard on my way to work.

It says: "thanks to the secret Christmas Elves. May God's light shine on your lives". It brought tears to my eyes...and still makes me a bit misty typing this. I love how they went out of their way to show their appreciation and Bug got to see the joy from our giving. I'd say learning mission accomplished.

Francis was found this morning decorating our window with Christmas bows.

VDV Four Advent Day 14: Baking Christmas Cookies

We cracked out Bug's helping baking apron for this advent activity day, and made some delicious peppermint meltaway cookies. You can find the recipe here. I love how my little man absolutely enjoys helping me bake. I think he's more into eating the cookie dough but he shows lots of enthusiasm with the measuring of the ingredients. It's always a fun activity for us to participate it in.

Once again, Bear enjoys the eating...this kid can pack away the food. His metabolism is very much like Daddy VDV's.

Bug left out some Lego overnight, so Francis was found this morning crammed into a Lego house.