VDV Four Advent Day 13: See Santa and Give 3 Gifts

This day was a special day. It was one of our giving days and I was looking forward to it since the start of our Advent fun. I really want to teach the boys about the joy in giving. So, sometime in November, I got Bug to pick out 3 of his favourite books. Then we purchased brand new ones and wrapped them for 3 special kids we would pick at the mall when we went to see Santa. In the morning when he opened his advent bag, we started talking about what we were going to do when we got to the mall. I told him that he got to pick 3 kids to give a gift to, so he had to be on the watch for the children once we were inside. The very first kid we saw, Bug loudly said "Mom! Look, it's a kid!" He was so excited to give a present...I was so very proud of him. The meaning of our day was quickly realized by Bug, and thoroughly enjoyed! The last little girl we gave a present to, came up to us shortly after with her Grampa to give Bug a hug. It was the sweetest thing ever. This Mommy VDV may have had a few tears in her eyes.

In each book, I wrote a letter explaining what the present was for. It said:

• Our family does an Advent activity every day from December 1st until December 24th to celebrate the holidays. Bug and Bear are 4.5 and 1.5 years old, and this year we have added more giving activities to help teach the boys that the holidays are much more than about receiving and that there is so much joy in giving. This year, one of our activities is what Bug has chosen you for. I gave him 3 presents he got to bring to the mall with him, and he chose you to give one of these gifts to. Bug loves getting read to, so this year we picked out three of his favourite books and bought a brand new one to give to you. We hope you enjoy them just as much as he does. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

I also got Bug to write a quick little note just to get some more practice with his writing.

In between our gift giving, the boys got to go sit with the jolly red man himself. I was worried about how Bear would do, as some days he plays strange. He may not have smiled, but at least he wasn't screaming!

Francis, this morning was found in an altercation with Spiderman.

VDV Four Advent Day 12: Skating

This Advent day is pretty self-explanatory from the title. We collaborated Bug's skating day with his class with his advent activity of the day. We invited the boys' Oma and Opa to join our fun and Bug used big boy skates for the very first time.

Bear is too young to skate, so we all switched off in getting some Bear cuddles!

But mostly, Bear was there for the food! haha.

After Bug was done with his skates, he wanted his boots back on so he could run around the ice with a hockey stick and puck. He enjoyed this part more, as he's pretty unsteady on his feet with his single blade skates (not the bobsled ones from last year). We had a lot of fun though...a great family outing.

This morning, Francis was found wrapped underneath our Christmas tree!

VDV Four Advent Day 11: Christmas Tree Waffles for Supper

Our household loves, loves, loves breakfast for supper. It is something that occurs most likely once a week, especially on one of the days that I work a night shift. This advent day was on my second night shift of my set, so when planning our list, I figured this would be a good day to incorporate our activity with supper. I have a waffle press, so we made green waffles, and I cut them into triangles to make Christmas tree waffles. Bug helped me prepare the waffle batter. I used a banana slice to cut a star, and raspberries for our ornaments. The boys loved this...and we all got to be like Bear and be there for the food. Poor Bear, most of our days were a bit too much for his activity level, but this one was perfect!

Francis found himself in a precarious situation in the morning...we still don't know who taped him to the wall.

VDV Four Advent Day 10: Water Gun Snow Painting

This was an activity that we brought back from last year's advent list as Bug just loved it!! I filled water guns with water and about 10 drops of food colouring, giving them a shake before we headed outside. Then I let Bug run wild down our sidewalk, spraying our banks of snow. This day was pretty cold, so I didn't put him into the snow banks as I knew we wouldn't be outside for long. But Bug made sure every drop of coloured water was out of the water guns before we were allowed back inside. He truly does love this one. Bear, unfortunately was a bit too young for this one so he was inside having a nice warm nap.

This morning, Francis was found wrestling our bathroom sink crocodile.

VDV Four Advent Day 9: Decorate Craft Tree by Rolling Dice

I found these cute little foam trees from Michael's and thought it would be cute for the boys to decorate them with little gems. I pulled out a single die, and got Bug to identify the number he rolled. Then Bug counted out the corresponding number of gems and he placed them on the foam tree (the gems came with adhesive stickers). Bear was interested in rolling the die, but obviously isn't quite there in his fine motor skills to work with the small gems. Bug helped Bear finish his foam tree. We will hang them in the house every Christmas now!

Francis was found resting with a cast after his trapeze act from the night before. Santa and some of his elf friends signed his cast too!

VDV Four Advent Day 8: colour Christmas Pictures

This day was one of my 12 hour day shifts, so I kept our advent activity to something pretty basic. I searched the internet for uncoloured Christmas images and printed them out for the boys to colour. Bear did well with his scribbling and was easily entertained by the markers, so I spent some time trying to teach Bug to colour inside the lines or to try and think about colouring the picture with different colours in different parts of the image. He did pretty well!

After the images were coloured, I started showing Bug how to draw certain animals or items. Since it's Christmas, it seemed logical to draw a Christmas tree. Also, it was only common sense to teach him how to draw a penguin as that's Mommy VDV's favourite animal.

Bear's favourite part of each day is the candy canes. Hehe.

Francis was found doing a trapeze act from a candy cane.

VDV Four Advent Day 7: Glitter Pinecones

This advent day was a craft activity, with the result being something I will bring out every year as a part of our Christmas decorations. Over the fall, I collected a bunch of the hard pine cones from a neighbouring house's lawn. We would walk by this house numerous times, either to grocery shop or take Bug to school; so I started picking up the really good ones that were close to the sidewalk. I didn't have a full purpose in mind at the time, I just knew we could do a craft with them one day. Then, during my planning phase for our advent activity list, I thought of glittering these pine cones and putting them on display in a glass jar for a center or mantel piece during the holidays. Every time there was a coupon at Michaels, I went and bought a bottle of glitter I wanted to use, and in the end purchased 3 different colours (green, red, and iridescent). I also purchased some mod podge. All of these items were bought with a 40% or 50% coupon and the glass jar I obtained from Dollarama for $2.00. Also from the dollar store, I bought some ziploc bags so we had a place to put our glitter.

I got Bug to help paint the mod podge onto the pine cones, and then we placed them into one of the glitter bags. Bear was able to help us out at this point by shaking the bag to get the pine cone fully glittered. The boys loved that part!

The finished product was so pretty!

Francis was found this morning building a house of cards!