Counting Down to Christmas

We have had a fun December counting down until Christmas. We have taken a bit of a break from school and tried not to do too much. We have been doing our Christmas Book Advent, as well as chocolate advent calendars or “chocolate doors” as the girls call them. We have done a few of our traditions like decorating a gingerbread house, making sugar cookies, visiting Temple Square, visiting Christmas village and visiting Santa. So after writing all that I guess we have done a lot! The air has been pretty bad, so we haven’t had many outside adventures. We have been reading a ton of books and I’ve been introducing the girls to all the Christmas movies of my childhood, plus Belle’s Christmas movie which Adele makes sure we watch as often as possible :) The girls have been so excited for Christmas. Adele asked Santa for an apron like Belle and a locket and Esther has asked for walkie-talkies and a pogo stick? (She just threw out the pogo stick idea yesterday so hopefully she’ll be happy with just the walkie-talkies and the other gifts.)  Israel is just happy to be a part of it all (except for siting on Santa’s lap which he was not a fan of).  We worked all month memorizing these scriptures and the girls did so well. I’m so impressed by their memorization skills. It’s kind of a lost art but I love doing memory work with them.

Israel’s cousin Noah comforting him when his mom was babysitting our kids. :)

Esther is always doing crafts. This one was an adorable little toy she made for the cats. 

Adele has been obsessed with polar bears. She has been sad that she doesn’t have a toy polar bear so I drew her this one and she named it StellaLuna and took it everywhere for a few days. 

When your mom botches your haircut. Sorry Buddy. 

A pretty sunrise picture Esther took on the morning of the winter solstice.