Adventures in Advent

We've had many Advent Activities so far this Season, but I think perhaps this has been my favorite so far...  Watching "The Nativity Story".  Have you seen it?  We watched it last year with the kids and thought it was so excellent we decided to make it an Advent Tradition.  Last year, I was so speechless over watching Joseph race through the streets of Bethlehem searching for a room for his soon-to-be-delivered wife.  He's so frantic and desperate and I just think that HAS to be the way he felt!  THIS year, I was overwhelmed by the Shepherds.  I love how God chose someone so humble to celebrate his Son's birth FIRST.  Just regular, working class guys.  Anyways, the movie is really well done, and my kids LOVED watching it again.  We did too!

Other activities that have made their way into our schedule.... Dinner at Chipotle, who sponsors the kids swim team.  Making a Christmas craft (yeah, no photo of that, but they were cute jingle bell necklaces), the Christmas Concert our church choir performed (oh yes, Mama's in the choir again!!), Happy Hour at Sonic, Munchkin donuts hiding in the microwave for breakfast...

Of course, we HAD to have a night of watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Specials... Who doesn't love Sally telling her brother, "I'm supposed to say, 'HARK!', and then Harold Angel sings."  and she ends up saying, "Hockey Sticks!"  Love it!! We warned Carly not to make that same mistake when she did her part in their Christmas Show!!

Visiting "The Lights" at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  They are so impressive and we stepped back in a RARE quiet corner and watched them dance to the music QUIETLY, taking a moment to SLOW DOWN.  That was really nice for us!

The performance of Back to the Manger... perhaps I should insert the video's here... Ben and Carly did GREAT!  Well, truth be told, ALL the kids did GREAT!  Ryan got them all singing GREAT, and our friend Debbie did a fantastic job with the drama part.

Carly had a pretty big part in the show with lots of lines and her solo.  She really did great remembering all her parts (and everyone else's too!!) She worked really hard, practicing every day!

(RATS!  Can't get Ben's to upload... it's too long!!)

It's on my facebook page, though!

Anyone who knows Ben, knows how very impressive it is that he was willing and able to get up in front of everyone and sing and dance!  We were so proud of him, we know it's a little harder for him than for Carly.  Imagine that, both our kids are little singers!  HA!

We attended the Christmas program at my parents church and loved it!  It was so nice to spend time with them.... we have been so busy with the kids being older and in school and our busy schedules that we haven't seen them as much as I would like.  I do miss the days of Ben and Carly being too little for school and the time we spent hanging out at Grammy and Papoo's house! 
We also had dinner with Aunt Rochel and Uncle Edgar and small children...

HELLO LEAH!  Welcome to Auntie's Blog!  I thought this picture was funny... ask Ryan to hold the baby and when he's done playing with her she gets to sit BESIDE him.  Funny.  The flash on my cell phone make her close her eyes:)  She's actually really smiley with the cutest Circle Head.  (Thanks, Carly!) Anyways, while we were there, there were funny moments that involved the newly written "J song".  Apparently Eli think's candy canes are "J's" and his cousins were happy to oblige him with silly dancing and singing "J" over and over.  Who says 11, 9 and 2 year olds can't play together and have a fantastic time?!?!

Let's see... Tree trimming, Christmas Party with our friends, Game Night, Driving around and looking at Christmas Lights... We've had a fun, not-so-busy-BUSY Advent Season.... so far! 

The Main Attraction of the Advent Season arrives tomorrow.   Oh, you'll be hearing PLENTY about her, I'm sure!!