Cultivating Childhood

We are so blessed to have my family here for Christmas this year.  It's been an eventful Christmas, but with just eight of us, it feels much quieter of a year.  It's been nice.  We've been able to focus on what is really important.  Jesus has been more at the center with time for daily readings and conversations about Christmas is all about. Christmas Day was pretty quiet as well.  Grandma and Papa have been staying at a nearby hotel, so before they came over to our house, the boys opened their gifts from their other set of grandparents.  They loved their gifts. Button got a Saxoflute Buddy got Gears!  When Grandma and Papa Broach came, we read the Christmas story together and sang some carols. Then, it was time for stockings and more presents. Buddy got a bike for his "Gold" present from us And Button got a balance bike The next day, we took advantage of the non-rainy weather and headed out to Green Lake.  I brought my new binoculars in hop

Early Christmas present from Grandma and Papa H Christmas is over, and this mama is pretty far behind on her blog posting.  A lot has been going on which means a lot still needs to be shared.  Advent was a lot of fun this year.  We did a lot of crafts as Buddy has been asking to do a craft almost every day.  He's recently discovered the use of scissors, and has been enjoying his newfound skill.  It's funny, though... when I used to try to do daily crafts a year ago with him, he wasn't so interested.  Now, he'd love that!  Mama just needs more time to plan!  We did manage to do a few though which Buddy really enjoyed. Handprint Ornaments The first one we did was making handprint ornaments as Christmas presents for their grandparents.  Once again, I found a tutorial for making salt dough ornaments on Pinterest.  We had used craft store clay before, but I thought it would be fun to make them completely from scratch with the kids. The boys helped with the prepping.