looking like Christmas

This is what we have been busy with this past weekend...

Putting up with tree, with a great deal of help from the two older kids.

A little late in the game, but we decided last year to start getting a special ornament for each of them each year. J was happy to see his car, and E to see her little puppy, that they had picked out at Target last year!

The sight of the presents under the tree is driving Miss E slightly insane though. She CANNOT resist their siren call. Yesterday morning, J tattled on her - she was quietly peeling the wrapper off a little present. I decided that we needed a distraction, and so was obsessed with finding an Advent calendar all day yesterday.

It was not to be, so I decided to make my own.

The kids will get to open up a little package each day - and will each receive a small treat. I've written down a bible verse in each little packet that, all together, tells the story of Jesus' birth. I have grand plans that we'll read it together just before they enjoy their treats - we'll have to see how that goes.

My last project - our family wall.

The idea was conceived while we were still in Claremont: partly executed there, when I bought the prints off Etsy (two of the prints read: love lives here and you are my sunshine). And then finished off with our photos earlier this month. It's taken me almost a month to get them printed, find mattes for them, framed, and then arranged on the wall.
And there's still room for photos to be put around what we have now.

I am off to lie down now.