Advent Week 2

Advent fun continued in spite of the ice storm - so glad I bought that gingerbread house ahead of time.  This was our third year to decorate a gingerbread house.  They're kind of a pain in the toosh, but Sam loves doing it every year and they do make a cool table centerpiece.  

Thanks to Brian for snapping some pics of me and the kids.  You did a good job.

Mommy was crafted-out the next day, so a couple rounds of Christmas Memory it was!  

I must say, Sam's pretty good.

Needing more indoor activities for this last and final day of being stuck inside, I designated this our day to make peppermint play-doh.  But having not been to the store in five days, I had not had the chance to pick up one important play-doh making ingredient - cream of tartar.  Our awesome neighbor Joyce came to the rescue

and

brought over three movies, some candy and some popcorn.  She knew just what we needed to get through the day.

Finally our day to venture outside arrived!  It was flu-mist day!  What a way to start getting back to normal.  Brian had been thoughful enough to get the ice off of my windshield after the storm stopped the second day, but neither one of us realized what five days of sitting in the cold would do to my roof and front hood.  We knew it was ice - at least three inches of it - but not how solid and compacted it would be.  It took me twenty minutes to chop it all off and brush it away, but after that it was smooth-sailing.

The roads were pretty good all the way to the doctor's office and on down to the Galleria Dallas, where we spent the rest of the afternoon, rewarding ourselves for surviving the ice storm and our flu shots.  That is one BIG tree they've got there.  This was the first time we'd visited the Galleria that the ice skating didn't look fun to me.  I'd seen enough ice at this point.  Sam thought the tree was so cool and Evie was just happy to be out of the house!

Sam's preschool put on a Christmas pagent again this year.  Sam was chosen to be one of the shepard boys and he did a fantastic job.  Brian and I had to hang out by the door in the back, so I was only able to get a shot of him on the screen, but as you can see he was pretty darn cute as he sang every word to every song.  

After an exciting couple of days we needed something low-key.  It was still cold outside which made it the perfect day for a story.  I had worked on these felt board pieces for the past week while Brian and I watched tv at night.  I found the perfect nativity story online that was written as a rebus.  Sam and I were able to read the story together - I read the words and he filled in the words for the rebus pictures.  Perfect!

Gram and Pops had been promising Sam a sleepover for a long time and this ended up being the perfect weekend for it.  Brian and I wanted to go out for a belated anniversary dinner, so Gram and Pops watched Sam and Evie while we ate and then Sam got to stay the night and Brian and I took Evie home.  She and I had a girls' day the next day and it was very relaxing!