December so far

Brian has been enjoying the holiday preschool class. They made Christmas trees and decorated them. Here they all are with their masterpieces. I love these four kids!

Practicing the letter R and T for Reindeer and Tree. I love watching him trace letters and I save all of his worksheets for his own binder.

I have been doing a advent calendar for Brian since the first of the month. Each morning we open a mason jar with the date and he sings " On the 1st day of Christmas....." I filled it with one piece of candy, two ornaments he gets to hang on his own tree in his room, a scripture and the Christmas activity we will be doing that day. He loves and asks for it first thing every morning. We also wrapped up 24 Christmas books and put them under the tree and he unwraps one and reads it every night before bed.

He has been putting our piano we got to good use. Lots of time he will start banging on the keys and he will ask me to play or teach him one of his favorite nursery rhymes. He can "play" 3 blind mice and will often say "Mom, when I play the high notes you smile, when I play the low ones be sad." I tell him if he keeps playing, at age 5, he will be able to take lessons. 

I made some play dough and Brian had a play date. These two boys love play dough.

I have been hiding the Baby Jesus from the nativity and having him find it every morning. Brian triumphantly returns it to the stable every time.

I told Brian that if he finished 2 pages in his letter workbooks, that he could help me make some Christmas cookies for a cookies swap that I was going to that night. I gave him the task to unwrap the Hershey kisses and then count out 12. This is what I turned around to see. He was quite proud of himself.

This is why I love this time of year....

Brian watching our towns little Christmas parade. He really liked it.

Our family host a Christmas party every year and we ask that each guest bring a kids bike to donate to Toys for Tots. This year we gave away 16 bikes and 1 scooter. Santa comes on the fire truck and we help load it on his truck. Andy commented that it is one of his favorite days of the year. 

My little Lumberjack hard at work. I love it when he makes that face.

Trying to teach the little one about the true meaning of Christmas and this is what he does. I sure do love and appreciate how much joy he brings at this time of year.