Getting in the Christmas Spirit!

We have been getting in the Christmas spirit around here, from putting up our own tree, to wrapping presents, to putting up a few decorations and other fun things. On Sunday the 27th of November, we had wanted to go see the lights in downtown Caldwell because they have a beautiful display but we didn't end up having time. Since we didn't make it to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony for Nampa the day before, we decided to drive over and look. The boys stayed in the car while the rest of us got out to go walk up to the tree. There were a few Angel Tree tags for the Salvation Army on the tree so we grabbed one for our family to do. We didn't stay long though because it started raining on us.

Charlotte having fun with our Christmas dog.

And then Alice doing the same with one of our snowmen.

I got out the Christmas coloring book we bought last week and Alice started coloring. She looked so cute sitting up on the counter while coloring.

We had a couple of sick kids last week. Jack was getting a sore throat but didn't tell me about it until Wednesday morning. He went to school that day but called about an hour later because he didn't feel good. Since we had been around Stillman's family who some had strep throat, I decided to take him straight to Quick Care at Saltzer and get tested. It came back negative for strep. I took him home to rest the remainder of the day. His main complaint was the sore throat. He didn't have a fever or headache and only a little bit of cough and runny nose. He felt good enough to go to school the next morning, which is good because he had a jazz band field trip to go on and I had signed up to chaperone. I almost thought I was going to have to cancel chaperoning though because Charlotte stayed home with a headache and a little bit of cough. I was able to call Curtis and have him come home to be with her so I could volunteer. 

By the end of that day Charlotte was feeling pretty good and since she never had a fever or threw up, I let her go to activity days that night. They made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, which is the way I made it when I was a kid. She had fun and I'm glad she was able to go.

The next morning we weren't sure she was going to go to school but she didn't have a fever, just a cough. Because she felt so good by the afternoon yesterday I talked her in to going that day. She barely made it in time for the bus. She took a mask with her though to wear if she did start coughing, and she did use it. Over the weekend we started using the nebulizer or "breathing machine" with Albuterol. It's amazing how well that stuff helps with their coughs. Alice used it the week of Thanksgiving also.

Saturday morning Charlotte really wanted me to teach her how to sew a bean bag or a pillow with the sewing machine. She had to patiently wait for me all day because I had planned to go to Costco already and we had all slept in. Before I left though, I told her to move the sewing machine out to the kitchen table and pick out fabric from my bucket and have everything ready for when I got back. Since we didn't have any dry beans we decided to make a pillow. She found some red material and had it out on the table. She was so excited to be able to use the sewing machine. She has asked for a small sewing machine for Christmas and I told her she could use mine. It was a lot of fun helping her.

We last minute decided to add some decoration on the outside of the pillow, so she designed a tree out of felt I already had. I helped her with some of the stitching on the tree but she did most of it.

She is so proud of her pillow and I think she did a great job! She couldn't decide whether to keep it or give it away but I think she ended up giving it to Garrett but then it ended up with Jack.

Last year when we had been shopping at Costco, Charlotte saw some red Christmas dresses with soft white vests on them. I didn't buy the girls dresses last year but she really wanted one this year, red dress with white vest. They didn't have the exact same thing. The only dresses that had a white vest, were also white dresses with some glittering light pink on them, so I bought both of the girls one. Charlotte says she likes it but that she would still like to find a red dress to wear with the white vest. I told her it would have to be from a thrift store this time because brand new dresses are expensive so we'll see if we can find one. The girls wore their dresses to church on Sunday. They liked them but we have decided that we will never buy a glitter dress again. The glitter gets everywhere! It was bugging them and me. Oh well! They were still beautiful!

I also discovered that I need to get the girls some nice boots to wear to church with their dresses. We were not prepared for the snow that fell that morning! The boys all wore a Christmas tie from Curtis's collection and I wanted a picture of them but we didn't have time before church and then we forgot afterwards. Maybe next week I'll get them.

Another thing we picked up at Costco was a gingerbread mansion. It was nice because the mansion was already built. We just had to decorate it. And then of course, eat it! We did this activity after watching the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional on Sunday. I ate too much gingerbread!

Jack was enjoying the leftover frosting a little too much 😂

Yesterday was Curtis's birthday but he doesn't like having the attention on him so he wants to wait to celebrate it with Alice so that she'll get most of the attention. Charlotte had me pick up some Snickers bars for Curtis as a gift from her and Jack went to the store with me and picked out a game called Dos, which is similar to Uno. We also grabbed him a diet Coke. Those were the only things we gave him yesterday. I did make him a nice dinner of creamy white chili and home made artisan bread and both turned out great! We had planned to make Christmas cookies as our FHE activity yesterday but I got started on dinner late, so we didn't have time. Instead, we played a game. We tried the new Dos game but it seemed more complicated than we thought and since it was late, we opted for Uno instead since we already knew how to play that one. We played a few rounds and then had to go to bed. I love that we have done so many Christmas activities already and December has just started!