Thursday, December 6

'tis the season


tuesday was a special day at our house.
december 4th is the
International Day of Root Beer
and we live it up!
the past couple years we have had a sampling of different root beers to test and decide which ones are our favorites, which ones are "too spicy", which ones have the best caramel flavor, etc. 
of course, we always go back to the best: 
publix brand root beer. 
its our fave.
hope all of you celebrated this great holiday!

delayna requested a few pictures of our christmas decorations and reluctantly i have obliged. i say reluctantly because most every decoration is either broken or covered in peanut butter or boogers. but that is how we roll right now.

jack is getting pretty darn good at making snow flakes. we saved all of the ones from last year and have added a few more this year. i love doing this with them and its one of those messes that they dont mind sweeping up, so its a win-win. 
our walls are covered in flakes and we try to pretend its chilly outside.



our advent is pretty simple. 
i like to keep gifts out of it because we try to help the kids remember its not just about getting things this time of year. so instead we have scriptures on the back of each day that tell the story of christ's birth found in Luke.


grandma janie made the most beautiful christmas quilt for us! her talents never cease to amaze us. one person gets to sleep with the quilt and the next day, that person must do a service for another family member then put the quilt on that person's bed. the kids have loved doing this so far and are trying not to be too sad when they dont get to sleep with it. i dont blame them, its SO soft!


we have tried to make the theme of our month all about service. each morning i remind the kids to look for something they can do for someone else at school and of course at home too. then after we read scriptures in the evening, we go around the family and each member tells a service or two that they have done through out the day. hopefully it will help us keep our focus this month.

and skippy is back!
although he seems to keep forgetting to fly to the north pole at night because he remains in the same spot each morning. oops! luckily he remembers while the kids are at school each day :)



and charlie likes to eat chex cereal.

6 comments:

Steve and Donna said...

amazing- of course you know A & W is our favorite....

Kandie said...

Man Charlie looks so much like Jack, and WOW your one nephew standing next to Jack in your group shot looks like Charlie in 10 years or so. Crazy how big that little guy has gotten. I didn't even recognize Jack with all that hair. Is he still trying to grow it out to have a "cool" teenager side comb over. :) We miss you guys and are so excited you get a temple out there. AWESOME!!

Carolina said...

There is a DAY set aside for root beer?!?! How did I not know about this? Sounds awesome, and I totally want to adopt your tradition.

You are such a good mom. I was thinking earlier this week how Sophie thinks christmas is all about santa and what presents she's going to get. Ugh. I did finally find a Nativity Story advent that we have been reading every day (and watching the bible videos on lds.org - highly recommend!! )- but I definitely don't think she is really getting the big picture. Anyway, you are inspiring! Good job mom!!

Charlie - I love to eat cheerios. Every day.

melissa said...

That is such a good idea! I can't believe I missed an excuse to have rootbeer. Our elf is named Jack and he does the same thing Skippy does :)

Chelsey Wilson said...

We love root beer too! Our favorite is Henry Weinhards. Where do you get Publix?

Rachael Garner said...

Such WONDERFUL family traditions!! Some great ideas I may officially steal. Such a great family :)