This is one of our favorite annual events. This year Ayla was old enough to be a volunteer and Evren did as many crafts as he could in 2 hours. Great way to spend a weekend morning!
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Link: Family Art Day photos on flickr
Advent Calendar Day 24: Put reindeer food on the lawn, cookies out for Santa, and open 1 Christmas Eve gift
The kids put the reindeer food outside but forgot to put cookies out for Santa. Luckily, I remembered and put some out for him before I went to bed. And, per tradition, the kids get to open one gift on Christmas Eve.
Evren got slippers (coincidentally, they are exactly like his Grandpa’s).
…and Ayla got a nice set of pajamas. Appropriate for lounging in all day long.
Advent Calendar Day 21: Go see the trains at Northpark
We took the family – Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Dave got to come too! The kids had seen the display before but this was our first time to see it. Really cool.
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Advent Calendar Day 17: Go out for a big breakfast
Mission accomplished!
Advent Calendar Day 13: Buy small presents for the pets
The kids always want to buy gifts for the pets and I never really do. What do they care? is my question. But Ayla and Evren think it’s fun and … ok, I had a coupon for the pet store. You know that’s the real reason I agreed.
So, after we were done playing with all the cute cats, we got down to business.
The kids picked out some catnip, cat toys and a laser for Cupcake & Pepper and some treats and a stuffed squeaky hedgehog for Nala.
We came home, dumped our bags on the kitchen counter, and watched a little tv before bedtime. About 15 minutes later we heard some conspicuous noises coming from the kitchen and discovered that Cupcake had fished the catnip container out of the grocery bag, tossed it to the floor, and was rubbing her body all over it … the closed container.
So, yea, I think we picked out a good gift.
Advent Calendar Day 12: Light the fire, roast marshmallows, and make s’mores
Background: We haven’t lit the fireplace in years. I lent the fireplace key to someone and never got it back so we couldn’t even turn it on, and then one day I apparently felt it was too filthy and cleaned the entire thing out, vacuumed, everything so it was nice and clean, except for the logs. Well… I had no idea that all those rocks and nasty bits in the bottom were there for a reason. So… I googled and youtubed it… found a website online that would sell me things like silica sand, glowing embers, vermiculite and lava rocks… bought a new key at Home Depot… and after fussing with it on three different nights (dirty!!) I finally got it working!
First item of business? S’mores!
Evren gladly did the marshmallow roasting because his sister wasn’t feeling well. You know she’s not faking when she can only eat ONE s’mores. Poor thing!
Bored on the weekend? Craving adventure? In the mood for something exotic?
Go to the Asian World Market on a Saturday. You will not be disappointed.
We went looking for cinnamon sticks and cloves in bulk, which we found. Evren wanted some dragon fruit, which we couldn’t find (out of season?) and Ayla wanted some dried seaweed to snack on (no I’m not kidding), which we did find. In fact, there was an entire aisle of seaweed – so that was fun, trying to figure out what flavor was what. We also bought ramune and bags of pumpkin seeds.
Out of the mouth of the child buying seaweed… OH. MY. GOD. MOM! MOM! Did you see what that lady had in her cart?! A. FISH. HEAD. Just a fish head, wrapped up. Gross!
Advent Calendar Day 9: Go to Santa’s Village
Evren bundled up in front of Santa’s Pet Shop.
Santa’s Village is an annual tradition for us. It’s always freezing and there are always a million people, but seeing all the lights …it really starts to feel like Christmas.
More photos posted on flickr.
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