It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

This Christmas season has been so much fun already!  Both the kids are super excited and are really understanding what Christmas is all about this year (Ike told me it was Jesus' birthday yesterday then mentioned something about cake, haha!).

We have been getting into the spirit with lots of activities this past week!

The boys with our kindness moose.

Dave's figures he has gotten from his Lego advent calendar so far.









So, the kindness moose decided to cook up a project where we were supposed to make "bird seed ornaments" to hang outside for the birds.  Little did I know that the main component of these ornaments was actually rendered beef fat (suet).  Yuck!  It was a messy, disgusting project to say the least!!  Here's a video of Dave describing the project.







Dave's reaction.

I pretty much felt the same way  :)









So, we powered through and finished the ornaments, which involved having to bake them-because who doesn't love the smell of baked suet??  Did I mentioned it was cherry scented?  Then we attached the ribbon and hung them in the trees outside our windows.  And I figured they would all immediately fall off and that would be the end of it.  Well, I was wrong!








The birds love them!

This guy was really digging them.









Ike and I spent about a half hour watching different birds come up and have a snack this afternoon.  So, moral of the story-this project, while being completely disgusting, was totally worth it!

Ike helping make some cookies for staff on duty last weekend.  Here's a video I took of Ike the other day.









Tonight, Dave had his school Christmas program.  He got to portray Joseph and he did such a good job!  

He is so grown up!

Dave and his buddy Alec after the show.

Our outside lights this year-Josh even got on the roof to put up an extra layer!

I have been working on these button ornaments for lots of my family this past month.







Mine is made from my Grandma Ruby's and Grandma Colleen's buttons.  It was such a fun project to do and I really found it interesting to think about the clothes that went along with all of those buttons! (Those of you who got an ornament from Grandma Colleen's side will notice the lack of color in yours...I guess Grandma Colleen only saved tan, black, or white buttons!)  Also, I have lots of leftover buttons if anyone didn't get an ornament and wants one.

So, as you can see, we have kept pretty busy this week!  We are heading down to Evansville this weekend to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family.  The boys are so excited to see everyone!