Advent 2011 Day 23 - Decorating Soldier Treat Bags

Today the kids decorated the little bags we used to stuff full of treats for some of the single soldiers over here that we know. Faithy covered them in stickers....

I forgot to take a picture of them once they were finished! But after we filled them, Joy finished off the decorating with ribbons and candy canes. They turned out cute and the soldiers seemed to really appreciate the goodies! Another family we are good friends with helped us to fill them with yummy things they baked as well!

Advent 2011 Day 21 - Candy Poppers

A couple of weeks ago we had a friend of our show us how to make these candy poppers in our homeschool co-op class. We thought they were so cute and fun that we'd add them to our soldier goody bags we are making up to hand out Christmas Eve. Daddy did most of this one tonight and they turned out so great!

We just used construction paper, rolled it up like a tube and put candy inside, then wrapped it with tissue paper and tied ribbons on the end. 

I'm so thankful I've got so many helpers to do these things with me!  :)

Advent Days 19 & 20 - Marriage Retreat!

We had the awesome opportunity to go on an all expenses paid marriage retreat this week! It was so nice to getaway for a couple of days and get to spend 2 nights in the Dragon Hill Lodge.  :) Staying in a hotel is always nice...and fun for the kids! And then to not have to cook or pay for meals for the 6 of us on top of that...made for a great break from the daily 'to do' list for this Mama.  :)

The kids had fun classes with activities to do while we were in the sessions, but there was a lot of family free time and we enjoyed a bit of Seoul, went for a nice walk and took in the sights of all the pretty Christmas decorations. 

The kids just loved the hotel, there were so many decorations and lights everywhere. At one point the kids asked if we could count all of the Santa's that were there because we saw so many...

We counted 17!! Just in the lobby and the rest of the first floor hall decor of the shops and restaurants. Now we love St. Nick in our house and enjoy our Santa storybooks but both Joy and Joshua talked about how they were surprised there were 17 Santa's and only 1 tiny baby Jesus that we saw the whole time we were there...and He wasn't even a decoration of the hotel, it was in a nativity set being sold at the gift shop. I told the kids that most public places don't use Jesus as a part of their Christmas decorations anymore because it's offensive to people. To which they replied, "What!? Why!? It's HIS birthday we're celebrating anyway!?"....I'm praying they'll never forget that and will always remember the true meaning of Christmas. :)

We got to stay 2 nights in the hotel and woke up our last morning there to a beautiful view...

We have hardly had any snow here in our part of S.Korea, so even this tiny 'powdered sugar' looking dusting on everything was exciting and beautiful to us! :) It was a wonderful few days away but we are happy to be back home and in our own beds tonight and very excited that Christmas is almost here! :)

Advent 2011 Day 18 - Christmas Stories

Tonight we read several of of our Christmas books together, one of MY favorite things to do! I'm really missing all of our Christmas books that are in storage while we're living overseas, but we collect a few new ones last year to enjoy while we're here in Korea. I'm thankful that my kiddos are always up for some story time. Daddy snapped a picture of me and the girls after we were done reading....the boys were already off and playing by the time we got the camera out.  :)

Advent Day 17 - A Christmas Family Movie Night

Tonight we had a Christmas movie night and watched one of our favorites...How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The kids were so excited to see it again! :)

Advent 2011 Day 16 - Fingerprint Christmas Tree Cards

It's another crafty project...We are making goody bags for some of the single soldiers we know here and the kids have been making some different fun Christmas cards to go in them. The kids love playing with the stamps and ink pads, so I told them we'd try to make some Christmas trees with our fingerprints...

I was thinking we'd do something like this....

But the kids had fun making their own style of pretty fingerprint pictures!  :)

They turned out cute and colorful and will be a great addition to the bags.  :)

Samuel loved playing in the stamps and ink pads too!

Advent 2011 Day 15 - Army Family Christmas Party

Tonight was our Battalion Christmas party... the highlight was definitely getting to talk to Santa. We've had a lot of talks about 'Santa' in our house and read the stories of the real St. Nick...but we all think that our Army Santa was pretty cool this year and the kids were excited to get to visit with him for a bit.  :)

There was a craft table at the party and Joy and Joshua both made Santa cards before we went over to see him.  :)

She's thinking about what she wants for Christmas....  :)

Didn't get a very clear one of Faith and Santa, but she enjoyed talking to him too!

Advent 2011 Day 14 - Snowman Pancakes

Tonight was our last night of Awana until January so we had a quick activity since our evening was going to be a busy one. We ate snowman pancakes and had breakfast for dinner!

We were going to use chocolate chips for the face and buttons, but somehow I was out of chocolate chips! So we used candy...I know, not the most nutritious addition to an already sugar filled meal, but it was fun. :) And Samuel was especially excited about the "M&M's"! He kept telling everyone that he had them.

Advent 2011 Day 13 - Angel Tree Delivery

Today we had the awesome opportunity to go help deliver the Angel Tree gifts from Peter's unit to the Korean kids. We loved it! And the kids are already asking when we can go back and play with them.  :)

It's a Korean thing to make the 'peace' sign when getting their picture taken...It always makes us laugh a little, but they all do it, the young and the old, LOL! :)

They were very taken with Samuel and the other blonde haired kids...

We got to share a snack and played with them for awhile before giving them their gifts.

I was so amazing at how cross cultural 'play' is. We couldn't speak their language and they couldn't speak ours, and yet all the kids had a wonderful time together and were sad to have to leave their new friends when we had to go. 

Joshua taught one the boys how to play "thumb war"....there was a lot of this and arm wrestling going on!

Joy was dancing with several of the kids.  :)

One of the girls that Joy played with most of the time we were there cried when we left...  :(

And this little boy followed us all the way out to our car and was jumping and waving and saying "thank you"...one of the few english words he knew... till we were gone. 

It was such a great experience for all of us and the kids are already talking about what we can do for them for next year.  :) God is good.

Advent 2011 Day 12 - Candy Cane Christmas Mice!

Our advent activity tonight was to make some Candy Cane Christmas Mice and hang them on our neighbor's doors after they were finished. I think they turned out SO cute! And they were super easy to make.  :)

We cut a 'mouse shaped' body out of green felt, then a long rectangle out of red felt, then we rounded off then ends of the rectangle. We cut a slit at the back end of the body and another one at the 'nose' and pushed the candy cane through from one end to the other. The curved part of the candy cane looks like the tail and the other end that just barely sticks out at the front makes the nose.  :)

Add some googly eyes and slide your red felt rounded rectangle through two slits you make on the top and make the 'ears' face forward and you're done! :)

We have 5 neighbors on our floor of our building so we made 5 mice. They all turned out so cute but are all so different looking!

We attached a Merry Christmas note to each one with a little gold thread and then set out to hang them on everyone's doors...

One of our neighbors has their door wrapped up pretty in wrapping paper and we didn't want our tape to rip it, so we just hung theirs on the wall outside their door...

But the rest of the mice looked like this on everyone's doors when we were finished.  :)  They were VERY fun and SO easy to make, so we are definitely going to make these again!