building holiday cheer

these past few weeks have been so full. full of parties, making things, making lists, celebrating life inside the walls of our house and building the excitement of the season. preparing for christmas has been a big part of our days, but so has pure celebrating through our advent tree's daily gifts.

one day our fortune was to finger paint. this is something that bee craves every time the paint is out, and sadly, i discourage it. it's just usually a bad time... we're off to school soon, i am in the middle of cleaning, etc. so, i figured that it would be a welcome treat. what i didn't figure was that henny could do it too! he was sweetly tentative, but still loved it. what a sight for me to see my two kids painting next to each other.

another day the advent calendar told us to bake cookies for the neighbors. this coincided with the first big storm of the season. bee and i trudged up and down the street, dodging ice patches, and spreading good cheer.
this activity was another that really exceeded my expectations. all of the neighbors who we encountered were so amazingly grateful. they invited us in, showed bee the christmas decorations, thanked us profusely and complimented our good deed. it was such a positive experience for me and for bee. i got so much out if it, as a pure act of giving. i am so grateful that bee probably got the same things out of it. 
we have also had super fun fortunes, that just create opportunities for family fun. things like, painting each other's nails.....
or building a block tower (or block city) with all of the blocks in the house (A LOT!).....
much of our time has also been filled with coordinating a big adopt-a-family effort. we have participated in this program for about 5 years now. we share the responsibility with a bunch of family members, but we do all of the organizing and delivering. it's quite the effort in the end, but so rewarding. seeing all of those boxes packed up, and imaging those gifts being opened on christmas, well, it's really more than i can take. i just feel happy that we are so blessed to be able to help, even in this small way.

and then there is the christmas card. we sent our card to over 60 families this year (a record). the act of writing out the cards and mailing them out is small compared to trying to get a good picture to use. 

some of the out takes.....

and finally, a winner.....