beginning advent 2011

the boys are loving the christmas season.

matthew and i are enjoying sitting back and watching the joy in their eyes. it's just as i remember it as a child. 

we started our advent boxes a little early this year as to finish all 25 before we leave for our christmas travels. the first box revealed that we would be reading the story of when God placed the star in the sky to lead the shepherds and wisemen to Jesus. along with this we would put our star on top of the tree and decorate it. 

it was tuck's year to put the star on and he did an excellent job trying. more so, matthew did an excellent job balancing both boys to take part in this.

and oh my word! they LOVED decorating the tree!!! they would have stayed up all night. in fact, tucker couldn't go to sleep he was so excited about it. he kept coming downstairs just to sit on the couch and look at it. he would say, "ooo! i put the star on top and decorated the tree. it's so pretty!" we couldn't resist letting him stay up just to look at the pretty tree. 

it's fun to hear grey ask about specific things he found in our boxes last year. he remembers! and is looking forward to each day. and oh that tuck man. he is thrilled with anything we do together.

all of our boxes are different. some boxes reveal bigger, more involved things than others. some are very very simple. the other morning we read the entire nativity story as a family and used our little people nativity to act it out.  the boys really liked this. they added some other props to the story but nonetheless, they enjoyed it! i'm sure there were dump trucks, alligators, cranes, and excavators at the manger.

here's a few other favorite snapshots from the past couple of weeks. matthew remembers making box cars when he was a little boy. and now i know why! they played in this thing for a good long while. will even got in on the action and had a blast!

marmie and poppie were here this weekend for our christmas fun! that's another post.