Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2011

On Christmas Eve, we had a Christmas lunch at Auntie Mary's house.  The boys had a lot of fun hanging out and playing after lunch and opening presents (and also white elephant gifts).  Henry was pretty pooped out by the time we made it the family Christmas Eve Service at 5pm. He slept through most of it, but woke up toward the end.  I think he was pretty surprised when he woke up to a bunch of people singing Christmas songs around him.  Later, he commented that he didn't know any of the songs he heard! But then we told him that we already sang all the songs he knew while he was asleep!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/s9OIbZW4/1/5404435

"Day 23 and 24 Advent Activities 2011"

On the 23rd and 24th day of December, we decided that we're going to sing Christmas songs and bake a cake for Jesus' birthday the next day! To our surprise, Henry actually had an idea about what kind of cake Jesus would like...

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/lCDQQmrF/1/5403762

"Day 21 and 22 Advent Activities 2011"

We finally braved the mall with Henry and did some shopping that's not online or homemade :) Both of the activities on Day 21 and 22 are night time fun! We stayed out till pretty late and had a lot of fun! We had never been on the Santa Cruz holiday train before and we thought it would be fun if we go with Aidan and Evan too! It turned out to be a train ride full of different festive Christmas activities! It even snowed! The next night, we went to Vasona Park's Fantasy of Lights! Even though it was a long wait, we were prepared with snacks and Christmas music in the car.  Henry really loved seeing the beautiful light displays and he really wanted to get out of the car to see them more up close!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/PacUyHkY/1/5400519

"Day 20 Advent Activities 2011"

You've been STAR'D! Day 20's Advent activity is to made treats for people such as our neighbors.  Then, we attach a note with a little poem as well as instructions that told them to: 1. Enjoy your treats.  2. Keep your “Star” sign on your front door to remind you how loved you are! 3. Copy this note twice and make 2 plates of treats. 4. Deliver them to 2 friends who have not yet been Star’d.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/mY29dr1b/1/5399191

"Day 19 Advent Activities 2011"

This week is the last week of preschool this year.  So we're going to make a present and a card for Henry's teachers! Plus, more bonus craft activities!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/ZUXkBdw8/1/5397854

"Day 18 Advent Activities 2011"

Day 18 is the first Sunday of my Christmas break, so Henry got a special Christmas breakfast treat and we also got to do some bonus craft activties!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/90QO3TTR/1/5396142

"Day 17 Advent Activities 2011"

When I was looking around for fun activities to do when making the advent calendar, I stumbled upon a workshop being held at the Charles Schultz Museum to make a ginger break dog house! I'm so excited to have found this because we haven't been back to that museum for a long time and it'll be so much fun to go see it again with Henry! They have only one class for preschoolers on Saturday, Dec 17th and most of the time, their classes are only for school age kids, kindergarten and up.  It's so perfect!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/eGk3dZIo/1/5394925

"Day 16 Advent Activities 2011"

Even though we went to Global Winter Wonderland and saw some really cool (and professional) lights, we haven't had a chance to walk through neighborhoods to see some of the neat decorations and lights that other families put up yet.  We stumbled upon a really awesome house!!!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/g9fsjzl8/1/5393690

"Day 15 Advent Activities 2011"

Henry started to enjoy telling stories to us in the car while we're driving. So I thought it would be fun if we can make up a Christmasy story together on day 15!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/aH0w842N/1/5392657

"Day 14 Advent Activities 2011"

On Day 14, we had a Christmas Pajama party and Henry read Evan a Christmas book! Henry just woke up from a nap and he was in a cranky groggy mood, so he was a little confused about what we were doing. He wasn't happy at first that we told him to get into his PJ's! He thought he had to go to sleep early! Then after he woke up a little more, he was able to comprehend more about what we were actually doing! Then he wanted to quickly put on his PJ and go downstairs to party with everyone!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/Isj1un7z/1/5391551

"Day 13 Advent Activities 2011"

We got some fun ornament crafts lined up for Day 13th! We wanted to make two ornaments using Henry's handprint and finger print.  They turned out super cute! We also made a couple of other ornaments while we were waiting for the paint to dry! Now we have homemade ornaments to put on our tree every year!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/wI22fpB7/1/5390209

"Day 12 Advent Activities 2011"

Henry loves anything chocolate! So on Day 12, our advent activity includes hot chocolate and a candy cane from yesterday's Candy Cane Hunt! Thank you Auntie Shantel for gifting us some special hot chocolate day extra special!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/rTnuCPKd/1/5388957

"Day 11 Advent Activities 2011"

For Day 11, we made up clues for Henry to go on his first candy cane hunt! He did very well in figuring out most of the clues! We can make it more difficult next year!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/M6q53s4q/1/5387360

"Day 10 Advent Activities 2011"

We saw a groupon for the Global Winter Wonderland back in the November to go on the weekend after Thanksgiving... but we decided to save it as one of our advent activity! Henry woke up from his nap and was excited to find out that we're going there even though he has no idea what it really is! I guess the name of the place sounded exciting enough - "Glop-bal Winter Wonderland" :) He had a great time there and he loved how he saw and recognized all the landmarks from places around the world that he knows about!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/iwsW5rag/1/5385997

"Day 8 and 9-Advent Activities 2011"

Henry is just adding his own twist to our advent activities! After doing the impromptu singing of the 12 days of Christmas after the regular day 7 activities, he insisted on mailing a Christmas card to Santa Claus! Henry is such a funny and hilarious kid! :)

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/AA39fILF/1/5384746

"Day 7-Advent Activities 2011"

We looked around for different ideas for a Christmas craft to do with Henry.  In the end, we settled on something fun, cute and also 'educational' :) We decided to make a snowman with different shapes! Henry had learned and loved different shapes since he was about one and now, he is starting to get into patterns more.  But in the end, we just wanted to include all different shapes instead of a repeating pattern :) It is also interesting how he has been naming things not of people he knows... not sure where he comes up with all these different names!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/tKZ0cJve/1/5382646

"Day 6-Advent Activities 2011"

We enlisted Auntie Ai-Fen's help today with our Day 6 activities because we had to go to a fellowship meeting tonight.  Henry had been doing puzzles that are 48 pieces on his own and 60 pieces with help. But he had never done a 100 piece puzzle before! It turned out to be a pretty challenging puzzle, even for us! The pieces were tricky, but we (the adults) felt very accomplished finishing it. Though, I think we're not going to take that apart to do it again... probably should just glue it together and make it a permanent picture. :)

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/gRRqV4HI/1/5381582

"Day 5-Advent Activities 2011"

On Day 5, Henry found out that he gets to do another one of his favorite activity! He is excited to find out he gets to play a Christmas board game! Henry really got into board games a lot more after visiting Serenity over the summer. Now, he has quite a collection of different board games! This is a super cool game because it has the peanuts gang and a Christmas theme to it!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/dP4Y0SCu/1/5380398

"Day 4-Advent Activities 2011"

Today's activity is supposed to complete our Christmas decorations... but we had some issues with "lighting"... Jack found out that some of our lights are not working properly anymore. I guess that gave us an excuse to find some new decorations!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/DZDcbMj6/1/5378869

"Day 3-Advent Activities 2011"

It's Day 3 and since it fell on a Saturday, we opened up our box early in the morning instead of in the evening.  It is a pretty full day today because we had two birthday parties to go to! So we headed out to Specialty's Bakery for our activity for today.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/ljlEOnA9/1/5377355

"Day 2-Advent Activities 2011"

Our second day... set up the nativity scene! We bought the little people nativity scene last year for Henry to play with. This year, he helped set it up!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/Z2YyZnex/1/5376460

"Day 1-Advent Activities 2011"

Today is our very first advent activity day! Henry has three "places" to visit each day...

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/06OYaYBl/1/5375235