Advent 2012 Day 24 and Day 25 (12/24-12/25)

Day 24 Twas the day before Christmas when all we could do, was to wait expectantly for Christmas to come. We had our annual family get-together with a visit first to Auntie Mary and Uncle Phil's place for a Tan get-together, followed by Christmas eve service at church and then dinner and gifts with the Lo side of the family. It was a long day but Henry had fun and was quite pooped by the end.

Day 25 Christmas day is here! Oh glorious celebration of Jesus Christ's birthday! Henry was super excited and we took a lazy morning to enjoy each other's company. Then the evening was more family time at gung gung and pau pau's house. Henry loved opening his presents from all his loving family and friends and playing with each and every one of them. It's going to take a while to work through them all but Henry will enjoy every moment of it. He started off the morning opening up the final advent activity box which brought back baby Jesus to the nativity scene.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/pr5941I3/1/5885742

Advent 2012 Day 22 and Day 23 (12/22-12/23)

Day 22 is time for the neighborhood walk to see some Christmas lights. We actually saw some extra cool lights yesterday near Stanford on the way back but it was only a car tour. Today, Auntie Joyce comes by to join us in our walk. It was quite the adventure trying to find the cool lighted street we found last year without getting drenched in the rain. Luckily, it didn't start to rain until we were almost done. We had fun trying to keep track of how many snowmen, santas and penguins we found on our walk.

Day 23 is to make a snowman Christmas treat. But the extra special treat is that the Wainrights are in town and decided to drop by for a play date. Henry is super excited to see Serenity and Donovan and even more excited to play with Aunt Chrissie's Christmas gift of snow (snowball fight)!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/KSLtjSEO/1/5885741

Advent 2012 Day 20 and Day 21 (12/20-12/21)

Day 20 is Candy Cane hunt time. This year we added riddles to the clue to make them more challenging. Henry was super excited to do the hunt this year and figured out the clues super fast. He was less excited for the candy canes themselves however since he seemed to have lost his affinity for candy canes as a snack.

Day 21 ended up being pretty low key. It was pajama day at preschool and afterwards, we went to Stanford mall for dinner and shopping so we didn't have time afterwards for the advent activity. We moved today's activity to tomorrow so Henry just opened his favorite daily activity, his Lego advent activity.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/5ulFiN7O/1/5881116

Advent 2012 Day 18 and Day 19 (12/18-12/19)

Day 18's activity is to make Jingle bell flowers out of egg cartons and paint.

Day 19 is the day that Uncle Andrew has been waiting for, Christmas Pajama Party! We also get to see baby Jensen in his first Dotahoey.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/otLC6JkM/1/5878819

Advent 2012 Day 16 and Day 17 (12/16-12/17)

Day 16 was Sunday and a very exciting Christmasy day. After an early church service/ Sunday school, we headed to downtown San Jose to meet Auntie Sim, Uncle Manu, Sebbie and Julie at Christmas in the Park. The kids had a full day of fun going all all sorts of rides together. With a day pass, they were able to run through some of the rides several times. Definitely worth the price of the pass. Afterwards, at home, we mailed out our Christmas cards and made mini mug gingerbread houses for Henry's preschool teachers.

Day 17 is chocolate gingerbread house day where we make some gingerbread houses out of chocolate and then additional special M&M treat bags for Henry's preschool class.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/IWv6kQjG/1/5877648

Advent 2012 Day 14 and Day 15 (12/14-12/15)

Day 14 Originally, we were going to head to the city to see a lighted boat parade but it turned out that Friday traffic with rain doubled the commute time and we wouldn't of made it. So instead, we stopped off at Redwood City for some Thai dinner and dessert. They had some a huge lighted outdoor tree and a new section of downtown we never saw before.

On Day 15, Dada started off the day running his first full marathon. Henry and Mama came by near the end to meet him at the finish line, in the rain! Then we started making some homemade treats later on in the evening for Mama's classroom.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/7cDYY4PD/1/5872559

Advent 2012 Day 12 and Day 13 (12/12/12! and 12/13)

Day 12 is the first more regular Dotahoey day with Johnny, Andrew, Marilyn and Evan coming over for dinner. The menu for tonight (and advent activity for the day) is Snowman pancakes! Henry was very excited about them and they turned out fantastic, with bacon scarves and candy faces. Dada enjoyed the fruit hat and buttons while Henry relished in the little pink marshmallows.

Day 13 was chock full of fun surprises including an impromptu visit to Mama's classroom which Henry always loves. Today's agenda was to send out our Christmas cards. Henry was a big help in this area though he did needed to be coaxed into doing a neat job. The Tinsel activity for the day was also more involved and fun.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/HBJThCmH/1/5870879

Advent 2012 Day 10 and Day 11 (12/10-12/11)

Day 10- Henry loves books! So last year, we did one Christmas book per day. But this year, since we already have 3 activities going per night, we decided to just make reading a new Christmas book one of the activities.  He really enjoyed his new Christmas book, "The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher"!

Day 11- Another thing Henry loves to do is play board games and do puzzles (I think the Christmas puzzles we got were a little too hard :P). So this year, we combined the two activities for one night when Auntie Ai-Fen is here with Henry while we are off to our fellowship night. Henry had a lot of fun playing different games with   Auntie Ai-Fen!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/kNCO0h1m/1/5868722

Advent 2012 Day 8 and Day 9 (12-8 - 12/9)

Day 8 We took Henry ice-skating for the first time and he's very excited about it! He had asked us to take him before and he said excitedly, "I'm finally going ice-skating!" Teaching him to ice-skate is like watching my baby learn to walk all over again...except in a "fast forward" mode! He made a lot of progress just within the first 5-10 mins! It is so amazing to watch! It was hard work though... for him and for us! :)

Day 9 is an activity that we did last year and loved! Fantasy of lights! We went to a couple of "lights" events last year and we liked this one the best! But we are definitely a lot more prepared this year! The line wasn't as long this year because we went earlier and on a Sunday night!

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/xHgwuzek/1/5865670

Advent 2012 Day 6 and Day 7 (12/6 - 12/7)

Day 6's advent activity was to make a 3-D reindeer. We modified this project to use foam boards rather than paper and Henry participated in the coloring and stringing process. Henry loves to do projects with us which is why we added more interactive craft projects for him to help on. He still doesn't have great control over cutting but he can do simple lines relatively well and curved lines very well if you hold it for him. :)

Day 7 Today's advent activity is one that Henry really looks forward to ... the putting together of the Christmas Train! He loves that train and since we only bring it out during Christmas time, it makes it extra special. He really helped a lot this year putting it together and we made it more challenging by having it wrap around the base of the Christmas tree.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/oLVbgstb/1/5863315

Advent 2012 Day 4 and Day 5 (12/4 - 12/5)

Day 4 was Christmas movie night with popcorn and marshmallows! Henry picked out a Phineas and Ferb Christmas special from Target the previous weekend so we were going to watch that. The movie actually turned out pretty good. Some of the dialog was probably over his head but he enjoyed the comedic parts and the intellectual Phineas is quite a likable character. Luckily for us, the movie was only 40 minute long, which was great since we were running late that evening and this was Henry's first week of going to preschool everyday.

Day 5 was making a special family ornament for this year. Auntie Annie come over and we got to spend more time with her. Dinner from Saigon Seafood and some fun with Dada's new TB band stretch roller rounded out the evening.

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/oFsqBW1P/1/5860412

Advent 2012- Day 2 and Day3 (12/2-12/3)

Day 2 means more decorations for the house as we got ready to deck the halls officially. Before we did that though, we needed to hit Target and Michael's to get supplies for the coming days. Henry woke up this morning and was eager to open up the next day in his Lego advent calendar. Today, he built a chainsaw/ tree trimmer and wondered where to put it. I said, "Well, the park bench is a good spot to leave the tree trimmer." Oh the lessons he's learning. :)
After church/ Sunday school, lunch, and shopping, we got home and started officially decking. We put up some new lights this year (to replace the ones that finally broke last year) including some cool snowmen in the walkway to greet visitors. We completed the Tinsel craft before heading off to bed.

Day 3 is the first weekday of the advent season but that won't slow us down. Henry was super excited this morning when he woke up and wanted to see what advent activity was in store for him. Today, we'll be doing something for others as we participate in the Toys for Tots donation event at Toys R Us. Henry's always been a really good sharer and he did a fantastic job picking out some cool gifts for other kids (his Mama's shopping genes kicking in there).

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/SQAK5ZYx/1/5856777

Advent 2012- Day 0 and Day1 (11/30-12/1)

Christmas tree time! Today, we finally told Henry that we'll be putting up the Christmas tree and he was super excited, so much so that he wanted to forgo dinner to do it, but we dragged him to ramen first. :)

Being 4 years old, he was super helpful throughout the whole process, from holding the door open while I grabbed the tree box to helping bring in the ornaments (he spotted the cylinder of green ornaments that I missed), to setting up the tree (I had him check that all the lights were working by looking at it from all angles and even upstairs).

When we finally got to hanging up the ornaments, and Henry was so excited to do it that he hung ornaments with me non-stop until they were all done. He did the bottom part of the tree while I tackled the top, and practically hung as many as I did this year! Afterwards, he said he did "a lot of work today." Then Henry went and did a song and dance about the Christmas tree singing "It's time for the celebration, it's time for the celebration, it's time for the celebration ... to start!" It really was! :)

http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/MIJcC0r2/1/5856124