Advent 2013 Day 6 and 7

Day 6 -

• Bible Story: Son of laughter

• Activity: Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony at City Hall

Day 6 is the Friday before the first full advent weekend and we had a couple of fun things in store. After waking up to reveal his advent activity, Henry discovered that we were headed to the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony at City Hall that evening and was excited. He finished up his Lego advent for the day, "Rebel Commando," the first character in the set and headed off to school. He would leave school at 3pm to play at Aidan's house with Aidan and Evan and meet us at City Hall that evening for music, dance, face painting, firemen hats, Santa Claus pictures, and an unscripted leaf-"ball" fight (what we get since we have no snow). Oh, and the holiday tree was lit but we almost missed it because it happened so fast. The tree sparkled different colors and the night was cold but the kids didn't slow down any and ran themselves ragged. We all topped off the evening with some hot chocolate at Panera. Upon getting home, Henry snuggled with Mama for the Jesus Story of the day, "Son of laughter." His Q for the day was, "Where was Jesus born?" A: Bethlehem.

Day 7 -

• Bible Story: Son of laughter

• Activity: Annual Carol of Lights Festival, Live Nativity Scene at First Baptist Church

First advent Saturday and Henry is eager to get his day started. Today's activity is heading down to the Annual Carol of Lights Festival in Downtown Campbell followed by a trip to the live nativity scene (more like a full fledge recreation of Bethlehem) at the First Baptist Church in Santa Clara. Henry opens up #7 for the Lego advent calendar and puts together a weapons rack for his Lego dudes. At 4pm, we put on some snow jackets, gloves and suspenders for Henry and head down to Campbell. The line for sledding down the man-made snow hill was slow and long but lots of fun in the end. We grabbed some hot chocolate while we waited and got to play in the snow for a 5 minutes. Afterwards, Henry played in the jump house for a bit before warming up by an outdoor fireplace and then dinner at Sonoma Chicken Coop. After a quick dessert from Psycho Donuts, we drove back up the First Baptist Church for their recreation of the town of Bethlehem and the nativity scene. It was amazing and there were soldiers, angels, shepherds with real sheep, camels, llamas and donkeys. There was music, a bead craft, free hot chocolate and even a centurion training area for kids. You could tell a lot of work went into this production and they had been running it for 15+ years. Henry had tons of fun and capped off the night with reading the Jesus story, "The present." His Q for the day was, "Who was baby Jesus's mom?" A: Mary!

MORE Pictures and video clips form Day 6 & 7

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