With the remains of Thanksgiving now reduced to unique turkey dishes, it was time to prepare for Christmas, usually referred to as Advent. Since many people travel for this weekend, Karl and I were free of our Sunday School obligations. The church hosted a Pancake Breakfast with Santa as a fundraiser for seminary student expenses.
Since we tend to be early risers, I though it might be less crowded to see Santa before our church service. Our hunch was correct as the room was mostly empty tables. The children, Isabella mostly, was not going to focus on her breakfast until she had a chance to see Santa. While I believe Anton is waning in his belief in Santa from a purely logical reasoning (what stops Karl and I from going out to get presents once he is asleep since Santa always comes while he is sleeping?), Isabella is still holding on. Or maybe she is just covering her bases. Anton requested a telescope and more Lego's (shocker there?!). Isabella was good to her previous statements of a Bow and arrow but also threw in a new pair of slippers as the puppies think hers being all fuzzy and pink are play things. Not sure about the slippers but Intel is very good for the bow and arrow set.
After church, Anton was invited over to a cub scout friend's house for Lego constructing. He had fun and so did Karl and I.
Isabella was all tuckered out from a long night the night before. We had been to visit one of the families from our church who have children the same age as ours and then some. We were over much later than anticipated because we were all having such a good time. Karl and I spend the couple of hours catching up on other activities. I had been behind in practising for the Christmas Concert. I am still working on the confidence for my part. Karl was putting together activities for his cub scout den meetings for the next few weeks.
After my choir rehearsal and a little non-turkey dinner, we set up the tree. With three weeks left till Christmas, time was ticking away. I love having the house decorated, it makes everything feel more special this time of the year.
It did not take long for the children to find their favorite ornaments and began asking us where they all came from. Karl and I have been working on our ornament collection since our marriage. We wanted to create a memory type of tree with an ornament to represent places and events in our lives. Once the stories began, Karl and I become more sentimental to the tree trimming tradition. It becomes a recap of how we arrived here today.
Then the children found their favorite ornaments. One from Karl's trip to Vancouver with the submarine and one of Pinocchio I purchased during my travels in Italy, where the story originates. It only seemed appropriate for the music at the moment to be the Russian Dancers in the Nutcracker Suite.
Once the box was empty, we had a quick tree lighting before bed time became a thing of Christmas Past.
