Advent Chain 7-13

Day 7: The kids helped me bake candy cane cookies. It's great because I can give them their own balls of dough to roll into snakes and twist into canes while I do the "official" ones that we'll serve at our party. They had so much fun making their own candy canes to bake and eat.

Day 8: We went to see Santa at our favorite local orchard! The kids were so cute. We were a little late, so we ended up having to wait quite a long time, but several children the kids knew from both day care and kindergarten were there as well so we visited with them and had a nice time in line. When we got up to Santa, RUS whispered something that nobody could understand and R forgot what she wanted to ask for from Santa. Since the visit, however, RUS has said several times that he wants a phone for Christmas (like mine, an iPhone) and R has asked for an iPod.

Day 9: We went up to Longwood Gardens to see their annual Longwood Christmas and light show. It was GORGEOUS, although we timed our visit for after RUS's nap (he generally gets up around 3) and it was rainy and dark most of the time we were there. I'm terrible at figuring out my phone settings in the dark so I have very few photos from our time there but did take a few.

This hydrangea-decorated tree was one of my favorite things. There were four or five of them arranged together in one of the gardens' indoor buildings, and when I got up close, I realized they were LIVE HYDRANGEAS growing in special pots.

In this pic I tried to give you a view of the pot so you could see. According to a little placard on display, the trees are on a special metal frame that includes the pots and they had several varieties of these live-flower-decorated trees, including I think hyacinths and one other flower I'm forgetting now. I love hydrangeas so I thought these were breathtaking.

The theme of this year's Longwood Christmas was "stars" and here's their centerpiece tree, decorated with all kinds of stars, ostrich feathers, and hand-crafted ornaments. Stunning.

Day 10: J pulled out his Lego Winter Toy Shop and he and R and RUS had a lot of fun putting it together and playing with all the component pieces.

Day 11: We had a new Christmas book to read: Olive, the Other Reindeer. It's such a cute story and the kids loved it, especially because it's illustrated by J. Otto Seibold, who also illustrated Vunce Upon a Time, about a vegetarian vampire whose favorite thing is candy.

Day 12: I had a holiday party as part of a committee I am on at work, and it included family so the kids and I headed over there--J unfortunately was stuck giving a final exam. The kids had a blast! It helped that the kids there included two others from RUS's day care class and several children from R's previous day care class as well.

Day 13: We went to R's school's winter concert. It was so much fun!! As part of the grand finale, R's class performed the "So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night" song from The Sound of Music. Grammie said it was the highlight of the whole performance! In the first pic it is just R's class performing; the second pic is the full school performing.