Second Week of Advent

It is the beginning of the third week in Advent, which means we will begin getting our Christmas decorations this week. I cleared off a few surfaces today and will hopefully dust them and then begin setting out some of our Christmas decorations. We'll get our tree this weekend, most likely.

Our preparations during the second week were numerous. Above is a (out of focus, sorry) photo of Caroline holding a gift by our church's Angel Tree. We selected a three year old girl from the tree, and Caroline helped pick out some clothes for her, as well as a baby doll - a really cute one we found at Tuesday Morning. We dropped it off when we went to Mass on Monday for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

Here's a very simple Advent activity... Caroline likes when we make biscuits into fun shapes using cookie cutters. So we used a wreath cookie cutter and then used the holes from the dough wreaths to use as candles - short, stubby candles. Caroline thought it was neat, anyway, and wanted to eat the "candles" off her biscuit at dinner.

The Knights of Columbus at our church usually have a family Christmas potluck sometime before Christmas each year. This year, they announced that families could make centerpieces with the theme "Keep Christ in Christmas" and bring them to the dinner for a contest. So Caroline and I made this nativity from craft supplies we had on hand (and some sticks from our yard). Caroline did the "grass" and the "hay" all by herself. She asked me if I had a smaller head for baby Jesus... nope, I just had a package of wooden heads that were all the same size. Oh well.Here's a view from the front.

You'll have to excuse the poor quality of this picture. In our rush to get to the potluck in time, I forgot to take a picture of the eggnog cake I had made, so my husband took this picture using his cell phone once we got to the church. The recipe suggests making some holly leaves and berries on top using colored frosting, but I decided to make an Advent wreath on it using green frosting and then sticking candles in it. Not having any purple candles, I just made some out of construction paper and then stuck yellow tissue paper on the tops for flames. I went ahead and "lit" the pink candle since it was Saturday evening, and the next day would be the third Sunday in Advent.

Caroline's nativity centerpiece won a prize! Only three people made centerpieces, and the Knights had three prizes, so we each won by default - but don't tell Caroline that! ;) She is holding the prize, a pretty hand-painted ornament picturing a nativity scene. The baby Jesus is not in this picture - he fell off in the car on the way home, oops!! I rescued him and he's now back with his parents!

Also this week, Caroline and I chose some of her old toys to donate so other children can enjoy them as Christmas gifts while we make room for some new things that she will recieve for Christmas. I put them all in a bag - I was realy surprised at how generous she was as she selected things, although now she's having some second thoughts... so we'll wait a few days before taking the bag to Salvation Army so she can think about it and be sure of what she wants to donate.

This week's goals: finish wrapping presents, mail out Christmas cards, clean the house somewhat and begin decorating, and begin baking on the weekend!