December Daily- Day 1

Well, my PS Elements has decided it hates me tonight, I tried 3 times to create my scrapbook page, and it kept freezing up. So I am blogging about our evening. :)

After school, the kids got to play a bit and have snack.  We headed out before dinner to pick up Hillma and head on post for the Unit Christmas Tree Decorating Contest.  We had a paper chain, several types of Christmas ornaments from the local Korean dollare store Daiso, handmade crossed cannons, gingerbread men, Santas and colorful yarn hats.  Oh, and glittered up stars and snowflakes.  LOTS of decorations, as you can see above.  We got to go pick up Daddy afterwards, and he stayed home long enough to do our first Advent reading. 
It wasn't exactly the reading I was thinking it would be (I thought we'd be reading pieces of the Christmas story- that'll teach me to forget to look up the verses beforehand)! In all, though, the kids sat still and listened while we read John 3:1-21.  After Daddy headed back to post, we read day 1 of the Countdown to Christmas and then the kids got snuggled down in bed. 

So that was our fairly eventful but fun evening. :P  I had lots of cute little papers and decorations for the scrapbook page, but oh well.  Simple is good. :)

I was able to order the Elf on a Shelf and the Little People Nativity Set for the kids today- I'm excited for them!  I have a few creative ideas on where the Elf can be found, but I want to find a better explanation for him than "he's here to watch how you behave and he will tell Santa whether you've been good or bad."  I don't like thinking that my kids will be anxious over it, wondering if they will still get presents, etc.  Better behavior would be great, but not at the expense of their minds. :)  So far, I think he will have a snowball fight with cotton balls or marshmallows, and he will make a snow angel out of sugar, and make a little tent in the kids' rooms out of their clothes that are laid out. 
The nativity set will be for their play, but we will keep it set in the living room.  I can't wait to hear if they will retell the Christmas story with it. :)