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Let the Christmas festivities begin!

I LOVE this time of year and I LOVE that the boys are both big enough that they can both participate in fun Christmas activities!

 First, we started the 24 days of Christmas on the 1st of December. It's basically just a song and a Christ centered activity every night that leads up to Christmas. The first night Jim and I both got a little teary and it was only a little 5 minute video clip along with the song "Away in a Manger". Anyway, you can join in the 24 days of Christmas anytime, here's the link.

Second, I want all of our December FHE's to be about Christ's birth.  Yesterday's FHE was SO MUCH FUN!!  Jim and I had just as much fun as the boys did.  I got the basic idea from Pinterest and kind of made the rest my own.  After prayer and a song (Away in the Manger again- it's my and Jackson's favorite) we read the story of Christmas from the book The First Christmas by Carol Heyer.  It has great pictures and tells the story a little bit easier than the actual scriptures.  Then, we had a scavenger hunt to find all the pieces to their manger scene.  Ahead of time I put together some clues and hid the pieces.  If you'd like, I'll send  you a copy of my clues, just leave me a message with your email address.


The top clue in the picture is of Mary on our bookshelf- here's Mary hiding.


And Jackson wanted me to add a picture of the 3 wise men hiding in the window.  They kept trying to escape to follow random stars... ;)


After the Nativity scavenger hunt, the boys put together their own manger scenes on paper.  It was just a nativity scene that taught shapes and cutting.  You can find the activity here.

I tried to get a good picture of the boys with their nativity pictures and their Little People nativity set, but once again, these are the faces we got from them.  I don't know why they just won't smile for me.  Oh well, at least you can tell their happy and had a good time...


This is Austin's best Popeye face-


Another idea I had this year was to do a fun Christmas activity every weekend as a family leading up to the big day.  This weekend we made Christmas trees with ice cream cones, green icing, and M&Ms.  Unfortunately, the icing melted and our M&Ms all fell down, but it was fun!


Jackson was concentrating on his Christmas tree masterpiece.


Austin actually decorated a tree all by himself.


But mostly, he just ate M&Ms.  


It was a lot of fun!  Here's our melty trees (from left to right:  Austin's, my tree, Daddy's, and Jackson's)


I think we're also going to make all kinds of ornaments, become our own nativity scene, and create a Nuffer family Polar Express experience.  I hope the boys enjoy!

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