First week of Advent

I wrote a bit about our first two days of Advent, with Anna and on the train. Here's more from the rest of the week. Every evening I read. . .

Noels Piper's Advent Story

. . . and we add to our nativity scene, if we have a figure for what we read about.

Asya's poster

Then someone gets to take down the day's envelope (pictures of that a little further down), which contains one of the pictures from Ann Voskamp's book. We hang the picture on our "tree," sometimes trying to guess what the story will be just from looking at it.

All the posters

They each color, cut out, and glue a similar picture onto their posters. This year all of them are excited about that, even though in the past, they haven't much liked coloring in anything. They really work hard to make something beautiful! Sometimes we read the story during the artistic process, and other times we wait until Will gets home to do the reading.

"Take a picture of me, Mama."

Artists at work

That's an aerial view of what most December evenings look like. For some reason, Asya likes to wear a bag on her head while she listens and colors. I have no idea why.

Raia showing off the Advent envelopes

After I stuck them up like that, they all fell, so I moved them over to the window the next day.

"Hiding."

This was hilarious to me. When we read "Laying Down Isaac," I gave them cotton to glue on to their ram pictures. Asya kept gluing and gluing, until she had a huge fluffy mountain in front of her. I had to give her a plate to contain it. Then I asked, "Asya, where's your sheep?" She got a puzzled look on her face and answered, "Don't know!" I asked her again, as I took the photo above, and then she told me, "Hiding."

Jaan's ram
(Compare to Asya's )