I get more excited about Christmas every year. The older the kids get, the more meaningful the season becomes to them, and the richer the traditions we're sharing with them. I've been excited about Christmas coming for months now, ever since I added a morning hymn to our breakfast routine. Jonathan especially is enjoying learning hymns. Now when I turn on one we've learned about in the past, I'll hear him say, "Oh! This one is my favorite!" There is something wonderful about hearing him sing How Great Thou Art while playing Legos. We get lots of other kinds of music through the kids' music class, from traditional kid songs to folk songs from a variety of cultures, and I like sharing the soundtracks of some of my favorite musicals with them. But I knew as soon as we started studying the words and music of hymns in the morning that I would take all of December to delight in Christmas carols. Some mornings I play them on piano, sometimes we use Casting Crown's Peace on Earth album, and other times we find a fun version on YouTube for sing along.
A few years ago enjoyed a particularly funny moment at our church's Christmas celebration when Jonathan bust out with "Old MacDonald had a Farm E-I-E-I-O" while the church sang Away in the Manger around a live nativity scene set in a stable. Hopefully a little more thoughtful approach to learning and enjoying the lyrics of familiar carols will prevent a reprise of that evening!
In addition to enjoying Christmas carols over breakfast, I've replaced our scheduled morning Bible study with a fun children's Advent study that is set up as a series of seek-and-find pictures, and we are enjoying our growing selection of children's Christmas books.
Anyways, to kick off the month we picked up our Christmas tree on the way home from our Thanksgiving weekend trip and decorated it the next evening.
Soon it was clear it would be safest for Joshua to finish the festivities from the safety of the Ergo, so we snuggled as the finishing touches went on the tree.
And then, of course, there was a celebratory dance. Because why not?
A few days later Abby sang with her classmates in Mrs. Hall's Duckling class at her preschool's Christmas Program.
She was quite excited about it and really enjoyed getting to perform with her class.
As one of the older kids in a class of two year olds, you could actually hear Abby quite well, and she remembered all her words and hand motions.
We were so proud to see her enjoying her first school Christmas performance!
Over the next week we'll attend a few more Christmas performances, including the ballet Amahl and the Night Visitors, put on by a friend's dance studio, and a children's Christmas show performed by a local Christian theater group. We have play dates planned for making ornaments and decorating cookies and are looking forward to the weeks to come!
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