Christmas Unit

Christmas Unit

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!



We started this month of December going to Daniel's Christmas Farm.  Here the kids were able to learn how Christmas trees grew, go on a barrel train ride, hay ride, and build their own wreaths.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to begin our Christmas month.



Our Christmas traditions: Advent chocolate calendar.  We used to do this growing up and am so glad that we are able to share the same experience with our kids.

BOOKS



Some wonderful Christmas books we read this month.

DECORATION 



Love decorating our house for Christmas.



Our Christmas decor on our back door.



Some of the finished marble craft taped to the wall in the living room.



Love how our window decor came out.

ARTS & CRAFTS

Made marble Christmas trees for our front window.

Marble Candy Canes, it's always fun playing or painting with shaving cream.

Kanani always enjoys working with beads and making candy canes for our Christmas tree.

Made a Christmas wreath out of toilet paper rolls, came out better than I thought.

Found this cute ginger bread house at Target.  Kanani couldn't wait to get home and start decorating it.



Kanani wanted to decorate her own Christmas ornament.



Finally finished the grandparents Christmas ornaments, a tradition we have done since Kanani was born.



A closer look at the kids thumbprints of penguins, snowmen, and reinders.  



Our little family snowmen, Kanani wanted to do only the girls (her and me) and I did the boys (Rey and Dartanian),



Cute Christmas Trees and Reindeers made out of craft sticks.



Made some crystal ornaments to add to our tree.  You can use the recipe from Rookie Parenting.



Made these again this year, can't believe how much they have grown in a year.  The one on the left was last year and the right one of course was this year.

WORKSHOPS

We were excited to go to our monthly Home Depot Kid's Workshop to build and paint our little blocks.



Went to our monthly Lowe's workshop to build a cute Christmas train.  Kanani actually build her with very little help.

MOVIES

Several of the Christmas movies we watched this month.

Good old fashion Christmas movies.

UNEXPECTED

To make this month even better we saw someone dressed as Santa Claus riding his bike down the street.

SOCK SNOWMEN

Two of the first sock snowmen I made.  

A few of the snowmen I made for some special orders.  They came out so cute.

ACTIVITIES

Made a sensory Christmas bin for the kids to enjoy on a rainy day.



Filled a water bottle with some bells and pipe cleaners for the kids to use their magnetics to move it around the bottom.  Kanani really enjoyed it but Dartanian preferred to chew on it.



Put together some Christmas moon dough for the kids to enjoy after dinner.  It's just 4 cups of flour mixed with 1/2 cup of baby oil, and some tempera paint for color.  I was very surprised with how much Dartanian enjoyed the dough.  He normally plays with things for no longer than a few minutes and this kept his attention for an hour.  It is very soft and holds great together.    

FPD CHRISTMAS PARTY

This year the FPD Christmas party had a Charlie Brown theme, complete with the movie, popcorn, and cotton candy.

The kids are enjoying the movie while eating some popcorn.

Dartanian wasn't too sure of  Santa Claus but loved getting two gifts after taking pictures with him.

She was so excited to take her picture with Santa Claus.



Went to Wal-Mart and Santa happened to be there.  Kanani quickly wanted to get her picture taken with him.  I was quite surprised that Dartanian sat still long enough to get his picture taken, of course with a cookie in one hand and a candy cane in the other.

HOMESCHOOL CO-OP CHRISTMAS PARTY



Our little photo booth moment 



Dartanian and me spent it in the nursery while Kanani was in her class making reindeer hats and coloring her Christmas book.  Afterwards everyone meet together to enjoy some wonderful food.

FIELD TRIPS

DANIEL CHRISTMAS TREE FARM

On our way to Daniel's Christmas Tree Farm to learn about Christmas Trees.

When we arrived the kids quickly went straight to pet the goats while we waited for the activities to begin.

Walked around observing some of the Christmas Trees on the farm.

Daniel (the farmer) told us about how long it would take a tree to grow full size, about 10 years.  Since the farm doesn't have that long to wait for the tree to grow they actually order there's from another farm in the mountains.  They are working with ECU to try to find ways to make the trees grow faster.

Our handsome prince enjoying playing with some sticks he found.

More pics of the farm.

The kids enjoyed a couple of rides in the barrel train.



Petting Dasher after the barrel train ride.

After petting the goat we went on a hay ride around the farm.  Kids loved seeing all the animals on the farm.

When we got back from the hay ride Kanani had a chance to make her own Christmas wreath.  Love how great it came out.

Time to get warm by the fire pit.

WEST REGIONAL LIBRARY

Story time and then crafts (popsicle stick reindeers).

Took some pictures with Santa at our local library after story time.

DISNEY ON ICE

We were so excited to finally be able to go and see Disney on Ice.  




Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Dartanian's face lit up when they came out.



Super excited to see all their favorite characters, especially Mickey Mouse.



Goofy and the gang



Pinocchio 

Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and Aladdin

Finding Nemo



Toy Story

Frozen

The end of a wonderful show.

This has been a very busy month full of lots of crafts and activities.  Love being able to share these special moments with my wonderful family and friends.