Advent {Days 14-20}

First I want to reveal our Advent calendar:

Its made from matchstick boxes.  It might be one of my favorite new things.  We just slide out a box for each day, and inside is the activity.

Then second, we got super busy this past week, and some of our activities did not end up working out as planned, so we improvised.

Day 14 {Wednesday} Set up the nativity.

We did not have time between our work and Shiloh's nap schedule to go see Santa.

Instead we let Shiloh set up her little nativity set.

I figure, Christmas is all about Jesus anyways, not Santa. 

She seems to love the donkeys.

And she sometimes points out baby Jesus.

Sometimes she points to the sheep.

Kinda ironic.

Day 15 {Thursday} Read the Christmas story.

Brandon read us the story of Jesus out of Luke.

Its amazing how humble God is.

Day 16 {Friday}  Make our Christmas cookies in a jar.

We were tight on time.

And trying to pinch our pennies some, so we opted out of the delicious peppermint hot cocoa.

Instead we finished making our mason jar cookies.  

Yum.

This is such a fun and easy gift to make.

And the cookies are some kind of serious deliciousness.
You have to really pack down each layer otherwise they won't all fit.
Brandon found his knack in packing flower.
And eating m&m's.
Shiloh found her knack in stacking the completed jars.
I personally enjoyed how pretty they looked.

Day 17 {Saturday}  Visit Grammy Roo & Gpa.

9+ hours in the car.

We left at 5:45am.

It made the trip feel shorter.

We do road trips well.  

Shiloh does too... only the last hour of the trip was rough.

We ate a lot of goldfish.

And took naps.  :)

Day 18 {Sunday}  Attend Christmas play & make sugar cookies.

Brandon's brother was starring in the Scrooge musical.
We especially loved the scenes he was a part of.
"God bless us, every one." Is my favorite line.
We didn't have all the gingerbread house ingredients, so we only made sugar cookies.

We always eat too much dough.

The stars were our favorite to make.

Cookies are just so Christmas-y

Day 19 {Monday}  Deliver gifts to family and friends.

We took some of our cookies in a jar to people in town.

Shiloh got to enjoy the fun chair at our cousins work.

Then the fun snow mobile at our uncle and aunts business.

Day 20 {Tuesday}  Go on a walk as a family.

God didn't deliver the usual Christmas snow yet.

No snow means no snowman or snow angel.

We took a walk instead.

Up the hill behind Brandon's parents house.

To the tree with a swing under it.