Intentionality....

Not sure why, but this year I felt convicted to "take the reins" of our December month and be 'extra intentional' about some Christmas fun and cheer. During Thanksgiving vacation I sat down and wrote out some ideas for December. Here is a taste of the past 8 days.

The picture above was last Saturday night when it was snowing here. We decided to knock on our neighbor's door and see if they would like to join us for Frosty the Snowman (seemed appropriate on a snowy day) and some apple slices. So much better watching this movie with friends.

Here we are making monster cookies for gifts.

Reece is trying to decide if he can sneak a cookie or not...
Last Sunday we went to see a drive-thru nativity. It was wonderful, I truly believe, because it only started at the nativity and continued on to Christ's death and resurrection. I'm so glad we went..
Here's the empty tomb..
This has happened more than this week, but deserves a picture here. Any time Daddy is home, Reece begs to do the train. This is a train his GrandDad had when he was a kid.
Lindsey and I had a wonderful outing to a Christmas Craft Party. My friend, Missy, did a fabulous job setting up craft stations..

A favorite, of the girls, was a "pit stop" at the hot cocoa station.
Made some more treats for presents..
We had an evening of Fine Arts where the children were able to bring in art work to display and also sing or play an instrument. Here Lindsey is with some friends.

Some sweet friends of our dressed their kids up and gave such a great performance.. Austin and Reece were there as well, but must have gone to the gym to play while us moms took pictures.
The next 4 pictures are of Lindsey, Brian and I as we enjoyed a Christmas brunch with her Sunday school teachers and some kids, from her class, and their parents.
We had to play a game where our backs were to Lindsey and she had to create a lego design and then Brian and I had to make the same design while she described hers to us.

Lindsey's teachers and some kids from her class..
This weekend we went to Providence's Christmas concert and Lindsey and Reece were thrilled to go up on stage and hear Pastor Horner share the Christmas story with them.
Ahh....don't know why we don't do THIS more often. In the past 5 years I think we've only been to the Krispy Kreme 3 times. What is wrong with us? Well...I surprised the kids with breakfast out at Krispy Kreme to get their Christmas donuts. Notice Reece's snowman's head was already eaten off even BEFORE praying!
They love watching the donuts being made!
Cannot believe how fast Polar Express sold out at the IMAX. Thankfully for my Nov. list, I was on top of it this year and surprised the kids with tickets. Seriously LOVE this movie in 3-D. While the kids might have thought I was crazy to get there an hour early (we were first in line) they appreciated picking out some good seats.
I let the kids go crazy decorating their rooms with lights. This is Reece's room.
And Lindsey's room
While Daddy was gone at the concerts we decided to sneak off to the store and buy outside lights to surprise him with.
I can't go crazy with lights because it would drive me crazy, but I agreed to do our front bushes and it was a lot of fun to do with the kids.
Hope you all are enjoying this season and treasuring the time you have with your children!