Advent

Three years of age is such a beautiful age to teach.  There is so much understanding, involvement, and awe.  We've been working through an advent curriculum (thanks to a friend/teacher here in Portland who shared it with us) together as a family, and it's been amazing to see how teaching advent themes to Kai has made Christmas so much more vivid and meaningful to both Bryon and me.

We've focused on the themes of simplicity, gifts, wonder and worship, incorporating readings, stories, and activities as we've gone along.  Here's a little peek at some of the things we've been up to through this advent journey.

We made a nativity scene together.

Over the span of several days we acted out the Christmas story in our living room, taking turns being the different characters and talking about how they might have felt.

What a cute Mary! 

We even had a lovely couch-cushion stable.

Although far from being an angel himself, he acted the part of Gabriel very well. :)

Joseph

The Shepherds

And of course, the wisemen!

And, after receiving a homemade crown as a gift from a friend, we acted out the wisemen portion of the story a few more times. 

I'm pretty sure there wasn't a John Deere in the nativity story, but  apparently this wiseman's gift to Jesus was a John Deere tractor :)

We visited a stable with friends.  What might it have looked like where Jesus was born?  Felt like?  Smelled like?  Sounded like?  Was it fancy?  Did Jesus have a lot of stuff?  Who visited Jesus in the stable?

Feeding the goats was Kai's favourite part.

We decorated our tree and made a star for the top representing the star over the stable.

We put a baby in a straw-filled "manger"  under our tree so we could talk about Jesus being the best gift of all and how he came to us in humility as just a baby.

We made a welcome box, which will be given to a child entering foster care here in Portland.  We chose to have our box donated to a 2-4 year old boy, so that Kai could be more helpful as we chose items to add to the box.

We made gifts for our friends and family, and talked about how we give gifts to each other to symbolize God giving us the gift of Jesus.

We visited a light show with friends and talked about how much more incredible the star in the sky must have been at the first Christmas.  In fact, the whole Christmas story is pretty incredible!

We also visited a live nativity.  Kai was mesmerized by the entire Christmas story being acted out right in front of us as we walked from scene to scene.

We volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House here in Portland.

We listened to Christmas music and sang songs together.

Etc.

It was lovely and meaningful, teaching and celebrating this advent season with our son.

Thankful

Although I consider the real Thanksgiving to be in October, we still celebrated the other Thanksgiving...you know, the American one :)  

We started off our celebrations at the beginning of November with a "Thankful Jar".  Every night after dinner we would each write something we were thankful for on a piece of paper.  By the end of the month our jar looked like this...

Kai was very thankful for things like "my friend Ellie", "my bike", "our hike", "strawberries", "mountains", and "paper because I like paper".

Then, on Thanksgiving weekend, Bryon's parents flew out to visit us and enjoy some lovely Portland rain :)

On Thursday we got to cheer Bryon on in the neighborhood turkey bowl.

And, enjoy some time at the park before Thanksgiving dinner.

On Friday we went to the zoo.

On Saturday we went to Multnomah Falls.

And on Sunday Bryon finally let us kick off the Christmas season and we went to pick out our Christmas tree.

Kai thought the best part was yelling "Timber!"

Thanks Papa and Gramma for a fun visit!

It's taken me almost a month to get around to posting about our Thanksgiving, but the events of this past week in Newtown, CT have reminded me of thankfulness.  My temperamental oven, the stubbornness of my 3 year old, the never-ending pile of laundry, all no longer seem like a big deal.  As we mourn lives lost, weep with family members left behind, and cringe at the evil in this world, I am reminded yet again to be thankful in each moment I am given.  Our thoughts and prayers are with those left in the wake of this tragedy.

The Inbetween

Other than big happenings like Thanksgiving and birthdays and Halloween, here are the other everyday type stuff that we've been up to around here.

An early morning playdate = reading in pajamas.

I love the "Kai-senhauer tunnel" that Bryon and Kai built while I was out one night.

Putting together Kai's toddler bed.

And of course, we live in Portland so we've been enjoying lots of rainy day activities...

At the opening of a park which was developed by the company Bryon works for. 

Saturday morning hike to Bridal Veil Falls in the pouring rain.

Built-ins provide endless entertainment.

Another hike, with lots of rock-throwing...

...and a little attempted wading.

Love this boy, with his Sunday school crafts and mischievous grin :)

Halloween

Halloween 2012 felt somewhat similar to Halloween 2010 and 2011.  Let's take a little trip down memory lane...

2010 - Plain Old Duck

2011 - Business Duck

2012 - Pirate Duck/I wanna be just like my bath toy


Anyways, enough of the evolution of the duck costume!  It was getting pretty snug on Kai this year, so I think we'll have to come up with a new costume next year.  Sad.

Before Halloween I convinced Bryon and Kai to visit another pumpkin farm with me because I claimed that we really needed to pick out some good pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns.  In reality, I actually just wanted to eat the pumpkin donuts that this farm is famous for :)

Kai was enamored with the chicks on the farm.

Hollowing out our jack-o-lanterns wasn't such a big hit.

We broke out the power tools for carving this year.  So much fun!

Kai's imitation of his jack-o-lantern :)

Kai's costume in progress.

Happy Halloween!

On Halloween night we joined friends/neighbors for a potluck followed by a bit of trick-or-treating.  Kai was a very enthusiastic trick-or-treater this year and collected quite the bag full of candy.  Thankfully he forgot all about his candy after eating one piece.  As Bryon said, it's the one day of the year when Kai gets to work for us :)  Thanks for all the candy Kai!