What with traveling to visit family during the holidays, Christmas has been a tricky as far as starting our own family traditions. This year we’re putting our focus on celebrating Advent. We’re reading John Piper’s Good News of Great Joy (free pdf) each evening after dinner. During that time Becca also gets to pull and put one more Little People on her new advent calendar. Becca really looks forward to taking a new piece out of its pocket each night. We’re also using the Advent calendar and readings Christmas Opened Up. My plan is to also have a special meal each Sunday night – it worked this past week, but we’ll see what happens the next few.

Of course, we’re also doing all the other “fun” Christmas stuff. We put up our tree last Friday (thanks Aunt Rita!). Saturday night we went to Arlington’s Christmas parade (in shorts!). Becca loves singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Notice in the picture below that even the dinos have been included in the Christmas celebration!

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Chikoo’s 3rd birthday. Chickoo’s parents live on UTA campus and we met them while walking outside one evening. The party was informal and very enjoyable for both parents and children. I think the highlight was playing in the dirt!

Becca and I made playdough this week (h.t. to my good friend Johanna at myhometableau.com). This was my second attempt at making playdough – the first was a disaster (one of those loser-mommy moments)! Becca enjoyed making it and playing with it. I made snowman and she made snakes!