The Second Week of Advent

My high hopes of finishing 2014 in 2014 were derailed by the flu, but I won't give up.  Christmas this year was packed with so much fun, it must be documented.

Sunday, December 7:  Milk and Cookies with Santa (KBC Event)  

 Crafts, games...

Make your own reindeer food...

And the main event!  Seeing Santa himself!

Monday, December 8: Decorate a gingerbread house!

Tuesday, December 9 (TRIPLE TUESDAY!):  Clean out old toys to donate, Bake Christmas Cookies for the teachers at Clara's school, and Visit the Tanglewood Festival of Lights!

(We contributed some of these toys, given to Imprints)

Sometimes, when decorating cookies, it's good to wear a princess dress...

 Piled in for the Festival of Lights!

Wednesday, December 10: Go Christmas Caroling (with KBC)!

Here's Clara, practicing for caroling:

one very blurry caroler below:

 Thursday, December 11: Go to the Moravian Candletea

 

Now if you're not from Winston-Salem and aren't familiar with the Moravian tradition, this day could really take a whole post of its own to explain.  A Moravian Candletea celebrates Christmas while teaching some about the unique traditions that are special for the Moravian faith (and anybody from Winston-Salem sort of adopts the Moravian tradition at Christmastime.)  You walk through the rooms of the Single Brothers' House at Old Salem  and have a chance to sing Christmas hymns, accompanied by the beautiful old organ, learn about how the beezwax candles are made, enjoy some Lovefeast coffee and sugar cake, look at the putz and hear the Christmas story.  It's a long tour and Clara (and Eloise, in the Ergo) did a great job having patience through each part.  It had been several year since I have been to one, and this was Clara's first, so it was a wonderfully special afternoon!

Here are my girls at Old Salem, before we went in.  It's my favorite Christmas picture of the season:

When we sang Away in the Manger, they asked all the children to come sing the first verse at the front.  Clara was the youngest, by far, but she sang every word of the first two verses.  I only caught a few seconds on video due to technical difficulties...

And Clara singing some more:

Friday, December 12: Christmas Party at SciWorks

 Where we saw Santa again!

And also got to meet several cool animals

 

And make some more reindeer food (and other crafts, too)

And enjoy all the parts of one of her favorite museums (like these teeth she just can't get enough of)

 And there were lots of other characters there too, like Elmo, and Bolt, and The Grinch.

 But the highlight of the night for sure (sorry, Santa), was getting to meet Anna and Elsa:
 

Saturday, December 13: Kids' Christmas Party at KBC:

Whew! Still another week and a half of fun to go before Christmas!  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.  Thanks be to God.

Here's one bonus video, just because I love it:

Amen indeed.