THE BEST SEASON OF ALL 2015: Days 15-23

Another week went by, and lo! It’s almost Christmas!

 

What we’ve been up to December 15-23:

Letter to Santa, as always D. is all about Star Wars and C. had some unexpected wishes which I am not sure Santa can make happen.

We made homemade gingerbread cookies, kids’ dad made the dough and we did the baking. Kids refused to decorate them, though so they look a bit plain. But so delicious!

 

We got so much snow!!! Fun with friends, games, giggles and sledding!

 

C. turned 7! Hard to believe that my baby is so big already. We had a quiet celebration at home, plus C’s Spanish class at homeschool program had Las Posadas party. We also went to look at holiday lights displays nearby.

She chose Yule Log for her birthday cake 😀 I didn’t bake it obviously

 

blurry pic, but those were very very pretty lights

Family game night! Dixit rules our lives, C. is getting better at submitting her cards too.

Kids made a holiday mobile and decorated candles

 

nothing fancy- mod podge and glitter

We had a joined birthday party with C’s friend L. Their birthdays are very close. Fun, warmth and yummy food.

each girl got a little letter art from me

C. made some clay keychains to give out to her friends and D. read holiday books out loud to us (Ollie’s Ski Trip remains a favorite after so many years)

very abstract but each has a backstory 😀

 

So here we are, it’s Christmas Eve, I am hoping for a quiet and sweet evening, the morning will most likely be a chaos :DDD

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays!

 

THE BEST SEASON OF ALL 2015: Days 8-13

Another week flew by and half of December is gone. We had lovely week of small, quiet celebrations. Here what it was like:

On Tuesday there was another lovely concert with D.’s choir- his division performed in the nursing home nearby and as always, wonderful singing and warm, holiday atmosphere.

 

Wednesday kids opened their new winter books.

For C. it was “Snow Rabbit” by Camille Garoche- a wordless picture book about a paper rabbit that turned real and two sisters that went chasing after him.

D. got Neil Gaiman’s “Odd and the Frost Giants” and he loved it.

 

On Thursday we tried finger knitting, I must say it was crazy difficult for me and C., I am not a knitter at all and crochet but a little. C. didn’t have patience. But D. got a hang of it and had fun finger knitting for a while.

 

On Friday D. and his dad had a lovely family karate class and we got our tree after. We usually get a small tree to fit into our tiny living room, but this year the choice was either microscopic or 6 feet tall. So we got 6 feet tall one. It’s weird to have such a big tree again and it takes up half of the room, but ids are absolutely thrilled.

On Saturday we made a few decorations as per our annual tradition and decorated our tree.

D. went for a paper house, inside tha box is colored as a room

C. painted a shell with acrylic paints. As always, I love her colors and especially how she incorporated gold paint

I of course went with felt and made a simple heart

 

our not at all tiny tree

Sunday was a card making day, kids made a bunch of cards for their friends and teachers.

Monday they started their annual lego village display

 

We watched “It’s a Wonderful Life!”, kids for the first time. Elves have been visiting and putting tiny presents for kids under the tree…I draw some holiday cheer too

I keep doodle diary this season and it’s filling up little by little

two weeks of events

Wishing wonderful holidays to everyone!

 

 

THE BEST SEASON OF ALL 2015: Days 4-7

Our season of small celebrations continues.

Day 4: Family movie night! Kids watched Home Alone for the first time, I haven’t seen this movie in more than 20 years so it was nice to return to childhood for a little bit (but I do admit I cringed at injuries of unlucky thieves, ugh).

Day 5: We put a little bit of lights outside

 

Day 6: D. and his choir performed in Christmas Concert and it was absolutely amazing. Well done once again!

 

Day 7: It was our “Winter Art” day. We read one of our most beloved winter books – “Buying Mittens” by Nankichi Niimi, such a lovely, kind tale and Kurai Ken’s illustrations are gorgeous!

Kids then painted their own illustrations- splitting the task, D. painted background and made a tissue paper foxes applique on it and C. created mittens for the little fox.

 

I did a little bit of winter art myself, comparing forest scenery and what it’s like in the city

We listened to a lot of holiday tunes, kids also watched Russian movie “The Snow Queen”, beautiful fairy tale.

The song of the first week of holiday celebrations is Ukranian song Shchedryk (more known to English speaking friends as “Carol of the Bells”

 

THE BEST SEASON OF ALL 2015: Day 1-3

We have successfully started our December celebrations.

It feels very nice to ease into days of candlelight, baking side by side and slowing down to watch the year end.

 

Day 1-3 of our December went well, kids cut out some paper snowflakes, we put up lights at home and today we baked our first batch of cookies.

 

 

rolling out lights is probably just as much fun as hanging them up

 

Vienna crescent cookies, the recipe is very easy –
2 1/3 c of all purpose flour +1/3 c of almond meal +pinch of salt – mix together; 1c of softened butter +1/3 c of sugar – mix until fluffy; slowly add flour; chill for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F and bake about 12 minutes. Dust with confectioners sugar.

I made some holiday sketches:

 

 

We read “Snow” by Uri Shulevitz and “Tiger in the snow” by Nick Butterworth. It’s amazing how kids are still enjoying picture books that they loved as babies.

We also read e.e. cummings’ “Little Tree”, from Literary Advent by Book Riot. I read The Gift of the Magi by O’Henry  on my own and will re-tell this lovely story to kids too.

Overall we had good three days and looking forward to more.

Wishing a most wonderful Advent to all!

Goodbye November- The Best Season of All 2015

November flew by even faster than October, who knew it was possible, yet here we are. We had some awesome outings, kids participated in our homeschool program’s annual science fair, we were very sick with nasty respiratory bug that is going around, welcomed first real snowfall of the season and a few after that, had a very quiet Thanksgiving…. And it’s December tomorrow, which means The Best Season of All 2015 is starting!

Every year we have a very special month of December, having some holiday fun every day. I usually make a calendar of activities and kids are excited to find out what will each day bring. Last Year’s calendar and list of fun things to do can be found here. Follow the tag to see what we actually managed to do.

This year’s calendar is all drawings of mine

 

Activities are spread through the whole month (don’t ask what it takes to come up with them, every year I try to add something new to old faves). None of these are mandatory for us of course, life happens and most of the month will be very busy with various things, so we’ll do what we can.

Happy 2015!

2015 is here! May it be happy,  may it bring peace and prosperity, may it bring good health for everyone! May it be filled with light!

We had a very quiet celebration at home saying goodbye to 2014 and sharing a meal:

New Year’s Eve

THE BEST SEASON OF ALL 2014:DAYS 28 and 29

So close to 2015!

Day 28:

We had our annual holiday concert at home. My mom teaches a piano to my friends’ chilren, as well as mine and yesterday we had a little recital with one of her students (and a family friend). It was absolutely lovely, and full of surprises. C. performed three pieces and was absolutely perfect and confident. D. played his pieces on the piano and so did our Friend. The surprises were D. playing violin for us and Friend performing a special song. It was lovely.

C.’s little duet with grandma

THE BEST SEASON OF ALL 2014: WE KEEP GOING- DAYS 26 and 27

We were very exited to see the snow towards the end of Christmas Day. Naturally December 26 started with much sledding and rolling in the snow.

our view is cold and pretty

THE BEST SEASON OF ALL 2024:MERRY CHRISTMAS!

we got the snow!

THE BEST SEASON OF ALL 2014: DAY 24- CHRISTMAS’ EVE

I want to wish everybody who celebrates a Merry Christmas, may light and joy always be the part of your lives!

Our day was spent in this strange state of half excitement, half rest.

First of all, children awoke at 5 am! They tried to be quiet, but ended up waking me anyway and I had to tell them very very firmly that they are not allowed to be up until the sky gets lighter. D. went back to sleep, but C. sat and read until 7 am. Crazy, I shudder at the thought of them rising even earlier tomorrow.

Today the goal was to spend the day together and finally relax. We managed to do it mostly.