Advent: 3 December

Do you find that sometimes things just work? Today has been a bit like that! The Jesse Tree activity linked with the Lolly Stick activity, and Caleb had a good sleep giving me more one-on-one time with Zoë. Today was also an attempt at a screen-free day; my laptop, tablet and phone were all put away when I was with the children, and Zoë only watched 2 episodes of Peter Rabbit while I was clearing up lunch and putting Caleb down for his nap. A reduction in TV has a huge effect on the atmosphere in our house so this is something I want to keep up.

So, onto today...

Jesse Tree Activity

Before doing today's activity we needed to make the label for the Jesse Tree; Zoë drew a pink Eve and a grey Adam to represent 'God made people'.

Today's activity was about people. We added some people to our paper plate worlds and then went and made some Gingerbread Men. (I have to confess to a mummy-fail here - they were just biscuit men as I've run out of ginger powder!! Oops!)

24 Books

Our book today was the Mr Men 'A Christmas Carol'; starring Mr Mean as Ebenezer Scrooge, Mr Happy as Bob Cratchit and Mr Nosey, Little Miss Wise and Little Miss Bossy as the three ghosts! A great book which actually sticks pretty close to the original storyline...

Lolly Sticks

Our activity today was Bake for an old person. Given that Zoë thinks she's an 'old girl' as she's now 3 it gave us quite a wide range of people we could give to...
As I mentioned above our Gingerbread Men were made out of a vanilla biscuit recipe from my Be-Ro cookbook due to the lack of ginger. We also made butterflies, stars, snowmen and unicorns - and God made all of them! Once we'd finished cutting out the biscuits Zoë continued to play with the dough - she rolled it on the floor, on her hair, on Caleb's hair etc. Nice!

Are you wondering who the lucky old person was who got a biscuit from my gorgeous cook? I asked Zoë who she wanted to give it to and she said Baby E - a friend's newly adopted 18 month old daughter! Oh well, you can't argue with a 3 year old! Baby E seemed very happy and her Mum was very touched so it all ends well.

Jesse Tree Story

Tonight's story was the fall - where Adam and Eve disobey God and are banished from the Garden of Eden. It's been helpful to explain to Zoë about disobedience and consequences.

Mummy Time

Both children were asleep by 7pm so I've enjoyed writing this blog whilst watching Masterchef: The Professionals, oh and eating a hot chocolate fondant pudding! Looking forward to watching The Apprentice and later reading my Advent Devotional.