Advent 2012 Days 5-6

Rothacher Advent 2012 Adventures

Wednesday December 5th

December 5th was spent on the run. Matt was off {WOO HOO!} and we had tons of things we need to accomplish. We were so excited to take the kids to their first play! Maggie's preschool HIPPY group allowed us to attend the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas play for FREE! It was so cute and our kids did fabulous. Actually way better than I anticipated. I'd picked our seating based on their nearness to the side exit door on the end of the row as to not tackle anyone on my way jetting toward the door to escape with one of my foreseen screamers. Never happened! The place was packed with preschoolers all the way through {I think} 2nd graders on field trips. I felt so bad for the 3 performers as they trudged through the consistent chatter in the auditorium {score for the new vocabulary word for Ms Mags}. I was way distracted by the low murmur of moving and giggling kids, but not my 3. They were mesmerized! Even J. He'll only be 2 in January. Iz the biz stat fairly still and was so excited to watch as those actors captivated her for an hour! I took the girls up to the stage to meet the performers after the show and you would have thought they were meeting Bob & Larry from Veggie Tales- PUMPED! Speechless!

After that fun we headed to Vilonia for Matt's dentist appointment. Nothing like packing your couple days off with pure fun...

I sat at my in laws while the kids napped & Matt got down in the mouth. As soon as he was done there we realized Jamin had fever and ran to grab some meds on the way to our apportionment with a builder.That poor baby was so crabby. The fever lasted several hours and then was gone. This seems to happen a lot in our house. Anybody know why??

Anyways, don't get too excited about the meeting with the contractor. He was a friend of a friend and we were just checking out all our options for if and when we ever get to Vtown... Oh, and by they way. We got an offer!!! It was slightly less than desirable but the couple has been super sweet each time they've come to view the house and even in presenting their offer. During our drive up to the dentist, we'd called and counter offered. It's Saturday...we still haven't heard back from them. We not desperate yet, God knows exactly who is going to live in our home next. With His grace and perfect timing we will sell this monster for the perfect price.

Okay, so after the meeting we ventured out to grab some of our fav {"chick-a-lay"} on our way to Bethlehem! Yep!!! This being the original reason we headed all the way up to Vilonia, we were so excited to see what the cool Antioch Baptist Church had in store for us. I was awesome! This definitely has the potential to become an annual Advent activity for our family! Downer- didn't have time to run back to the house for my camera- TEAR! I'll share some of the pics from our phones though. Here is how the tour of Bethlehem worked.

Again, my kids surpassed all expectations I had of them. They began to get a bit crabby and of course were having a bit of trouble making good choices toward the end. When we got to the van and realized it was 9L30pm, I was SUPER impressed with how well they'd done an hour & 1/2 passed bed time!

While in Rome...since we were already in town we followed our friends across Conway to look at Christmas lights. Now these were more than Christmas light! The 1st street we looked at had multiple houses covered in lights. The next street is known as the Conway "Dancing Lights"!!! These crazy awesome neighbors have their houses decked out AND dancing. If you tune your radio to the station they have announced on the sign as you enter their street you can hear the music they are all dancing to. I was so cool. J was snoring in the backseat and the girls were about there but wanted to see the lights so we did something they've never done before...while we were parked in the cul de sac we let them get out of their car seats and sit in our laps up front. They hung their heads out the windows and chatted about all the lights, their favorites, and how they did that. Snuggles! As the parade of cars in front of us moved forward or left the street we inched forward. Kids still in laps... Izzie's face as she got to hold the steering wheel while Matt drove a few feet forward was priceless!!! Soon we switched laps and Mags got to 'drive' forward the next time. After re-buckling, we went a few blocks of to were pure crazy lives. Matt captured this:

there are no words.

Thursday December 6th

We slept in. As much as parents of littles can. Because we were staying at my in-laws new home, the kids had the privilege of having toys in their bedroom. They anticipate waking up so they can go at'm!

I headed out to do some more shopping for our Christmas families. I got to hang out with my sweet friend Brandi while I dug through her deals! While I did that Matt and the kids did lots of playing, ate lunch, and took naps. When I got home it was time to leave town and hit up SAMs club for our monthly attack. This weekend proved to be full of fun and too much eating out.

How's your advent season going with the fam?

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Truth in the Tinsel Days 1-3

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Monday {Dec 3rd} we finally started our
Advent book, Truth in the Tinsel.

I printed all the days titles on green & red cardstock and stuck them in an advent calendar we already had. This may prove to be worthless. The kids aren't really into the count down like I thought they would but are LOVING the stories and crafts!

Monday Day 1:: Light {Isaiah 9:2-7}

Rather than skipping to day 3 we just started on day 1 an plan to double up tomorrow {since we had a house showing again today!!!}. Maggie acted perturbed that I was asking her questions she already knew the answer to, "Who is the light of the world". Ugg I have to remind myself she'll have to persevere because the other 2 don't memorize things like she does and haven't' heard it as much as she has. She is a whole 18.5 months older than Izzie and 30.5 months older than J {hehe} I run into this with lots of things. homeschooling is gonna be rough if I don't get the hang of this...


Tuesday day 2:: Kingdom {Isaiah 9:2-7}

Since we were finishing up some HIPPY preK work with Mags this was quite a feet tying to help the little bitties with their craft. We skipped the pain and went for a more classroom-full-friendly-version, markers, crayons, & stickers. We actually cute the silver sparkly trim off some other stickers into triangles {aka diamonds} for our crowns. They didn't know the difference.

AND day 3:: Zachariah {Luke 1:5-25}

They though it was funny we were making faces and that pour Zach wasn't allowed to talk. We can't get our glitter glue to function correctly so I had to take off the lid and just glob it on for them. We also {finally} through out the bubble wrap from a random package forever ago so we had to invent something else for Z's mouth- hot glue glob! Hey, I just claimed it was because not being able to talk was kinda like God "glued" his mouth shut. My 2 {almost 3} year old was able to recall most of the story to me. #winning We're having fun!

How is your Truth in the Tinsel coming along?

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Advent 2012 Day 1 & 2

Well, I had high hopes off all this organization for advent this year...and then my hubs was finally off work! Who can think about planning and finalizing organization when your long lost best friend is home again. These 14 hour days are hard! I get to see my hubby about 3 hours a day...an most of that I have to share him. Boo Hoo

So anyways, he was off Friday & we declared a "do nothing, go no where day"! Then Friday we decided to go to the Rothacher's favorite consignment event to see if we could score some great finds for a couple of families we're helping with Christmas. Deals found: brand spank'n new tennis shoes & an adorable caterpillar my kids really wanted to claim; but they were allowed to claim the Little People Noah's Arch for $1!

We went to the in-love's house for nap time and then caught a quick lunch in the nest Vtown eating establishment. When we were heading out-of-town to hunt for Christmas PJs and the practical stuff for the families, my keen observation skills identified families claiming spots for a parade. WHAT!?! We text a friend and confirmed that the Vtown Christmas parade was that night. Score! We ran our errand real fast and made it back just in time to lay our a blanket right next to the road where we enjoyed a night pretending we are already part of the community with giant waves, cheers, and LOTS of "Merry Christmas"es! {WARNING: I only used a few pic to spare you from Cuteness overload}

Our Sunday was pretty typical: wake up entirely too early to get everyone up and ready for church an hour way in another town. Prepping for an afternoon of lunch out and possible fellowship. Matt and I were so excited to get to participate in oneChurch's Advent candle lighting that morning. We were blessed to have lots of hang time with friends.

Needless to say, we didn't get to the organized Advent crafting I had planned but I wouldn't trade those days of celebrating His coming for all the funky ornaments my kids could make. I'm attempting to be purposeful this season yet not so caught up in "the book" that I miss moments and memories with my little bitty family and our friends.

Side Note: be looking forward to post about the crafts we actually have done as well as a #ItsAboutGiving post about helping Compassion International meet their goal of raising $20,000 for children in poverty this Christmas season.
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Magic Meatballs {Thoughtful Thursday}

  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 eggs {slightly beaten}
  • 1 tbs salt
  • 2 tbs onion pwd
  • 1 tbs garlic pwd
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 2 sleeves Ritz crackers {crushed}
  • 2 lbs lean ground beef

 

Mix Worcestershire sauce, milk, eggs,  salt, both powders, and oregano with a fork. Then blend in crackers. Kneed in ground beef with hands until completely blended. Then roll ~2 inch balls and place on a lipped baking sheet. Bake @ 350' for 30 minutes. Then either freeze some for later or add them all to your favorite sauce & noodle meal.

Beef up your Spaghetti Sauce

I love taking cheap traditional meatless spaghetti sauce and adding some parsley flakes, garlic pwd. I let that simmer while I add the meatballs. Keep it low enough you don't have to constantly stir and it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. Pour on top of your noodles. YUM!

Actual Size! {~2.5inches 'round}

 

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What the Rothacher’s are doing for Advent?

The Rothacher clan has started intentionally "doing Advent" last year and we are excited to share with you what we'll be doing this year!

For years I thought Advent was either a simple cardboard calendar that had candies in it that you and your brothers fought to snag 1st OR a Catholic/Jewish holiday that had something to do with candles {aka menorah} but I've come to learn that Advent is anything you do in the weeks leading up to Christmas as a family that teach about or celebrating what has "come" an is "coming" can be considered part of Advent.

"The key to this entire advent celebration is to have a daily focus and meditation on God’s greatest gift. Your  children will learn the ins and outs of the story because you’ve facilitated a time to discuss, play, and create. And in those moments, God will speak to their hearts and yours.

The little Baby is no longer in the manger but alive and sitting on a throne—waiting to have a relationship with you and your children. Help your children get to know Him this Christmas!"

                                                                                      -Truth in the Tinsel

So far this year, things we've done {or are doing} to begin preparing for Christmas are:

  • Decorated the house for Christmas, including setting up & decorating our tree as a family.
  • Wore fun Christmas-like clothing.
  • Packed Operation Christmas Child boxes.
  • Watching TONS of Christmas movies
  • Visiting Santa at the mall in North West AR {the BEST Santa ever}

Things we plan to do in the coming weeks:

  • Attending some fun activities in December including 3 Christmas parties, going to visit "Bethlehem", Christmas Eve service.
  • Bake TONS of cookies & other snacks for our neighbors.
  • Shop for gifts for family, friends, and others we've adopted for the season.
  • See a Christmas play with our HIPPY group.
  • Possibly see a Christmas parade
  • Reading plan for celebrating Advent with the Jesus Storybook Bible.

And the newest thing we are adding to our Advent adventure is THIS:

This book has 24 days of Scripture reading, ornament crafts, talking points and extension activities. Plus fun printables and templates! This is the perfect book for kids of any age–from preschool to elementary! YAY!!! I've already collected all my supplies to make sure we have everything needed for the crafts. It doesn't really take a lot but I didn't have googly eyes, or glitter glue. ;o)

Oh, and I'm an affiliate for Truth in the Tinsel because I think it's that cool! They didn't tell me to say that.

I'm going to try and share lots of our Advent adventure this year but don't shoot me if I'm slack'n...I'm going to concentrate on participating more than sharing this year ;o)

What are you doing for Advent? Wanna go through the Truth in the Tinsel book with us? Grab the book today so you'll be ready Saturday!

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