Advent season

Advent.
    A season of joy and beauty.
       A season of excitement and wonder.
            Expectation.

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given,

and the government will be upon his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

One of the joys of being parents is seeing the world thru new eyes, laughing at lifes simple pleasures and marveling in the world around you, seeing it anew thru the eyes and excitement level of a toddler or young child.   Christmas is one of those times when at a young age the birth of our Saviour can get turned into something selfish and worldly or beautiful and praise-worthy. 
This is the third year Andy and I have decided to follow the church calendar by consciously celebrating Advent.  And the whole family is loving it.  For anyone out there interested we are using the book "Why Christmas" by Barbara Reaoch.  Twenty five days of devotions, at a childs level but still interesting and thought provoking enough for an adult. There are hymns to sing everyday, a Bible passage to read and scripture to memorize.  Kids have an amazing capacity for memorization and love the building and continuity of learning parts from Luke 2.  I'm the one having a hard time with it since we did not learn the ESV, but rather the NIV, so I stumble a little and Seth proudly rumbles on over me:) 
There's something extra special about expecting a child around Christmas as well, as I can feel the eager anticipation Mary must have felt waiting for her baby to be born.   When will it happen?  How will everything go?  Did she have patience at the end?  The Bible doesn't tell us much but I can feel her calmness and trust in God, making my impatience and nervousness seem insignificant and trivial. 
Just another reason to be thankful from the bottom of our hearts, for God's gift of Jesus, to us.

  O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above your deep and dreamless sleep,
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light,
The hopes and fears of all the years,
Are met in thee tonight.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sins and enter in,
Be born to us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell:
Oh, come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!

Sinterklaas kapoentje,

"Sinterklaas kapoentje,

gooi wat in m'n schoentje,
gooi wat in m'n laarsje,
dank u Sinterklaasje."

Ahhh...  "MOM!!!  Did Santa come last night?"  Santa Claus? 
Whatever.
It was totally confusing this year.

The kids couldn't wait for the boots to go up by the fireplace and talked incessantly about Sinterklaas, but when they saw Santa in the mall, they were calling him Sinterklaas.  Which wasn't too bad except that Tristan was all excited about Sinterklaas coming with the reindeer...down the chimney...  Which of course we have to clarify:)  
And that led to how are we going to do this, the Dutch way or the Canadian way? 
So many fun things associated with the traditional dutch way, but also so confusing for the kids, and most of it's not making any sense to them due to the canadian culture.   We just really do not want to do the gift part on Christmas day as children being children, can hardly separate the birth of Jesus from Santa and receiving gifts. I'd love to hear from you my friends, how you do it, and why!
So with all that being said, we decided on a conglomeration of both:D And we told them that's what it was too.  Not full out Sinterklaas, since it was not on the 5th, but we still did the boots by the fireplace thing, and chocolate letters.  They could call it whatever. 

Andy and I so enjoy watching the excitement build, and spoiling the kids with some gifts, that hopefully get much use in the winter months.  This year Andy and I hired a babysitter and went to Lethbridge together for an evening to shop. It was fun, and so much better when Andy helps pick things out, his imagination for what's fun for little boys is better then mine, like when we went to Costco and Andy saw this rocking horse for Rowan.   Seriously? Seriously.  :)   And of course three sets of bows and arrows are way more fun then one... Yes of course. 

Gingerbread House Building (there's a first for everything)

Have you ever made a Gingerbread house?  Why do you do it?  Why is it such a tradition for so many people?  Do you keep them and eat them? Or gaze at it then toss it?
I really have no idea what it's all about.  I've never done it and wasn't planning on doing it either, ever.  I'm not terribly keen on wasting things, so building a house out of not-so-great-cookie and filling it with not-so-good-for-you candy doesn't really make sense to me.  When our church had an evening planned for the ladies and children to make Gingerbread houses my gut reaction was "nah".... but when the kids saw the poster they were so excited I couldn't be the mean mom and say no. So we went to Walmart, bought a kit and had a hoot, decorating to our hearts content.  :))  I thought I would be constantly telling them "don't touch" when we took it home, but it's Andy I have to worry about :)    Between him and Rowan... the house will be eaten in no time!

We assembled the shell at home so the icing would harden before decorating. 

Seth and Jayden VanderGaag - buddies