Our ADVENTures: Day 1
December 1, 2021
By Jen Stanbro
God smiled on us on December 1, 2021 and it felt so lovely.
I am not ultra-prepared. Today’s activity was gingerbread houses and I hadn’t purchased a kit yet. I was kinda hoping to convince everyone to do the Gingerbread Train kit this year instead of the multiple-mini-house set we do every year, so I decided to wait until after I got their opinions to buy.
I’m a pretty committed procrastinator so I waited till this morning to make the little Advent Activity Cards and wrap our Christmas reads. And since, I fully anticipate my plans will end up changing, I only made the first week’s worth of cards, and wrapped five books.
At this point, I’m hoping your take away is that it doesn’t have to be insanely, meticulously perfect for God to pour out His Spirit and blessing on your days. It just takes a little intentionality and a willing heart.
So, after my morning-of preparations, it was about time to invite the kiddos. I went out to the living room, opened up the blinds to let the sunshine brighten my mood, lit a couple candles, got my Christmas Favorites playlist gently filling the air, and waited. Not gonna lie, God’s goodness toward me, nudged my feet and I may or may not have been dancing when the kids, beckoned by the cheery ambiance, trickled down the stairs.
Everyone knows just what to do these days, so we all padded over to the Advent house, read our Daily Regulars list to the littles, and then decided on who would do what each day. We have four kids and four tasks, so it works out. One kiddo opens the Advent door for the activity card. Another turns on the Christmas tree lights. Another gets to open our online Advent calendar. And another gets to unwrap our Christmas book. My tween daughter keeps track of who does what, so I don’t balk. One less thing I have to manage. She’s a blessing!
To my delight, the morning went forward sweetly! The kids were excited that the activity was gingerbread houses, although they vetoed my train suggestion. Whatever. So after we lit the tree, unwrapped our book, opened our online advent surprises, and did our picture book read aloud time, I went to Walmart to buy the multi-mini house gingerbread kit, with my youngest in tow.
Honestly, the rest is history. When we got back, we did school. Meh. Then, around noon, fatigue swept over me, so after lunch, I took about a 15 minute nap. Impressive, right? After that, the olders and I did our read aloud time and then it was time for gingerbread insanity!
My favorite tips this year are –
#1: Use up some Halloween candy! There’s never enough candy for every kid, so I told them to grab their Halloween bags. Worked out really well!
#2: Decorate the walls BEFORE you set them upright. This was game-changing. The directions say to mount the walls and roof first and then decorate, but I am quite tired of decorating horizontally and watching my icing drip. I’m no professional. And I’m quite tired of having to ask small humans to sit there and hold a gumdrop in place for 30 seconds, only to watch it droop and fall off 3 minutes later. No thank you! This year, everyone laid their walls down and we glued (w/icing) every stupid piece of candy and sprinkle to our heart’s content!
#3: Next, we found a cardboard box that was holding 15 boxes of mac and cheese, and cut it up to make platforms for our houses. We slathered about half a container of store-bought vanilla frosting on each platform, spread it and then ‘texturized it’ to look like snow. The frosting base was a huge help when it came time to put up our walls! When they were finished, we carefully stood the walls up, sticking them slightly into the frosting base and gooped them together with icing. To our JOY, everything stayed in place! Even the heavy jolly ranchers and gumdrops! Woohoo!
#4: The last thing I’ll share is that every single year, the icing at the tip of the bag hardens in the middle of our project, making it difficult to push out (even with toothpick clearing and warm water…so annoying). The bag springs a leak and blows out while I’m trying to help some poor child glue on some detail, causing me to have to employ strong self-control to keep swear words from also springing a leak. This year, when it inevitably happened, I was ready. I simply grabbed a fresh, sturdy new frosting bag from the cupboard, put on one of my own tips, cut the top of the gingerbread kit icing bag and squeezed it into my bag. So much easier!
The kids had such a blast! The littles ate about as much candy as they put on their houses. My tween girl got to showcase her creativity and my tween boy must have hugged me 20 times, thanking me for making this time of year so special, and commenting often about how much he loves these traditions. I am one blessed lady.
Here are some pics of the fun!
