advent day #11 - walk outside/Christmas memories

We planned to take a walk outside as a family and tell any Christmas memories (new or old) we had for our Advent activity for the day. Our walk could have been better had we picked a better time to go and had we made sure all kids were dressed properly.


Ivy wore her rainboots and not her winter boots which didn't keep her feet real warm which made it quite hard for her to walk.



Letty was completely oblivious to anything on the walk as she fell fast asleep. She probably was getting cold though. (Don't worry...we did have a hat on Letty when she was outside...this picture was taken when we came inside. :-) )

SO, the girls turned around and went home, while the boys kept on walking.

We did manage to take some pictures of a few treasures we saw along our walk...

...like this license plate that the tree has grown around...
...and this basket hanging in a tree...

...and all of the white birches that line the path we were walking on. This picture doesn't look like much right now, but you should see this sight after it has just snowed. It is absolutely remarkable.

All in all, it was great just to get out of the house, be together as a family, and enjoy God's incredible creation.

By the way, some of our Christmas memories included:
- going and picking out our Christmas tree (Ivy's);
- Santa Clause coming to our house (Ivy's);
- being awoken by a brother's face being but a few inches from his own and subconciously punching him right in the nose, all for the reason to go see all of the presents under the tree (Daddy's, OF COURSE);
- rolling the red felt out on the mantle above the fireplace and carefully placing all of the ceramic nativity figurines on the mantle (all but Jesus - he was placed there on Christmas Day) (Mommy's);
- going to Grandma R.'s house and having red Jello with white marshmallows on it (Mommy's); and
- going to Grandpa O.'s house and getting to see and play with all of my cousins (16 total), playing pool, games, house, and dress up with some of our late Grandma O.'s old clothes, and exchanging gifts and watching everyone take turns opening the gifts among all of our family members.

Of course, here's Owen making a memory for us...



Later that night, we read the previous night's and tonight's Bible passages and then continued to work on our memory verse.

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. ~Isaiah 11:1-3a