Christmas Parties and Christmas Baking

We're continuing to find fun things to do during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Last week our church hosted a birthday party for Jesus and so our playgroup decided to attend. It was very cute and everyone had fun. First, there was a story time about the birth of baby Jesus and then we sang Away in a Manager. Next, we sang happy birthday to Jesus and blew out the candles on the cake. Before we could eat, the kids had the opportunity to make an angel ornament (which pretty much meant the parents made the ornament while the kids watched...it was a little difficult for our age group). All of the children then got to eat some birthday cake (which was the highlight of the party for Lily) and we got a little gift bag to take home. A fun morning was had by all.





 
On Thursday, Justin took the day off of work to spend some time with his girls, and that afternoon Lily and I baked some Christmas cookies for our playgroup party. I gave Lily her own dough to play with (which of course she tried to eat), but she also helped me push the cookie cutters into the dough and used the spatula to flip the cookies onto the baking sheet. While I decorated the cookies she went out to play on the swings with Justin since it was such a nice day (later this week she can help me decorate cookies for Santa). But, a delicious cookie was waiting for her when she came back inside.




On Friday we hosted our playgroup Christmas party. It's always so much fun to celebrate holidays with our friends. The kids had fun playing and eating yummy holiday treats (as did the mommies) and we also had a book exchange for the kids again this year.