Winter in California

In contrast with the last post about Utah and Snow, there have been many times this winter that I have stopped to appreciate living in Southern California.  It is fun to go visit the snow, but it is so nice to enjoy mild tempetures and green everywhere!

This is an example of a typical gorgeous day with the kids out playing croquet.  Blue skies, green grass, no bundling up of coats...enjoying the positive sides of living in California in December.

Another fabulous sign of winter in California, picking oranges in Vov and Yogi's backyard.  The amazing citrus-smell filling the house from squeezing oranges for orange juice is another favorite winter-time memory to enjoy.

Winter Fun

When we got to Utah there was only this much snow on the ground

these California kids were still thrilled to see snow and wanted to play in it immediately (we were trying to walk to church, so it wasn't the best timing)

Luckily, it snowed the next day so the kids could enjoy it they way they were hoping to.

sledding at Grandma's is always a big hit.

While in Utah we also braved the cold weather to do some geocaching, finding the smallest cache we've ever seen.

We went ice skating, which Brielle was requesting since she found out about our trip to Utah.  When she found out we were skating at the Olympic Oval, she thought she was in the actual Olympics and that people were watching her on their TVs.

No medals would have been won for our performance however.  We hugged the side most of the time as we slowly tried to make it around the oval.  Since being home Brielle asked if we could go ice skating in California.  She was hoping Californian ice would be less slippery so she could skate better.

Ethan decided he didn't like being cold after all.  And, he likes making faces for the camera.

Advent Activities

We started December 1st with our Christmas Book advent.  Each day the kids got to open a book that we read and did an activity to go along with it.  Some of the activities were planned going out events, others were crafts, snacks or projects.  It was harder to fit them in this year with Brielle being in school, we tried to open the book right after she got home, but when we had other things going on, it made it very busy.

I started to track which books we opened and what we did for the activity for each day, but didn't follow up with it, so I don't have a good record, but here are a few to remember for next year.

On December 1st we had Breakfast with Santa at our church, so that morning we read the book How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky 

After reading Henry Bear's Christmas by David McPhail we made paper chains (we did this last year as well)  I asked the kids if they wanted to make a countdown to Christmas, but they were having so much fun their chains grew and grew until they made a garland that decorated the perimiter of our dining room.  

We used the printables available on the Jan Brett website to go along with The Mitten.  The kids colored the animals and I laminated them and the mitten so they could practice lacing the mitten and put the animals in as we read the story.

I saw this idea for snowmen ice cream and immediatly knew it would be a perfect activity to go along with The Hawaii Snowman (by Christine Le).  I let the kids decorate the marshmallow heads using food safe markers.

Other activities from our list, although I don't remember exactly which books they all went with...
Snowman Pancakes
Tree Lighting/Santa Visit at City Hall
Hot Chocolate
Paper Snowflakes
Movie and Popcorn (Yes, Virginia There is Santa Claus, How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
Train Day, Bell Bracelets (Polar Express)
Make Christmas Cookies
Gumdrop Snowflake
Writing Letters to Santa

Lacing Stockings

Painting Wooden Sleds

Paper Bag Gingerbread Houses (Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun)

Shaving Cream Drawings (Tacky's Christmas)

Paper Snowball Fight (If you take a Mouse to the Movies)

Cotton Ball Beard (Jolly Old Santa Claus)
Orange Marmalade on Toast for Snack (Paddington's Christmas)