Merry Christmas and Last Week of Advent activities

Our last week of advent calendar activities.  Phew!  L was on Christmas holidays this week.  In a way I miss the days when it was just L and I doing lots of Montessori activities and crafts so this past week was really nice.

Day 20

"Sing Christmas carols"

We had friends over in the afternoon and had a great singalong with all of the instruments.  My friend is a wonderful singer and it was so much fun with her singing harmonies to our favorite carols.  In the evening we had another family singalong.

Day 21

"Make puppets from the Nutcracker"

We have a very condensed story version of the Nutcracker which we have been reading and have also been listening to the music from the ballet.  I printed out the puppets from here.  L was so excited and colored, cut and taped them all with almost no help from me. (I did get to color one or two of the puppets : )

Amazingly we watched the whole ballet on Youtube performed by the Royal Ballet in London.  I couldn't believe L sat and watched the whole thing.  It was also enjoyable for me as I've never actually seen it!  I've always been playing in the pit orchestra!!

After watching we put on the puppet show with me singing all of the parts.  Too much fun!  Next year we will definitely go and see it live.

 Day 22

"Make Christmas ornaments"

We made salt dough ornaments for all of the family as presents from L.  She used our Christmas cookie cutters and once they had baked for a couple of hours she painted them and then wrapped them all up.  She will hand them out to everyone on Christmas day.

 Day 23

"Look in the bathroom"

I just couldn't resist getting these little fairy clothes pins from the dollar store.  I know they're not very Christmasy but they're sooo cute!  We're big into fairies at our house right now.

 Day 24

"Go to Mommy and Daddy's bedroom"

Today was very special because Daddy got home really early from work and was able to do L's activity with her.  I found a discounted Christmas package of Wiki Sticks last year and saved them for this very occasion.

Well that's it folks.  We're packing up and heading off to a beautiful resort and spa for the next couple of days(thanks Dad!) and then going up to the Mountain to go skiing. 
Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season with their families and I'm looking forward to reading all about it!
Merry Christmas!