We do family night every week on Monday night (unless I'm on call, in which case we switch nights) which usually consists of eating dinner followed by a lesson, activity and treat. The lesson consists of talking about some aspect of the Gospel or being good or something that will be good for a 3 year old and 18 month old. Let's just say, I'm occasionally good at keeping their attention but most often the lesson usually goes something like this.
Dad: Caleb and Ella, did you know Jesus loves you?
Caleb: Yeah.
Ella: [runs off giggling and starts playing with a toy or trying to leave the room which causes Mommy to run after her].
Daddy: Jesus wants us all to be nice to each other.
Caleb: [now he runs around the room making wierd noises and starts trying to climb on things and jump off them. Mommy again intervenes.]
Daddy: Caleb, how does Jesus want you to treat Ella?
Caleb: [no response, totally ignoring me]
Daddy: Ella, say Jesus.
Ella: Chee!
Daddy: Caleb, say Jesus.
Caleb: [still ignoring Daddy]
Daddy: Okay, time for dessert. :S
At least we're trying. :) The activity after the game usually gets more responses from the crowd and then dessert is always the biggest hit.
The pictures below are some family night activities that happened in December.
Caroling with friends and family at a nearby nursing facility, followed by homemade hot chocolate made by me with my mom's (AKA Grandma Jo's) recipe. Good stuff! Marshmallow's and candy canes made it even that much better.
This is the most random but cool tradition that Sally came up with this year which I'm sure will last for years to come. She made salt dough ornaments during the day and that night we painted them. It was an awesome night. The lady on the left is a single friend of ours' from church. Caleb and Ella didn't make it to the end of the activity before dessert was required but below you can see some of their budding art talent.
A few thoughts about Sally. First, it is so cool watching her do crafts with the kids. I think most adults (or maybe it's just me) get an idea in their head as to what a craft is supposed to be or what an activity is supposed to be and then try to force the kids into doing it their way in order to teach them. Not Sally. She throws individual bowls of paints and paintbrushes and ornaments in front of the kids with butcher paper all over the table and sees what happens. She's really good at letting them explore their world and try things out without hampering their creativity. It's really fun. Ella, of course, had to taste the pain right off the bat, but after cleaning that off her tongue things went really well! :) Second, Sally loves trying out new things. She heard recently that salt dough ornaments were a new fad (coming back, I guess, because we definitely had a ton of them on our Christmas tree growing up with our pictures on them and painted by us, too). After scouring some blogs, she came up with a plan and we were all trying out something new that we'd never done before. Maybe the tradition in our family will be doing a bunch of random, crazy things we've never imagined doing every Christmas. I can't remember if she mentioned it, but she also made all the gingerbread houses that we decorated that are posted earlier on this blog. I think that's pretty cool. Of course, I am biased.
Third, Sally is actually a really good artist herself. It fits with what I just said about her. About 6 months before Ella was born she decided to pick up her art skills again, and she found a community education class for water color painting. She got all the supplies and started painting all of a sudden. She was good, too! I love the spontaneity in which she lives her life. It keeps things exciting for me and her but more importantly for the kids. They have an awesome mommy. :)
