Advent: Days 19. 20, & 21

Day 19

On Thursday, Raf had his Christmas party at school. We all went along in the afternoon and had a lovely time. We really are so happy with Raf's class. He's with a great group of kids, many of whom will be going with him to kindergarden next year, and we just LOVE his teachers, Ms. Kristina and Ms. Jesse. Because of the party, though, we kept the advent activity fairly simple: Christmas shopping for gifts for Daddy, Charlie, the teachers, and the pups. 

First, we stopped at the party for some tasty treats and some fun.

Raf's teacher, Ms. Kristina!

We woke Charlie from a nap when we arrived and he was a bit grumpy.

Then shopping we went. Frankly, Raf wasn't really into shopping for others! I had to nag him to find some things. By the end of the trip he was a little more interested...

And he counted out the money I'd given him...

Such a big boy. That day we also received some excellent news that Rich passed his clinical licensing exam so en route home we stopped for 'restaurant food', aka, Thai cuisine. Raf loves it, especially the tofu triangles!

Day 20

Friday is a busy day as we have swimming in the evening and so it doesn't leave a lot of time to do much. In the end we settled on a Christmas picnic after swimming class. This was a big hit!

Packing up the basket with some tasty bites.

Day 21

Winter Solstice! And boy, are we happy that the days will slowly be getting lighter! We made the solstice the focus of today, but luckily we had a party to attend so we made that part of our Solstice Celebration!

The boys fell asleep en route and Raf was grumpy when we arrived, and really actually didn't get himself out of his funk for the entire party. The rest of us all had a great time, though, especially as there were lots of little toddlers running around!

When we returned home there was a lovely gift from our friends Beth and Scott. A beautiful train ornament. Raf LOVES it.

We finished this very short day with some hot chocolate and the remaining cookies. Here is Charlie spying the cookies! He has learnt the power of the 'point and grunt'!

Which one shall I have?

Yummy!