Advent Festival

On Saturday afternoon the boys and I went to our church's annual Advent Festival. This has become a special tradition for us. There is a wonderful angel at our church named Carol H. who organizes this every year. She is assisted by a team of fantastic volunteers. She basically transforms our whole Sunday school wing. There is a cookie decorating station, a room set up with actors playing Mary and Joseph who read the Nativity story, many rooms with crafts to make and take and (my sons' favorite part) a "store" where children only are allowed to go in without parents to buy gifts for their family. All the items in the store are donated by church members and none are priced higher than $2. There are volunteers who help them shop and wrap their gifts. They are SO excited to come out with armloads of gifts that they have personally chosen for their loved ones. My little boy wanted to "keep shopping". Carol amazes me every year with the great crafts she comes up with. Our Christmas tree has many ornaments made at past Advent festivals and they are truly family treasures.

This year my children made snowglobes. Carol had it all set up with the lids ready to go. The children chose the figure they wanted from the ones available...............



Then they went to the next table where little jars of water waited for a scoop of snowy glitter. An assistant helped glue the lids on and decorate them with a ribbon.



What a cute little snowglobe!!




I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVED this next project. It was a pinecone wreath. Again, Carol was so organized and had the pinecones already glued together in a wreath shape.




The children used paintbrushes to cover one side of the wreath with glue. Then they shook green glitter on top as shown.

Next, red sequins, a ribbon, and a hanging hook were added to complete the little wreaths. I really love these so much!! And now there are two hanging on our tree at home. Some of these photos did not turn out very well! :-(

I also completely loved this little Baby Jesus craft. There were little tiny babies to wrap in "swaddling clothes". These were then placed into a walnut shell manger. The gold ribbon was already glued on ahead of time.

I tried to take a picture of these on our tree but couldn't get a good shot. Here are the ones my boys made. This photo does not even come close to showing how adorable they are.

I am so thankful that Carol does this every year for the children in our church. We will look forward to attending for many years to come and will always treasure the memories and the ornaments we made.