It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today was a great day! Glynn & I spent the day shopping in Regina, while Rebekah & Chloe visited with Grandpa & Grandma. We began our adventures at Toys'r'us, which, to be honest, I have never seen so busy in my life. Apparently, there was a big sale. Who knew? But we braved the crowds, and were able to complete most of our Christmas shopping. The lines at the tills were shockingly long. There were 20-30 people in each line, but everyone was in good spirits, and we managed to make it through. We are three gifts away from being finished, and I can order those on-line. Woo hoo!!!

The other great stop we had was at 10,000 Villages, a fair trade store that has stores all across Canada. This year is the first year we haven't had Starbucks Christmas blend for our coffee. Every year, for the past 7 years, we've had the tradition of brewing the Christmas blend starting December 1st. However, during the past year we've learned much about the coffee business and the unsavoury practices of Starbucks. Consequently, we decided to forego buying our usual holiday treat. But today, at 10,000 villages, we found a fair trade Holiday Blend coffee, and chocolate covered mints, much like after eights. It is incredibly exciting to know that we can now continue this treasured tradition.

On Tuesday, we had our first real snowfall. Snow that will stay the season. So much snow, actually, that I stayed home from work on Wednesday, and Glynn got off work early. Rebekah was at Sparks, and so, the three of us spent an hour outside playing and shovelling. Chloe loved the snow. I think her favourite thing was eating it off the pine tree branches.

This week we started our Advent traditions. Every night we read the Christmas story and add a piece to our manger scene. We light our Advent wreath at supper, and after supper we read a bible passage and the girls create pictures for their Jesse Tree. Of course, we have the usual chocolate Advent calendar, which I've learned never to buy at the dollar store again! The girls also each have a Christmas countdown garland that has little baby stockings on it. Actually, most of them are their baby socks. Each morning there is a little gift waiting, and the stocking is then removed.