Clay Pot Nativities

Gabba and Lucy are both in the Activity Days program, now. Lucy came in in May. I was secretly worried, as Gabba tends to be very territorial, especially about her friends. But so far, so good. They do very well together, and no one has eviscerated anybody. Most recently, they made Clay Pot Nativities...so cute!

Here is Lucy's:

...and here is Gabriella's

They had a lot of fun. And when they got home with them, we put a tablecloth on, and used them as center pieces. I should tell you that these girls are all about Christmas. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Mark and I were both sick. We stayed home from church, and slept as much as the parents of seven children possibly can. Gabba and Lucy were determined to begin decorating for Christmas. I was determined to get them to leave me in peace. So, I gave them my blessing to decorate all they wanted, as long as they left me alone to sleep.

With that blessing, they hauled the Christmas tree up from the basement - by themselves - and set it up. They dug out the decorations and decorated the tree - by themselves. They found the strings of lights and used packing tape to put them up in the living room windows - by themselves. Then, they cleaned the living room. The only thing they asked of us was for their daddy to hook the different tree sections together so the lights would work. He staggered out of bed long enough to do just that. Eliza and Yvette were their willing accomplices, but the bulk of the motivation and organization and follow-through came from Lucy and Gabriella. Bless them.

When Mark and I were finally able to drag ourselves out of bed, the girls excitedly led us into the living room, which they had single-handedly transformed into Christmas Wonderland. They were so proud of themselves. And then, they begged to be allowed to sleep under the Christmas tree that night. Of course we said yes. And all of the girls worked together for the next two days to keep the living room spanking clean, and spent all their time playing in the Christmas ambiance.

Here are Gabba and Lucy (stupid auto-focus!) with their clay pot nativities. I never did blog about their haircuts...they both donated their hair (Gabba for the second time) back in October. Gabba loves her cut, even though Hyrum teases her about looking like Justin Bieber. Lucy misses having long hair to play with, but certainly does not miss the upkeep.

And here is George, who -of course!- climbed up on the table to investigate what all the fuss was about. I took a picture of him to distract him from trying to kick the clay pots like so many breakable soccer balls. We eventually had to move the nativities to save them from George's, uhm, enthusiasm.