Christmas Tree Activity and FHE

As one of our December activities I put together this paper Christmas tree for the girls to decorate. We did it last year and it was a huge hit so it was something I was looking forward to doing again. This year was even better because Shelby got to participate and she loved it! And it was a two day activity this time. Sometime in the beginning of the month the girls decorated the tree with Christmas stickers.Truly, it's the best activity. They both loved it and it kept them busy, entertained and engaged until we ran out of stickers! Whoever invented stickers needs a raise!

The finished product after all the stickers were on.

 The second activity was part of family night tonight. It's the Monday before Christmas so of course we did a lesson about the birth of Jesus (from the nursery manual). We talked about the three wise men bringing gifts to Jesus and ways that we can still bring gifts to Him even though he now lives in Heaven. We talked about ways we can do nice things for other people and how doing those things are special presents for Jesus.

We came up with a list of nice things we can do for other people and then wrote them on little "presents" that I made. Basically I just cut square pieces of paper out of cute, Christmas paper and laminated them. Then I made little curly ribbons for the tops so they looked like presents. Then with dry erase markers I wrote our list of things down on each present and the girls taped them to the tree.

 We also added a star to the tree because we didn't have one yet.

 Our list of special presents for Jesus/nice things we can do for others:
-say we're sorry
-take treats to Chloe and Naomi (our neighbors)
-clean up our toys
-take turns
-give hugs and kisses
-listen
-don't take things from Shelby/and Shelby not from Shasta
-take treats to our friends
-share our testimonies
-sing primary songs
-help others

Shasta came up with a lot on her own, but I did a lot of prompting too (ie. what's something we share in the microphone at church?). She understood the concept, but she had a hard time thinking of a variety of different ways to do nice things for others. But tonight I had an idea that it would be good to write different (simple) service activities down that we can do throughout the month. I love serving others and I love doing this simple little tradition so we might as well combine the two! I guess it's good I'm writing this down so I remember to do it next year!