Happy Birthday Jesus!

One of our favorite "Andersen" traditions has become a yearly birthday party for Jesus with some of our friends. I don't know exactly how many years we've done an actual party but it's been at least 4 (I think) and it's becoming more and more fun as our kids are getting older. This year with the age spread of the Andersen crew we actually had 2 parties!  The first one was for Cadence and her friends and then we also had a "littles" birthday party for Jesus. 

For Cadence's party with her friends this was the first year that we had the cupcakes decorated when her friends arrived. That's usually part of the fun to get to decorate your own. But, we had so much other fun planned that we decided to just have cupcakes rather than that be a craft. 

What's the other fun? I'm glad you asked!  We decorated a gingerbread house, acted out the nativity story, made cards for the residents of the nursing home our church goes to every week, and played Christmas bingo!

Cadence - all ready for her friends to arrive!!  How is she this big? 

She literally takes my breath away with how beautiful she is - inside and out. 

Making Christmas Cards - I was so proud of the girls. There were about 8 of them there and they ended up making over 20 cards!  When the Hootenanny Choir goes to sing at the nursing home this coming weekend we will deliver the cards to the residents. 

Acting out the nativity Story with props that were imagined 

and found by our very own Cadence Shae Andersen!  

Working on the gingerbread house - this is a perfect picture describing the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen" but the girls eventually worked it out and got almost all of the house decorated!

And the next morning, we did it all over again for the littles celebration!

Instead of acting out the nativity, the littles and their friends all got to open a present that was a different character in the story. This way we got to tell the story as we went!

Singing "Happy Birthday to Jesus"

One of our craft projects was to make a picture frame to take home - silly boys don't love crafts but do enjoy stickers in random places!

We did let the littles decorate their own cupcakes - because what every 2-5 year old wants is their own knife and a bowl of frosting :)  throw some sprinkles into the mix and they're in heaven!

This is definitely one of our favorite "events" of the Christmas season. I love that this gives our kids to celebrate in a very "kid-friendly" way that Jesus DID really come to earth and He is really still accessible to them. I pray that this will be a truth that sticks with them their entire life. 

Happy Birthday to Jesus!!!