Waiting....

 December is finally here and the hardest part is ... WAITING!  You know.... waiting for baby Jesus and his number one best friend and helper - SANTA!!!!!  It will be FOREVER until Christmas gets here!!! (or at least that is what it feels like.)  So to help us learn to what it means to wait "patiently" we made this crazy cool Santa countdown.  Each day you cut off one strip of his beard and as his beard gets shorter - it gets closer to Christmas!!!!!

 

I love all of the vibrant colors on Santa this year.  Our boys and girls have a very non traditional view of him and colored him the way their heart told them to. (So if your Santa looks a little more tropical, you can blame me because I gave total creative freedom on this project.)  I am super proud of their work and hope this makes things a little easier at home.

Below you will also see another fun thing that we found in our room....it is a classroom elf.  (Kinda like the "Elf on the Shelf)  We had no idea that one of Santa's little helpers would sneak into our classroom but know all of the rules for "scout elf safety."  We learned that his job is to watch and see if we do our best work and have "bucket filler" days.  We had a class election to give him a name and by a whopping one vote, he was named "Davis."  I was impressed with all of the names suggested by our classmates and believe that this is the first time that pretty much every child voted for their nomination.  So thank you to the one brave soul that voted outside of the box and helped Davis earn his name on a first ballot.  We can't wait to see if this little elf is as mischievous as some of our elf friends at home.....who knows what he might do to keep our class on their toes?

 And finally - the very best and most important part of waiting - the birth of baby Jesus!!! To help us wait on this amazing part of Christmas,  you found a tiny Mary & Joseph in a bag with a small candle.  This is to remind us that baby Jesus is the light of the world and that when we light this candle every night, we are getting our hearts ready for excitement of his arrival on Christmas.