O Christmas Tree and Chocolates

On Saturday mornings, Lowes building supply store does something special for kids--so a few weeks ago, Dad decided he wanted to take the boys on a special Father & Sons there. The boys put on their aprons and got to work building... goal posts! At home, Shane captured a picture of their final product:

The goal posts were finally put to use for our Family Home Evening this week. The lesson was on becoming a Forever Family. I printed out a football field and used the homemade goal posts the boys made to complete the football field. One side of the field says "Forever Family Team" and the other side says "Sad Team." We put a football in the middle and had an official kick-off. At each yardline we had to decide together as a team, what our "game plan" was...for example, whether to be kind or fight with each other. We discussed each principle right or wrong, and how it effects our family. Then I did a special recognition by reading a sentence about each member of the family. Everyone had to guess who the person was. It was a great way for us to get to know and appreciate eachother's gifts and talents. Then we signed our name on a special paper that says we promise to do the things discussed on our family game plan. We finished off the night with another special activity...

After our family tree went up last week, I asked the boys what they wanted for Christmas. Braden wanted to make a Gingerbread house and Kyle wanted his very own little Christmas tree. So this year I got a 4 foot tree for Braden and Kyle's room. They were thrilled to be able to decorate it with little ornaments we bought especially for their tree. They think they're so cool to have a Christmas tree in their room! Their first present was a box of chocolates...