pick a hand, any hand

Today the boys and I did a fun little craft that I found at Hobby Lobby! It is a ceramic nativity set that comes complete with paints and paint brushes and you can create your own nativity scene! The boys love painting crafts and so when I found this I was pretty excited! As I brought out the craft I decided to take the opportunity to remind the boys of why we really celebrate Christmas. I asked them if they knew who was born on Christmas and Maddox shouted "baby Jesus!" We then discussed that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and that Jesus loves us all very much. I told them that Jesus created them just as they are and that's when Maddox piped up and said "And he created dogs too!!" I responded, "Yes, Maddox, Jesus created dogs." That's when Ashtyn chimed in with his arms crossed and brow furrowed, "I just wish Jesus didn't create a dog for me." (as you know Ash is VERY afraid of dogs...) HA!! I thought it was very cute! So, after a short Christmas lesson we opened the craft and began dividing the ceramic characters between the boys. They both wanted baby Jesus so I had to put him behind my back and let them each pick a hand...Maddox won!! Then we got to painting...

Unfortunately, I had stored this craft in the laundry room (which is actually part of the garage converted so it is not heated) and some of the paints had turned to the consistency of playdough!! Uh Oh!! So, we had to pull out some of our other craft paints to broaden our color selection... (oops!)

(tear.) Doesn't Ashtyn just look SO old here...???

Here is our finished product!! Can you find the shephard that mommy painted...??? :)

Well, I don't know how long this nativity set will last but it sure was fun!! Plus, we got to turn on the Christmas music and just chat!! Don't forget ya'll, only 2 weeks until Christmas Day...