The Christmas Star

After the girls went down for naps

yesterday afternoon, I scrambled to put together a tent in their playroom for our afternoon Advent activity. Does anybody remember the magical tent in the little girls' room in the movie The Holiday?

These were the only pictures I could find online and if you've seen the movie, you know these don't do justice to just how magical and whimsical it looked on the big screen.

This is the vision I had in my mind of what I wanted to create and in thirty minutes, I managed to drag Will's ladder inside and suspend a wooden dowel from the ceiling using some ribbon and tacks. I then draped one of our queen sized white sheets over the rod and tacked it up on the wall. Some left over white tree lights and some blankets and pillows made the tent quite cozy.

I made a star from tinfoil and hung it from the center of our tent. And on the chalkboard on the wall wrote this verse:

When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. Matthew 2:10

When the girls woke up and discovered their surprise, the first thing Anna Cate wanted to do was get the baby Jesus and bring him into the tent...along with "him mama and daddy."

We spent the afternoon reading all of our Christmas books and learning about the star that appeared on the night Jesus was born.

This post would not be complete if I didn't include this picture. She is the queen of silly faces and this look is one of my favorites!

I'll admit that I secretly love this new cozy little spot in our house and if Will wouldn't have thought I'd totally lost my mind, I would have curled up under the tent last night with a blanket and a few magazines of my own after the girls were in bed. ;)