19 Days Till Christmas

Have a Christmas Party!

This particular day just belongs to the adults….but sometimes you need that.

We have an annual Christmas Dinner and Game Night.

Here was the dinning room all decorated for the party.

Once our dinner was over the fun began.

First we wanted to get a group shot..which turned into this.

Then everyone decided they wanted to play awkward family photos again, except this time taking all our own pictures.  I don’t really think I should share most of the photos taken, but I will share the winner of “most awkward photo”.

I might be one of those…you have to be there to get it.

20 Days Till Christmas

A new hat for Bella.

This child could still care less about opening up presents.

And she has a knack for keeping her head down so that hats don’t stay where they are supposed to on her head.

But this little reindeer hat should do the trick to keeping her head warm.  And since it was only in the teens this morning, it was definitely needed!

21 Days Till Christmas

When something comes up….make it a holiday experience.

We had a party to go to which was 40 minutes from our home.  It happened to be right near the Plaza, which has beautiful Christmas light decorations.  So we decided our advent activity would be looking at Christmas lights on the plaza.

Our kids are still a little too young to really experience the Plaza, so we just did a drive through.  Some year we hope to walk around.  Maybe on a nice evening, not one that was 20 degrees.

Here is what the Plaza area looks like all lit up (I did not take this photo).

We also found a neighborhood on our way home that had tons of lights, every house was lit up and they had strung lights from their trees down to the ground.  Both kids were in awe.  I just love neighborhoods were everyone participates!

And speaking of parties.  We were commenting on the way home how much “not fun” a party is when you are constantly chasing around your 2 year old and don’t really have the time to sit and talk with the friends you went to see in the first place.  I think he had a good time though.

22 Days Till Christmas

A gift of a warm head.

Oliver got to open up a gift.  He immediately recognized that it was a moose hat.

I was super excited to make the kids hats that were Christmas/winter themed.  As I was planning it all out I even thought I might make some for the cousins too.  Except half way through the process after taking out stiches for the fifth time and regretting the whole decision to make antlers that would stick up….I was about to give up.

I did end up finishing up the hats for my two kids.  But making more for others….not going to happen, it just didn’t quite turn out as I was hoping.

Stay tuned to see my daughters hat coming up in a few days.

23 Days Till Christmas

I always dread decorating the Christmas tree.  I’m not sure why, but it’s one of those tasks that waits till the end.  So I thought it would be a good one to incorporate as a family advent activity.

“Trim the Tree with Christmas Music and Frozen Peppermint Hot Chocolate”

First let’s talk about the Frozen Peppermint Hot Chocolate.  I got the idea from here.   If you would like to make some too, follow the link or you can just do it the, let’s just throw things into the blender way, like I did. 

We have a small personal drink blender, so in each glass I filled it halfway with milk, added one packet of hot chocolate, add a splash of the peppermint mocha creamer and then filled with ice.  I blended it up and then topped it with some whipped cream.  The picture below is from the link, I was not so fancy in my presentation.  My two year old and my husband could have cared less.  But it was Delicious!! 

After we had our frozen treats we got out all the ornaments.  The kids liked looking at all of them.

And I actually got my son to hang a total of three of them.

Mom had to hang the rest and Dad got to pick up all the little metal ornament hangars that were thrown around.  But it was progress.  There is always next year!

24 Days Till Christmas

Luminaire Walk and a Visit with Santa.

We have a local arboretum that does a luminaire walk every Christmas season.  This is an activity our whole family enjoys and it has become a Christmas tradition for us.

Luckily Santa let me go up with the kids, otherwise there might have been some crying going on.

Even with mom up there, you can tell it was still a little scary.

When Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas, Oliver wouldn’t answer him.  Mom and Dad were helping to prompt him by saying he liked trains.  He would then really quickly turn to Santa and repeat whatever we had just said “I like trains”, and then quickly turn back away from him.

25 Days Till Christmas

Today we introduced the kids to our “Elf on the Shelf”

I love all the creative ideas out there on where to put your elf and what antics he can get into. 

In our family neither child would really appreciate all that hard work yet, so for this year it will be pretty easy and our elf can simply come back home to a new place each day.

I also realize the elf should be left alone.  But Oliver just wanted to give him a hug and a kiss.  Who can resist that?

I’m looking forward to seeing if our 2 1/2 year old remembers each morning to go around and look for his elf.