24th Day Of Christmas.

The 24th Day of Christmas (aka: Christmas Eve) had us hanging out at home before heading to a candlelight service at Mom and Dad's church. Earlier in the day Noah and Marty built a snowfort in the mountain of snow and Meghan made cookies to bring to my parents house today. Then we headed to church at Mom and Dad's church, came home had pizza and garlic bread for dinner while we watched The Polar Express and the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert and then opened presents. Everyone had a blast and the kids loved their presents.

23rd Day Of Christmas.

The 23rd Day Of Christmas brought us to the Conservatory to look at all the Pointsettia's. We also took advantage of the quiet and the nice(r) weather and walked around the zoo while we were there. We ended our day with church and watching The Santa Clause. Gotta love DVR-- I recorded the movie while we were at church! Overall, it was a great family day that definitely got us all in the Christmas spirit.

22nd Day Of Christmas.

The 22nd Day of Christmas was a busy one. Noah had a fun day at school making Reindeer Food and Gingerbread Houses. Our Advent Card had us calling people to wish them a Merry Christmas. We ended the day by looking at Christmas lights and stopping at McDonalds for Hot Chocolate.

21st Day Of Christmas.

No picture today. Sorry. But today had Noah and Marty going to Meghan's band concert. They seemed to really enjoy themselves. Addison and I stayed home and wrapped presents while we watched Frosty for the umteenth time.

20th Day Of Chrismtas.

Today was a ba-humbug sort of day. We didn't do anything-- we were snowed in again. (who asked for all this snow???) Our advent card had us making cookies to bring to someone but with all the snow, no one felt like venturing out. So we settled in for a quiet evening at home. And ate the cookies ourselves. (it's the thought that counts, right?!)

19th Day Of Christmas.

The 19th Day Of Christmas had me assembling what felt like a bazillion of these. I wanted to do something for Noah's classmates but what I originally wanted to do was going to cost me close to $20.00. I wanted to make these Reindeer guys out of candy canes, yarn and googly eyes-- they were cute and I love Noah's little friends, but that was outrageous!

So, after a lot of brainstorming, I decided to put together these little gift bags. The kids are actually getting way more this way, not just two candy canes, and the cost was far less. I managed to make 22 of these for a third of the price of the reindeer. I was (and am!) so proud of myself!

18th Day Of Christmas.

The 18th Day Of Christmas brought Christmas Baking. Armed with cookie sheets, cookie dough and spatula's, Meghan and I headed to my mom's house to bake some Christmas Cookies.

17th Day Of Christmas.

The 17th Day Of Christmas kept us home making cookie dough. We also spent the better part of the night curled up on the couches watching Yes, Virginia, Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns. It was a great night at home!

16th Day Of Christmas.

The 16th Day Of Christmas brought us to Macy's Holiday Display. Now, it has to be said that Marty and I weren't 100% sure about attempting this. We thought we would be biting off more than we could chew. But we put our uncertainties aside and went. All I can say is we are SO glad we did!

We had the best time! The Elf display was just awesome. It captured and held everyone's attention. But the absolute best part was at the end when as a family we visited Santa.

Now to understand just how huge this is for our family, Noah has never seen or sat on Santa's lap. For some reason he has never been interested in doing it. Meghan has seen Santa twice in her life and both times she was bribed and cajoled. And Addison? Well, being that no one else never had any interest in going, she has never seen him either. But all that changed last night and I have the picture to prove it!

Noah, Meghan, Addison, Marty and me all "sat" on Santa's lap and got our picture taken. The kids had a blast. Even Meghan liked it and got into the spirit in spite of being w-a-y beyond the whole thing. It may have helped that this Santa was the absolute best I have ever seen. But whatever it was, all five of us had the best time last night and Marty and I are so glad we committed to going.

15th Day Of Christmas.

The 15th Day Of Christmas gave me the opportunity to print off a few fun things from the internet while I watched the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas special on PBS.

14th Day Of Christmas.

The 14th Day Of Christmas brought me the treat of a $2.00 White Chocolate Mocha from Caribou to enjoy while I gave myself the gift of time to read my December issues of Real Simple and Oprah.

13th Day Of Christmas.

Well the 13th Day of Christmas didn't bring much. I spent the day trying to take my law final with a sick toddler in my arms. Our Action Card had us doing something fun, but we have put it on hold for now. I'll post about what is was and when we did it as soon as we do it.

12 Day Of Christmas.

Our Advent Action for The 12th Day of Christmas had us making treats to bring to a neighbor. Ironically enough, before the kids had even picked the card out for the day we had decided to make some brownies to bring to two sets of neighbors. We wanted to bring Jamie and Ben a plate of brownies as a thank you for helping to shovel Marty out of the road Saturday night after he got stuck trying to get Meghan from another neighbor's house. And we also wanted to bring Robert and Anna a plate of brownies because Robert shoveled our half of the driveway. He certainly didn't have to and what prompted him to do our half we don't know. We sure were thankful though!! So, long story short, it was pretty cool that that was our Action card for the day.

So what did we make? Meghan made brownies in the shape of Christmas trees and gingerbread men and a big batch of M&M cookies. We plated them up on Christmas plates that I bought on clearance at Target two years ago, covered them with foil, added ribbon and a tag and delivered them to our awesome neighbors! The best part was the treats were as big of a hit with the neighbors as their good deeds were to us.

Holy Snow Pile, Batman!

The pile of snow outside our front door. You can't see it in the picture, but it's that high all the way across. When we look out our front door all we see is white.

11th Day Of Christmas.

The 11th Day of Christmas brought us a blizzard. A big blizzard. It was the first time the five of us have been snowed in together. I wasn't sure how we would hold up but we were proactive and made it through the day just fine. We got a lot done in fact!

*We read The Polar Express online on Barnes and Noble's Storytime site 17 times.
*Downloaded Christmas music from Amazon's 25 Days of Free.
*Made cookies.
*Colored Christmas pictures.
*Discovered the whole "You've Been Jingled" concept and started formulating our plan~ it's just like the "You've Been Boo'd" idea if you're familiar with that.
*Watched countless Christmas movies.
*Restrung the lights on our Christmas tree~ don't ask!
* Added more ornaments to our tree since we had to restring the lights.
*Added a few more decorations around the house.
*Noah decorated his room for Christmas~ he did a great job!
*Marty made a yummy dinner.
*I did a little homework.
*And finally, we ended our day by watching Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns.

Overall, it was a nice day. While the snow really put a damper in our plans for the day (breakfast with Santa, going to the Conservatory to see the Pointsettia's and church) all in all it was nice staying home and getting so much done.

10th Day Of Christmas.

The 10th Day of Christmas brought us to Mom and Dad's for dinner and to wrap the presents we bought for the family we "adopted" this year. My camera wasn't cooperating very well so I didn't get any good pictures. My mom did though and hopefully she'll post one or two on her blog? (hint hint) The significance of the stocking and pen in the picture I posted is that these stockings were filled with candy cane pens and Nestle's Crunch Bells for the kids Advent Box this morning. In hopes of keeping his stocking out of Addison's reach, he hung it on the Christmas tree. Always thinking he is!

10th Day Of Christmas.

The 10th Day of Christmas also brought me to Starbucks! I needed to take a break from studying so Addison and I hopped in the van, turned on Christmas music and drove to Starbucks. The best part of this little venture was when I pulled into the drive-thru lane and discovered that the Christmas mug that I had been eyeing up for the past few weeks was 1/2 off! So I treated myself to an early Christmas present--oh the simple joys!

9th Day Of Christmas.

The 9th Day of Christmas brought Noah and I to Meghan's choir concert at school. They did an awesome job~ I was so proud!

8th Day Of Christmas.

The 8th day of Christmas brought us to Macy's Believe site and all it's fun activities. We wrote a letter to Santa, we made ornaments for the tree, a bookmark and drew a picture of something we love. If you haven't been to the Believe website, you have to go. It's amazing. Even as an adult you can appreciate the site.

7th Day Of Christmas.

Day 7 brings us Noah's list of things he's grateful for. It was part of the kids' Advent Actions cards. After he wrote his list he was supposed to call Grandma and read the list to her. Some days the cards are well received, other days they aren't. Oddly enough, this card was! Visiting Santa at the mall? Not so much!

6th Day Of Christmas.

The sixth day of Christmas brings us a recipe from Meghan. She is taking a Life Skills class in school right now (aka Home Ec) and has been treating us to fresh baked cookies and apple crisp the past couple of weeks. So far the Apple Crisp has been our favorite so I thought I'd share the recipe in honor of Meghan.

Microwave Apple Crisp
1/2 stick of room temperature butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 apples peeled and sliced

Place apples in bottom of a microwave safe bowl. In a separate bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, oatmeal, flour and cinnamon. Blend with a pastry blender until crumbly and spread on top of apple slices. Microwave on high for 6 minutes and enjoy!

5th Day Of Christmas.

This weekend was Meghan's musical. She was in A Christmas Carol and did a fabulous job. We are so proud of her! We're proud of the rest of the cast, too. But we're especially proud of our beautiful Meghan!

4th Day Of Christmas.

Today was a very busy day. Got our Christmas tree this morning. 1:30 call time for Meghan. 2:00 drop off time for a birthday party that Noah was invited to. Had to finish a paper for my communications class. Picked Noah back up at 4:00. Headed to church at 5:30 so I could "greet". Ran to the grocery store for milk and a bedtime snack. Home for 45 minutes before heading to get Meghan. Whew!

3rd Day Of Christmas.

It's a good thing Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa mix is cheap because hot chocolate has been the number one beverage of choice by everyone in the house this Christmas season. The fun part is that no two people like it the same way.

2nd Day Of Christmas.

One of the other new things that I am trying this Christmas season is called the December Daily Album. It's from Ali Edwards blog (click here) again. The best part of this project is you can do it however you want. Make an album, buy an album, create a digital album; whatever. Then decide how many days you want to tackle, 12, 7, 25, 31? Then document those days.

I've watched her do this for the past couple years on her blog and thought it sounded like a fun project, but was not in ANY mind frame to actually make one myself. So I made a mental note and when the idea came around this year, I decided to jump on board.

I took her basic idea, had Marty create our dated templates, hit Archivers for paper and embellishments and assembled my album. Now for the next 24 days (December 1st is already completed) I will document our season. Whether it's going to Meghan's play on Friday, putting up our tree on Saturday, whatever it is that day is what I'll document. The goal being to have something fun to look at when Christmas is over and bring back out again next year.

Even though I got off to a rocky start with yesterday's page, all in all, I am excited to be doing this project and am looking forward to seeing what the end result will be come December 26th!

25 Days Of Christmas

OK so blogging about gratitude was a flop, but never one to give up , I have decided to tackle a 25 Days of Christmas venture instead. If nothing else it's a great way to document our 2010 Christmas season. You see, this year we are starting some new traditions and I think it will be fun to "record" them.

First, is our daily Advent Actions cards. I made up 25 cards for the 25 Days of Christmas. Each card has a date and an action to help us enjoy the holiday season a little bit more. Today's action was to make a cup of hot chocolate. Other days actions include baking a batch of cookies to bring to a neighbor, call someone just to wish them a Merry Christmas, buy a toy to donate to Toy's For Tots, etc. etc.. I got the idea from Ali Edward's blog (click here) and thought this was the coolest idea. Gets the kids thinking a little beyond themselves but yet gives them something to look forward to every day of the season. Especially when I add it to our regular Advent Calender. That one is usually filled with money or chocolate. However, I am hoping to mix that up a bit this year as well. If anyone has any ideas for what I can include in that box, holler. I need all the help I can get with this one!

Our second new tradition is to give the kids Christmas pajamas on December 1st. I know a lot of people do this on Christmas Eve, but I'd rather have the kids enjoy the pajamas all month long. So, the pajamas are purchased (and wrapped!) and the kids will open them at dinner. Hopefully this new tradition goes over fairly well. Marty and I are excited about starting it. But one never can tell with kids, you know?!

I'm trying to really get in the holiday spirit this year. For the past few years I've been sort of a grump about the whole thing. I'm not sure why, but for the past three years I have dreaded Christmas. But this year I have decided to take a different attitude and different approach and so far it's working. I'm thrilled that it's officially December and that I can officially start some of my holiday plans!