Christmas Countdown Day 23-24

Day 23: We baked cookies for Santa. Have I mentioned how I HATE CUT OUT COOKIES! I am a pretty good baker and quite the cookie maker, but I just loathe making cut out cookies. There are a few things I just can't do to my satisfaction-cake balls and cut out cookies. So it happens once a year for Santa.

Day 24: Christmas Eve- We read out last wrapped book from under their tree and hung the last ornament on the countdown tree. Brody was very excited to find that it was the GINGERBREAD MAN! We had been waiting for him since Dec. 1st!

Together we made a Winter Wonderland complete with a Rice Krispy Polar Express Train, gumdrop snowflakes, Ice Cream Cone trees, and Gingerbread Peeps. They had a lot of fun, not too much of a mess, and loved getting to play with it afterwards. They were very concerned Santa would eat it so we had to make sure our note told him exactly what he could eat! No one ate any of it. It was a true "Playing with your Food" activity.

 

They each got to open one present from under the tree. New Christmas Pajamas! 

Michael reads the Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve since they were 9 months old.

After prayers, hugs, kisses, and about an hour...they finally fell asleep.

Cookies and Milk were left for Santa.

It had to be white milk, too. ;)

Merry Christmas 2012

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Christmas Countdown Day 16-22

My Christmas Countdown has slowed way down. I having to spend more days in bed and propped up because of contractions. We did manage to do a few special activities in addition to our advent trees and Christmas book every night.

Day 16 & 17: We made chex mix and puppy chow.

Day 18 &19: Special Polar Express. Adventure- see post here for all our fun adventures!

Day 20: Made snowman on a stick with hot chocolate and watch Polar Express. We had to compare our experience! No worries in sugar overload: they didn't like the donut anyway!

 

Day 21: School Party! We don't go to school on M/W/F so it was a special treat to go and see our friends @ school. Oh, yeah and the giant cupcake full of frosting! Another novelty that is more fun to play with then eat! And I'm ok with that!

Day 22: Simple and easy for mama: movie night
We watched the Wizard of Oz. They really enjoyed it this year! We had tried before and they were not interested! It's true!

There's no place like home!

Christmas Countdown Special Edition: Day 18 & 19

For our special day 18 & 19 we planned a special trip to Branson, MO to ride the Polar Express!!!!! It was truly magical!

We kept it a surprise, loaded them up, and took the beautiful (but very curvy) drive through the Ozarks.

Our hotel was perfect! Right across the street from the train station and right in the middle of Branson Landing-full of shopping and eating. This was HUGE for me because walking sends me straight into a contraction tizzy. I was so worried about how I was going to do this!

We booked this hotel because it had a heated pool and the boys had been dying to go swimming! Our room looked right out to The center's Christmas Tree!

We had dinner and then went across the street to board the train!

 

The boys were so excited! Every detail was covered. All the characters from the movie were there and came aboard to do their bit. We even picked up Santa from the North Pole!

Dylan turned to me and said I hope I get the first gift of Christmas. Sure enough....when Santa came on our car-Dylan was the first one to get the shiny bell!

There were cookies, hot chocolate, singing, lights, and just great memories made!

  

That night we went back to the hotel for a swim. This was another special treat for them! So much fun that their SUPER DADDY took them again the next morning!

We loved our trip! The next day I was feeling rough and couldn't do any walking. We ate lunch and came home.

All those curvy roads had the boys car sick and despite Dramamine Brody got sick everywhere in the car! It was terrible! Then as soon as we stopped the car at home, Dylan ran inside and got sick. It's a very curvy trip!!

Not the way we had hoped to end the trip, but a special Christmas treat for sure!

  

Christmas Countdown Day 7-15

This week on the Countdown:

Day 7: Parents Night Out- the boys had a great time making Christmas necklaces for me, playing with the big kids (teenagers), and having sweets and popcorn while they watch a movie.

Day 8 & 9: started having contractions so I have slowed WAY down. I stayed in bed the rest of the weekend. Michael continued with the countdown trees and Holiday books and Scripture Chain.

Day 10: Still taking it easy, but we managed to make a Christmas Tree. We cut, ordered it to size, glued, painted, and accessorized the tree. It's Fine Motor Boot Camp, y'all!

Day 11: Open a new Nativity Set
The Boys got home from school and were jumping up and down to have a new "bible set!"

Day 12: We made a torn paper snowman. We traced, painted with glue, tore paper, glued, and cut. Like I said, it's fine motor boot camp and I'm a mean drill sgt! ;) Actually, they are enjoying the art ( the boys really do.not.like to do art stuff.) and really sharpening their skills.

Day 13: Surprise! Starbucks run for hot chocolate and cookies. Surprise! Go look at Christmas Lights. This one house had every inch of their entire yard lit up. We called it the crazy house. Dylan always was on the lookout for Baby Jesus. Brody thought all the houses with multi-colored lights looked like Gingerbread houses.


Day 14: Christmas Shopping with Dad and Christmas Program at School
They did such a great job! Some how my kids have grown up and become the "big kids" on stage. When did this happen?!? How can they be almost 5!?!


Day 15: Michael's Christmas Party & Christmas Shopping for Dad

Our chain is getting smaller and the pile of books under the tree is getting thinner.

The advent trees are filling up.

Christmas is almost here!

Seasons Greetings

I will admit it...prior to 2007 I threw away Christmas cards. Glup. I'm so mad at myself for that!

But since then, I display and then save.
Last year I bought this Willow House over the door hanging display. It worked perfect in our old house, but I really don't have the perfect door in this house. So I repurposed it and stuck it on the wall.

I got a red photo album in 2007 and didn't really have use for it. So it became the Christmas Card album. I slide the cards in each year and it becomes one of my favorite things to look at each year!

My other card preservation is my favorite thing to unwrap and display each year!
The family cards! I frame our card from that year and it has become my favorite decoration.

We just moved this year so I'm worried no one will find us here in AR. So the cards are going out STAT!

My new season greetings tradition I'm going to try is taking a pic with my phone and making that the contact pic.

Seasons Greetings!

Christmas Countdown this week

I packed them a theme lunch for Day 4 and forgot to take a pic. Duh!

Day 5 we made Shrinky Dink ornaments from a kit Auntalee gave us. It was Really easy and fun to watch in the oven. They also had a theme sandwich that chef Dad & Brody made. Cute pinterest find!

Day 6
I surprised them with a special outing to Bethlehem Revisited. I thought I would be a simple walk through live nativity scene. In fact, I didn't even bother putting on make-up.
When we got to the church, they directed us inside to sign the "census" and get a group ticket. Then we waited for maybe 30 minutes for our group number in the sanctuary. They had a great Christmas Concert going on while you waited. Dylan really enjoyed the band!
Then the soldiers escort you from the building to Bethlehem with real fire torches. We heard from Isaiah, the wise men, and others before we walked through Bethlehem's walls. Once you get inside ther walls, there is this marketplace complete with all these shops. You were given sheckles
to shop with. You could try food, buy little toys, pottery, ect. Brody used his sheckles to buy me a gift! I have a little pot. :) Yes, I'm spoiled by my boys!
Then we saw the barn out back where Baby Jesus was. We asked about baby Jesus all night!
Afterwards, they had a cookie and hot chocolate reception inside the gym.
It was so neat and by far my favorite thing about Conway so far!

I'm an EMO

I'm almost 26 wks pregnant and I'm just an emotional wreck!

With the boys I remember being so happy ( minus all the sickness and twin complications, ect)

This time I'm sappy, stressed, frustrated, mad, hurt, stressed, sick, and tearful. That's all today.

I think the stress of not being settled is weighing on me. I also know all these unexpected hurdles that we continue to jump through have been very expensive and money always stresses me out!

I will all be ok...but if one more thing breaks or if there is one more health issue in this household, I just might lose it!

At least there is one bright corner of my house that is unpacked, decorated, and makes me happy every time I walk by.

Day 3 Christmas Countdown

For our special activity today, we had a Reindeer day!

I had pinned at one time a recipe for Reindeer Chow. I used what I had in the pantry.

We added 1/2 c- 1c of the ingredients and mixed together.

Then they each had a sorting sheet and a bowl of chow. They sorted and counted for me. We had fun comparing our charts.

Tonight after dinner we watched Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and they ate their chow. Dylan HAD to get his Rudolph because he HAD to watch it, too.

Really easy & fun!

Day 2 Christmas Countdown

For Day 2 of the Christmas Countdown we got out the scissors.
I was going to do a countdown chain with the boys. Scissor work is one of our main focuses right now.
I found a Scripture Countdown on Pinterest that I adapted to fit our family.
We made a red, white, red, white pattern and added it to their tree!

Leah's Christmas Countdown

Move over, Elmo! Leah's Christmas Countdown is here!

Each day until Christmas Day will be spent with some fun countdown activities and traditions.

We have 2 advent trees that we are doing.

One is a musical Christmas tree and there are numbered drawers with tiny ornaments in each drawer. You open the drawer, tree spins, music plays, find the ornament of the day. Simple & Easy!

We also have a Phonemic Awareness Tree. I made this for my classroom back when I was teaching Pre-k. It's a simple, quick activity and there is one that corresponds to each day. Today was beginning sounds. Other days will focus on the other areas for those pre-reading skills.

Each day we will have an activity for Countdown. It might be a craft, field trip, cooking experience, present, ect.
Today we had breakfast with Santa.

Each night one of the boys' will choose one of the 24 wrapped Christmas Books under their tree. After they unwrap it, that's the book we will read. Have I mentioned I'm a former teacher and have a serious book collection and continuing addiction? Finding that many Christmas books wasn't the hard part! It was choosing between my favorites.

As I think of ideas or pin something I want to do, I just make a note on my calendar. Hello, pregnancy brain! I can't remember a thing.

I'll try to keep up with this blog and post pics of what we are up to.

Here's a peek at Day 1 of Leah's Christmas Countdown!