I absolutely LOVE December! The expectation of more time with family, new and old traditions, and the goal of making memories that will last a life time. I hope we accomplished some of that this year.
The Saturday right after Thanksgiving, we always set up the Christmas tree and decorate the house as a family, listening to Christmas carols. It's always a slow process as we love to really take in all the sentimental value of the ornaments but its an important tradition for us. This year we decided to put the tree upstairs in the family room.
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| Grinch Punch was a hit:) |
Frosting and decorating Grandma Barb's sugar cookies is always a great family tradition during December. Each kid got 5 to decorate and they were all so unique. Lanie's of course had the most m & m's, Carter's the most colored sugar, and Kaleigh was a perfectionist and was the last one done.
For our advent calendar activity make a holiday craft we made homemade dough and cut holiday shapes out of it with cookie cutters. Then baked them in the oven for a couple hours. Right when they came out we colored them with crayons and got to watch the fun effect of wax melting.
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| Winter Break = time with siblings:) |
At Christmas at Mom and Dad's (The Dodds') we tried some new things to try to keep the kids in the same room as us longer. I looked up some minute to win it games and found some I thought all of us could play. Matthew and Kaelan were the winners of Reindeer Nose.
The object of this game is to only touch the ornament with you and your partner's lips, walk from one end of the room to the other and hook the ornament onto a string. Lots of wonderful teamwork and closeness. We also played Christmas carol charades. We started the games with the second annual reading of a holiday story out loud as a family. This year we read
Tacky the Penguin with Grandpa as Tacky the odd bird.
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| Christmas morning breakfast, Cinnamon Roll Christmas Tree |
We made mason jar snacks for each of the people that work with the kids including teachers, associates, therapists, and bus drivers. It was a great present because the kids could help create the snack and hand them out. Will definitely do this again!
We went to an Iowa Energy basketball game with the Watsons to celebrate Brant's 12th birthday. Carter and the boys at the party got to go down near the court to meet and high-five the basketball players. Our family had never been to a game before and it ended up being a real treat! Great music was playing the whole time and the cheerleaders had a dance for every song:)
This advent activity was to make a holiday treat and the kids chose chocolate covered pretzels. We shared the yummy treat with my colleagues at school and still had lots to eat at home.
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| Girl Scout meeting - Christmas cookie decorating |
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| Christmas village |
My friend, Tanya, talked me into trying an advent calendar with the kids for the first time. I found a simple one on Pinterest and with the help of my new cri-cut, Carter and I created it in a couple hours. I put a slip of paper inside each bag with a holiday activity written on it and the kids took turns each morning opening a bag and reading the activity. Some were more successful than others (calling Grandma and Grandpa and singing jingle bells) where we still have yet to go ice skating which was on one of the last days. The first advent activity was to go sibling shopping with Mommy. I gave each kid $10 and tried my best to let them shop for their sibling without any influence from me. Then they came home and wrapped the gifts while I took the next child shopping. Lanie unfortunately, came home and unwrapped the gifts Carter had bought her within 10 minutes:( but she was still excited to re-open them on Christmas morning.
A new tradition that I wanted to start this year was wrapping 24 holiday books and each night for a bedtime story the kids took turns opening a book. I think it was a great way to instill the love of reading in the kids and I was so happy to see them get excited to unwrap a great gift.
The kids slept in til 7:30 on Christmas morning. I started the coffee right away and then met the family upstairs to open presents. Matthew and I decided to down size this year and instead try to appreciate more what we have, our time together, and take a winter vacation. It was one of the most freeing and wonderful things we did, so little stress! Carter got a bow and arrow from Santa and Lanie got a CD alarm clock. Some of the gifts we gave Carter were the game Totally Gross!, bow and arrow target, over the door basketball and hoop, a Vikings sweatshirt, and a matching pants and sweatshirt. Some of the gifts we gave Lanie this year were the game Topsy Towers, new pajamas, Fashion Headbands. Both their stockings were stuffed full with candy, cologne and body spray, chap stick, and a new ornament.
Christmas day afternoon we went to Bondurant to spend with Matthew's side of the family. I think everyone was happy with their gifts and we had a wonderful meal. It was so nice to be together and have time to talk.
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| Lanie's reading group performing a reader's theater |
Don't the kids look excited to ski for the first time lol! Lanie didn't like the feeling of the ski boots and Carter was hot. Mommy and Daddy were trying to stay positive and encouraging but weren't doing a very good job. Both kids DID make it onto the slopes. We used the magic carpet and Carter and I went together and Daddy and Lanie went down together. Lanie (with skis on) went down between Matthew's legs and they didn't fall! Carter and I went down separately of course and he was doing great, a little frustrated at first from falling down and struggling to get back up, but after awhile he made it down the slope without falling at all. We skied at Buck Hill for about 3 hours and were all exhausted. The temperature that day was in the 40's in Minnesota (I hear Iowa got up to 60!), so absolutely PERFECT for skiing!
Lanie loved the American Girl store in the mall, even though she doesn't have one of her own. And why wouldn't she, babies everywhere!
The wave pool was definitely the warmest area in the Water Park of America so we stayed there the most. We floated from there down the Lazy River on a tube a couple times. Carter and I also tried wake boarding and loved it. Lanie couldn't get enough of the body and tube slides. I think we climbed those stairs about a hundred times:) Overall, a really great water park for our family, they always can be warmer but I shouldn't complain.
