Day 22 & 23

Day 22

Make Christmas Cookies for Santa

Monday morning Max woke up and didn't put his boot on.  Freedom!  Thankfully we didn't have to go the doctor to get it off. 

The the day turned into a bit of a Christmas movie marathon. Mer had a friend over.  The boys cut some more snowflakes.

I had to include this picture of max's "unblock me" game.  Doug was trying to tell Max that playing video games is different than playing with toys in real life.  Max said it was the same. Doug said prove it and go build a real life version of the game he was playing. and so max did. :)  and it worked.

Fun with Christmas Tangrams

We did get around to making cookies for santa.  Dark chocolate chip with peppermint morsels. 

The kids then went over to have FHE at a friends house while we finished up the Christmas shopping. 

Day 23

Act out the Nativity and Open 1 present

We had some friends over for a nice Christmas Eve dinner

We dined on steak and sweet potato fries and acted out the nativity.

 We made reindeer food and made sure the lawn was stocked with lots of oatmeal.

 We sang carols around the piano and set out our cookies for Santa.

Luke and Jack made sure to leave a picture present for him.

A sweet end to a sweet night.

Caught up!

Day 16
Put the Stamps on the Christmas cards and Mail them.  Ha ha! It was a good goal but this didn't happen. Instead, for FHE, we sang all the Christmas songs in the Children's songbook around the piano and Frosted our Cookies from the night before. My older kids no longer like it when I take pictures of them. Despite these forlorn looks I think everyone had fun singing along.



Of course the evening was sweetened by a little frosting and sprinkles too.

Day 17

This was a blur. I'm not sure if or what we did that day. I was in charge of a Relief Society Christmas musical program that night so it was all I was thinking about that day.  The kids came and helped me set up for it so we're calling that the activity. My friend posted a video of one of the songs we sang on my Facebook page if you want to see.

Day 18
Make Christmas Cards for our Teachers.  Jack and Luke got busy right away after school with the markers and stamps.

Mer and Max aren't so interested in our Christmas crafts and they've had quite a bit of homework this week. Meredith has been studying for finals like a maniac. She has straight A's right now and has sworn that she's going to keep them.

I went to school that morning to help Luke's class with a card for their teacher. I had each kid write their name on an ornament then I recorded their favorite things about their teacher. I love how it turned out. The kids were so excited to give it to her.

Day 19
Watch a Christmas Movie.  We added cutting out snowflakes as a craft too because we needed something fun to do while the big kids were doing their homework after school. Jack asked, "do you have a craft for me?" Why of course Jack, I almost never say no to extra craft time. We found some "FROZEN" snowflake templates that looked fun and tried our hand at cutting them out.  Now we have lovely string of snowflakes above our kitchen table.

The 19th was also our Anniversary. 16 years baby!

I woke up to these beauties on the bathroom counter.  We spent the evening finalizing Christmas gift plans while the kids watched their Christmas movie and ate leftover Christmas cookies from day 15. Then we treated ourselves to a little trip to Ben and Jerry's. We went out to dinner on Friday for a more official celebration.

Day 20
Deliver Christmas gifts to teachers.
I forgot what the activity was for this day and they actually delivered their gifts the day before. It was Friday Night Pizza and a Movie night anyway so they watched the Grinch while Doug and I went out to dinner.  We've had a lot of packages delivered to the house lately. The kids get so excited when the doorbell rings and have had fun opening the packages from far away family.

Day 21
Drive to see Christmas lights
This was a fun day of work and play. We helped out at an eagle scout project in the morning where the kids hammered old nails down as the other men ripped out and replaced the boardwalk at our favorite manatee viewing location.

We came home and busted out our Saturday chores so we could go to the zoo for a little while.  Luke loves the zoo and he hasn't been able to go much since he started kindergarten.  I've never seen Jack and Luke get their chores done so fast.


The high for the day was 82 so it was plenty warm to swim in the splash lagoon.

We did a little research and found a neighbor hood that has lighted arches over all the sidewalks.  

We parked our car and joined the other bunch of people strolling through the neighborhood. 

There was a man who had his sound system on his driveway.  He was playing Christmas songs on his keyboard and singing to us.   

The neighborhood wasn't too far from where Doug's new boat is parked so we drove over to take a look.

It is Awe.Some! We can't wait to take it out for a ride.

Day 22

Go Christmas Caroling

And finally, last night we went Christmas Caroling.  We invited our friends the Knoblocks over and had quite a choir. We visited a few houses in our neighborhood and then drove to find a few more friends.

 That's all for now :)  2 more days to go!

The Countdown continues.

Lets see, where were we?  Day 12?

DAY 12

Oh Day 12 was so fun! Our friend Brett came into town to hang out with us for a few hrs.  We escorted him to a concert at Barnes and Noble (our activity for the day) where Luke performed. This was my view, can you spot him?

Luke was so cute he sang 2 songs.  Jack was supposed to sing too, but the set up was ridiculous and the performance was optional so we decided to skip out on his class and go to dinner instead.  Jack didn't really want to sing so he was totally fine with it. I also let them pick out a new Christmas book for the night.

After dinner we came back to our house where Doug and Brett jammed out in our sound studio/bedroom.  And then had dance party in the living room. Good times!

"spin the disc"

Day 13

Go Caroling to a Nursing Home

No pictures of Day 13. We made cookies and delivered them with our Manger ornaments to a local assisted living home. We met another family there and sang a bunch of Christmas Carols to the 5 residents who lived there. We had a really nice experience visiting with them afterward.  We did this as part of our Ward Christmas Service activity and then met up with the rest of our ward afterward at the church for donuts and hot chocolate.

Day 14

Finish Shopping for family members and wrap all presents.  The kids had a holiday gift shop at school where they did most of their shopping. We all split up that night to check a few more gifts off the list and made sure they were all wrapped up.

That was fun but really the highlight of the day for Luke was when we got out the EZ bake oven. He'd seen one on TV and told me he wanted one for Christmas.  They come in more boy friendly colors these days I guess.

I told him we had one already from when Mer was little. Just waiting in her closet to be used.

He baked and baked and then kept baking the next morning. One batch of muffin batter goes a long way in an EZ Bake. We found that muffins taste just like cake when you add a little frosting and sprinkles.

Day 15
Bake Christmas Cookies The baking continued  on Sunday and we made Christmas cut out cookies.  My kids love cutting them out.

This recipe called for coconut oil which made them taste delish.

We also tried making our own "oreos" Unfortunately we didn't have powdered sugar in the house so we had to wait until Monday to frost them all.  They were tasty.

More to come tomorrow!

Halfway to Christmas!

My how time does fly! Chrismas is coming and it's coming quick, we are already halfway there. Meredith spied Liz's Instagram post about their Christmas Countdown and we decided to copy them.

Mer came home an whipped up a tree and we filled it with activities. I've not been so good about posting but the kids are having fun seeing what's in the envelope each day.  Ready for a recap of the week's events?

Day 1

Go on a walk and count the Christmas lights in our neighborhood!  We counted 11. Luke loves to run and run and run.  It has been fun to watch as day by day more lights get hung.  

Day 2

FHE- Decorate for Christmas

We just sat back and let the kids do it all. I love the twinkling light and the cozy feel of our home at Christmas time. 

 Way to go Team Markos!

Day 3

Write Letters to Santa

This was funny. Jack got up that morning and wrote his letter and put it in the mail box before he even saw the activity for the day. He pulled out the activity card and got a big smile on his face, "I just did that" he said. I wonder if he sneaked a peek

Day 4

Make a Christmas Picture 

The big kids typically choose not to participate in craft time but this one was mandatory. And what do you know? they had fun.

 We made these fun trees. I love how each one is different. :)  A big thanks to Liz for posting all her countdown last year for me to copy

Day 5 

Read Christmas Stories. 

No picture for today but we had fun heading to the library for some new Christmas books that day. 

Day 6

Volunteer at the Holiday Light Fest

Jack's Cub Scout troop needed volunteers to help out with the hay rides at the local Light Festival. Jack Mer and I went.  We wore official reflector jackets and at the end we went on a hayride through the park in the dark.

Day 7

Decorate Evey and Dick's house.  

Our neighbor is very sick and on hospice right now. We offered to help his wife hang up Christmas lights this year so she wouldn't have to worry about it (Initiated by Max for one of his Faith in God requirements).  Doug went over with the boys and put everything up while I was at a soccer tournament with Mer.

Day 8

 Make Ornaments to take to the nursing home and watch the Christmas Fireside. 

We ended up doing two days in one on Sunday.  We invited our neigbors to help us make ornaments to take to a nursing home this week. 

We made 12 Popsicle stick Nativities together. Then we watched the Christmas Fireside.  

Day 9

On this day we were supposed to make the Nativity ornaments so instead we opened up a Christmas present from Ben and Brea and made up a big gingerbread house together. 

Thank you Ben and Breanne!

Day 10

Make a Christmas Craft

We some Letter ornaments inspire by some that I saw in the Anthropologie magazine. 

The little boys' wrapped them all by themselves. The big kids were excused since they were busy with other things. 

A finished picture to come

Day 11

I don't remember what we did this day, My life is a blur. The schedule said mail the Christmas cards but this didn't happen :) I think we ended up putting up some more lights outside. 

I'm pausing here and will catch up the rest tomorrow :) Good night!