Life As We Know It... Christmas Edition

Here are some of the things we've been doing this Christmas season...

On December 2nd, Addy & I went to our Girl Scout
Christmas pajama party/service project.

Our troop decided that for their fall service project that they wanted to make Christmas ornaments & take up a collection of cookies & gift cards for the Amschwand Sarcoma Cancer Foundation.

So we combined that with our troop Christmas party.

At the party, the girls made super cool ornaments by 

melting crayons inside a glass ball.

And reindeer ornaments using glitter & mopping solution as the glue!

The girls made 2 of each, 1 to donate to the foundation & 1 to keep for themselves.

They also painted Christmas pictures and took photos in our 

homemade photo booth!

We asked each girl to bring a box of cookies & a gift card to the party to donate to the foundation. We collected about 50 boxes of cookies & 

almost $300 in gift cards.

Addy helped me box everything up & then I delivered it to the foundation.

The kids had their Christmas parties at school...

During Alex's party, they made shapes out of pipe cleaners & pony beads.

Alex made his into this heart for me!

They also decorated cookies & cut paper into 

snowflakes!

During Addy's party, they played a marshmallow toss & catch game, made trail mix & painted Christmas ornaments.

And Nick & I also went to a Christmas party.

Not a school party though, just one that a friend was throwing 

& we had a great time!

The kids & I painted Santas.

I sketched them all out the same but boy did they all turn our really different!

We also made gingerbread houses

and Christmas trash

homemade hot chocolate & lots of other yummy Christmas treats that I didn't get a picture of.

And of course we spent a LOT of time decorating the house 

for the Christmas season!!

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we put up our Christmas tree. Addy was all into decorating the tree & was singing O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree the whole time!

Alex just wanted to put the star on top. That's all he really cared about!

 

And then the very next day, I bought a new tree! A much taller tree than our old one. So we had to undecorate the old one & then decorate the new one. But we didn't have enough lights! And the star wouldn't fit on top.

 

So after 4 trips to Hobby Lobby (to get lights, return lights that didn't work, get more lights, & to get mesh ribbon to make a bow for the top of the tree) we got it decorated. And I just love it!

 

And I love this picture of it too!

 

On December 1st, our Elf on the Shelf made his arrival.

 

Alex named him Tiny (his first suggestion was Alex, lol, but I told him that might be a little confusing if both he & the elf were named Alex) and Addy agreed, so Tiny it is.

 

We also started 2 new traditions on December 1st (both ideas from Pinterest.) I wrapped up 25 Christmas books & we've been opening & reading one every night. We're also opening one bag from our Advent calendar each night.

 

 Each bag has either a Christmas craft or activity for the kids to do.

 

One night it was Make Popcorn & Watch a Christmas Movie. The kids snuggled up in Nick's lap while they wathced Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for the very first time. It was a big hit!

 

One night the bag had snowflake ornaments in it for the kids to paint & glitter.

 

And one night it had snowmen sticker sets in it.

 

So the Christmas tree is up, the house is all decorated & the shopping is almost done. And now we're just enjoying the Christmas season, one day at a time.