Christmas Eve

Christmas eve we just hung out as a family.  Logan bear wasn't feeling the greatest..so we rested.  But that evening we put on our Christmas best and headed to a Children's church service at the church that is affiliated with Tracen's school.  It was a nice service...we sang lots of Christmas carols, then the pastor called up the children and he read them the story of the first Christmas with the live nativity members coming and intermingled with songs.  Chris said at one point that it reminded him of his Grandma Eva and her Christmas nativity each year.  It was a fun thing to do.

Then we headed to the pizza parlor and picked up pizzas for dinner and headed home to open 2 presents.  We each opened our pair of Christmas pajamas and then the boys got to open an extra gift...a game to play with the family (they were actually from K&C)

Chris didn't have time to wrap mine...lol

the boys by the tree in their Christmas jammies!

After dinner and present opening we played our two new games (Trouble...Madagascar style and Ants in the Pants)  Then Logan headed off to bed because he wasn't feeling well and Tracen and I decorated our cookies we had made previously for Santa!

Merry Christmas EVE!

Polar Express Movie Night

I promised the boys that we could have a Christmas party in the form of a Polar Express movie night!  So we invited some friends and set the plan in motion.  I had 11 kids total dressed in their favorite jammies and full of energy.  We colored pictures, made snow globes, had balloon fights, decorated Christmas tree cookies, read our favorite Christmas books (every kid/family was asked to bring on), ate pizza then finished the night with hot cocoa, popcorn, marshmallows and a movie.  Chris has been working late so I was on my own for the bulk of the time.  I was a little worried, but I figured it was just like teaching...be prepared with tons of activities and you then have organized chaos!

Beau, Logan, Luke, Max, Tate, Tracen, Ben, Landon, Andy, Dan & Annie

Tracen's Christmas Songs and Treats

 The last day of school for the year we went and watched Tracen and his class perform in their special songs and treats program.  It was little but fun to see all the fun songs they had been learning.

Tracen and his buddy Landon

Christmas Countdowns and Countdowns

This year I made a countdown to Christmas...25 days of fun activities...the boys LOVED picking a number each day to find out what we would be doing.  We did pretty good...there were a couple of days that we missed just because things came up, but I would say we completed at least 90% of our activities!  Pretty fun!

I folded 25 of these envelopes with 25 different pieces of Christmas paper that I actually had....lol

Our completed countdown

Our 25 days of activities included:

1-  Make snowflakes and hang them in the window

2-  Get a Christmas tree and put it up

3-  Decorate the tree and house while listening to Christmas music and drinking egg nog

4-  Listen to the prophets speak about the true meaning of Christmas

5-  Learn about serving others and make treats for our friends (we elfed a few of our friends this night)

6-  Watch Mickey's Christmas Carol as a family

7-  Write a letter to Santa Claus and send it to the North Pole

8-  Go visit Santa and get a picture taken with him

9-  Read stories about Jesus and Christmas from the friend and color pictures of the first Christmas

10-Take Daddy to Candylane @ Hershey Park

11-Watch Small One as a family

12-Make and decorate a Gingerbread House

13-Read 12 days of Christmas then sing and act out the song

14-Drive through Sweet Lights and sing Christmas carols

15-Go see Arthur Christmas @ the movie theater *loved this*

16-Make special Christmas cards for our family

17-Go see the lights at the temple

18-Special family night singing Christmas songs (we were supposed to go caroling...but daddy got the flu)

19-Drink hot chocolate and read Christmas books together

20-Read the Christmas story from the Bible

21-Make cookies for Santa and treats for the reindeer

22-Learn about the true meaning and symbols of Christmas

23-Have a Polar Express movie night with our friends

24-open one present (that Mom & Dad choose) and read through our special Christmas book

25-It's Christmas Day!  Give a gift to Jesus, open presents and let's have a fancy dinner

Here is the 16th day of Christmas...we made 6 Christmas cards for our grandmas and grandpas.  It was pretty fun! (and messy)

Another thing that was a bit time consuming this month...

I was asked to figure out center pieces for our ward Christmas party.  I had a  $3/table budget and they wanted silver because they had navy table cloths.  This was a hard task...everything I thought of was at least $5/table...so I found this idea and put it into plan.  I folded 25 Christmas trees from magazines...then sprayed them silver, glittered them up and ended with a clear coat over the top to help keep the glitter on.  A LOT of work..but atleast I didn't procrastinate...I folded 2 or 3 a day (the took about 45 min a piece to fold when I first started...but by the end I could do one in about 25 - 30 minutes)  I think they are pretty awesome and they went over well at the party...I took 3 home and the rest were taken by members of the ward.  It was a great Christmas party!

You know you live in the "SWEETEST" town when...

The Sunday before Christmas...the fire department circles the streets of Hummelstown, with Santa Claus in tow...handing out treats for the girls and the BOYS!  It was magical.  I think I loved it as much if not more than the boys did! (PS the pictures aren't great)

O Christmas Tree and Gingerbread

Out here in Pennsylvania...you find your normal Christmas tree stands...
but if you want to get a fresh tree without going too far you can go to....

Christmas Tree Farms (what?)

so that is what we did.  Here is a picture of the Christmas tree farm we went to.  This picture does not give it justice by any means.  There were tons and tons of Christmas trees.  So you go there...they provide the saw and the measuring stick and you pay by the foot.  It was really fun to watch the boys run around and "pick" which tree that they wanted as our Christmas tree this year!

So when we got home, Chris and I put on the lights and got out the ornaments.  I totally thought that I would be trimming the tree by myself...but actually, I barely did any of the work.  The boys dug right in and LOVED putting the ornaments on the tree.  It was pretty fun to see how excited and proud they were of our Christmas tree.

So this year, I made a countdown to Christmas with fun activities for the boys and I (and sometimes Chris) to do each day leading up to Christmas.  One of our favorites was making our gingerbread house.  I think the boys ATE more candy than they decorated with, but that is the fun of it right?