Christmas and December Wrap Up

Our decorations are packed away until next year, and we're all a little sad December is over.  I am not sure how I didn't get anything up here about "Christmas" itself, considering all of the build up.  Turns out I am just now pulling photos off my camera from Christmas and I only took 28 photos.  Sigh.  Ah well, it was a great day.  Santa managed to find us in Oklahoma, and left some surprises in NYC as well.  We received thoughtful gifts from friends and family, and enjoyed giving gifts we picked for others.  The boys are still commenting on how much the "love" one thing or another.

I loved all of December, and the fun we had together.  I've blogged about a lot of it, and cannot wait to do it again.

 
Some other highlights include our gingerbread house.  The gingerbread kit was a Black Friday purchase at Michael's, and was $4 well spent.  Although not exactly tasty. it really simplified this activity.  Perhaps next year I'll bake gingerbread sheets.  I actually thought we did a great job, until we had dinner at a friend's house and saw their creation.  It put ours to shame.  Freddie loved doing the frosting more than placing the candies, and was very proud.

Avan, our Elf from the North Pole, spent the month with us.  The boys loved finding him each morning.  I need a remainder each night to move him to a new spot.

There was shopping...

At FAO Schwarz

Wrapping...

And making snowman sundaes that didn't look anything like those on the internet.

We saw Christmas lights...

And the Polar Express (in 4-D!)

And just spent a whole lot of time enjoying the season and each other.

Even when we all of the boys had the flu.

Advent Activities

He did really well writing his numbers.  8 and 5 are the trickiest but he was bale to copy from his number line.

I have been waiting to do an activity-a-day advent calendar for a very long time.  I saw one on a blog before I even was pregnant with Freddie and knew if would be a great way to organize all of my ideas about holiday activities. 

An activity for each day leading up to Christmas is placed in each envelope.  I thought about just making a paper chain with the activities printed on strips but decided even though I liked the physical shortening of the chain as Christmas approached I needed the flexibility of shuffling the order of activities.  Only Charlie and I know just the first five envelopes are filled.  I have a tentative schedule for the remaining 19, but will slide them in the night before.

Towards the end of November Freddie and I sat down so he could number some extra envelopes we found in the stationary box and add some sparkle.   Using glitter was an absolute mess and probably on Freddie's top ten all time favorite activities list.  We burned through the entire jar, with most landing on the floor, but it was worth it. We must get more glitter, and glitter more often!

Putting each activity on paper and marking the calendar motivates me to follow through with all of these ideas swirling around in my head.  I often think I need something like this to keep me going all year long, actually.

The activities are simple.  If I asked Freddie to write the list of activities, I'd imagine they'd be even simpler and just as thrilling.  

This is my list, in no particular order:

1. Get Christmas tree
2. Decorate:  Set up angel chimes, make garland for the tree
3. Go see Santa
4. Candy cane hunt (I'm hosting this as a play date.)
5. Make peppermint bark (conveniently placed after the candy cane hunt)
6. Make candy cane reindeer
7. Go to a puppet show
8. Christmas shopping (I am done shopping.  Freddie can shop for a gift to give his brother, as well as a gift to donate.)
9. Make paper snowflakes
10. Go ice skating
11. Make hand print ornaments
12. Make and mail Christmas cards, including cards for teachers and our building staff
13. Make a bead ornament (still need to get beads for this!)
14. Drink hot cocoa with peppermint stirrers
15. Go see Christmas lights (we'll do this one in OKC, so there will be lots to see)
16. Christmas movie Pizza Pajama Party
17. Have a red and green Christmas meal
18. See the Polar Express (short version) and the Central Park Zoo
19. Make a Gingerbread house
20. See the tree at Rockefeller Center
21. Wrap Christmas gifts
22. Bake cookies (although this is actually pretzels+rolos+peanut m&ms because they are easier, and Rolos make Freddie happy)
23. Make jingle bell necklaces (need to get jingle bells and ribbon!)
24. Stroll from Macy's to Barney's to look at the holiday window displays

Alternates, just in case something doesn't work out as planned:

• Snowflake bath (Put glitter in the bathwater.  I am sure they'll still be covered but sounds right up Freddie's ally)
• Build a snowman or go sledding (Weather dependent)
• Family Christmas sing along
• Christmas story time (read all of our Christmas stories)
• North Pole breakfast (snowman shaped pancakes)
• Pine cone bird feeders (if I can find some pine cones!)
• Write a letter to Santa
• Camp out under the Christmas tree

Do you have any ideas to add?  I'll need some more for next year.  And of course I'll keep you posted on our activity filled days this month.