Christmas fun, please come back!!!!!!!!!!!

Woke up still feeling kind of miserable today! Made an appointment for myself. Turns out I have Bronchitis, so the OTC's I've been taking are not cutting it. Couple prescripts later, I'm starting to feel a bit better. Hoping that by the weekend our house will be smelling more like Christmas. Hope to be doing some fun activities beyond watching movies with the boys. Hope to feel good enough to read! Today, we did watch "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" and Kevin read more of "The Christmas Carol"!

How is the Christmas season coming along at your house?  What activities have you enjoyed best?  What about your kids?
 

On the 6th day of December, my . . . .

true love gave to me, six geese a laying!  Well, maybe not, but he did go by Costco on the way home from work.  That is even better.

Today's activities have been low key again today.  Still hoping to get to some of "A Christmas Carol" and possibly a movie tonight.  Here's who visited though:

A pretty red cardinal.  To bad I had to take a photo

through the screen.

 

4th day of celebrating Christmas

begins! Today's festivities are not totally firmed up.  Tuesdays are crazy days here, very crazy.  2 1/2 hours of therapy in the morning for one child (with the half hour appointment starting at 10 or 10:30 depending upon week), Tae Kwon Doe, Scouts, meals, and oh yeah that thing called an education.

Tuesdays, may turn into an easy celebration of sorts, not a lot of time required like a short movie or something easy to bake.  Today is likely to be a short movie like "Frosty the Snowman" or "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".  We'll sprinkle in some Christmas Mad Libs, which I was able to locate yesterday and continued reading of "The Christmas Carol" ~ assuming my voice holds out.  Might just firm up a short wish list too.  We're trying to teach the boys that Christmas should not be about the amount of stuff you get, but the celebration of Christ.

What is making Christmas special at your house today?
 

P.S. I'll post, in the comments, the mad lib we did and movie watched later today.

December 2nd

We've spent the morning in church! What a blessing to have a church home that truly feels like home. It is a wonderful thing.  Our youngest, Thing Two, is singing with the Kids Christmas Choir again this year.  Today, they sang one song, as a teaser, to get folks to come to the show next Sunday evening.  (Gee, want to guess what I'll blog about next Sunday?).  His solo was a part of the song too.  We thought he did really well.  Anyway, we're into to the post lunch, week has caught up to us, crash.  Kevin's asleep, boys are vegging, and I'm working on my "December Month of Blogging Christmas".

I am thinking that today's activities, along with Kevin wanting to do an Advent devotion, will be centered around the Polar Express Movie.

We'll probably have hot chocolate, with whip cream (homemade!!) and crushed up candy canes and let the boys sack out on the floor. 

A few things to print out today:

• Luke 2:13-14 Subway Art ~ link here
• Polar Express Ticket - found many on pinterest, but decided to make my own.  Following is a picture of it:

I plan to print these on tan paper and darken up the lines that make the ticket.  I choose mostly "black and white" as color cartridges are expensive.  Also, in my scrapping booking software, the Santa sleigh was the best graphic I could find.

What are your plans today?  Have you done something special already?  Share, if you care, what you might be doing tonight or in the near future. 
 

~ 25 days of Christmas ~

Advent: n ~ A coming; appropriately the coming of our Savior, and in the calendar, it includes four sabbaths before Christmas, beginning of St. Andrew's Day, or on the sabbath next before or after it. It is intended as a season of devotion, with reference to the coming of Christ in the flesh, and his second coming to judge the world. {Webster's 1828 Dictionary}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What traditions do you have for Christmas?  What about for Advent?  Are there traditions just for the month of December?

As of right now, I do not have a formal plan of activities, movies, books, laid out for each day in December, but here are some things we've done in the past, movies we've watched and books we've read.  I also hope to add a few new things in as well.

Movies:  Most of these movies are ones for the kids.  For some reason, I love to watch "While You Were Sleeping" during the holidays, probably because it begins around Christmas.

• The Nativity Story (2006)
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
• Polar Express (2004)
• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey (2007)
• The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (2005)
• Elf (2003)
• Little Women (1994)
• While you Were Sleeping (1995)
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947 version)
• Santa Clause (1994) and subsequent movies
• White Christmas (1954) 
• A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
• Check out this link to ABC's Family 25 Days of Christmas ~ lots of movies to watch, some of what I have already listed.  Check it out down and set up the DVR!

Books:  For these books, I have listed the original author.  For "A Christmas Carol" we may end up reading an adaption of one, which might be a different author.

• Gospel of Luke - the birth of Christ
• Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
• One Winter's Night by John Herman
• The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
• Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck (plan to preview this one, haven't read it but looks good)
• Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate
• One Wintry Night by Ruth Graham Bell
• Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Activities:

• Christmas Mad Libs
• Attend Children's Christmas Show at Burke Community Church
• Attend Adults Christmas Choir at Burke Community Church
• Drive around and look at Christmas lights
• Go to National Mall and see the decorated trees
• Christmas Party through our Co-op
• Polar Express Evening:  tickets, hot chocolate/mug gift early, new pj's early
• Advent Scripture chain
• Christmas Camp-Out ~ once tree is up, sleeping around it for the first night

Baking:

• Oreo Truffles
• Christmas Pretzels
• Mint Brownies
• Hot Chocolate (not really baking, but totally home made)
• Cookies
• Coffee Cake Christmas morning or Monkey Bread in a bunt pan for a birthday cake for Jesus

Homework pre-Thanksgiving:

• figure out 25 scriptures related to Christ's birth (have seen a few links to some on Pinterest, but would like to get them from particular versions of a Bible)
• make letter mugs
• decide if traditional Christmas Eve PJ's will be given early
• map out some of the more difficult things to do ~ like going into Washington D.C. or Christmas shows that have specific dates