I just love this season so much and am grateful for the Spirit it brings into our home. We have watched a bunch of Christmas movies already and also several Christmas specials. My favorite special so far was Vocal Point’s. You can watch the whole thing here. It’s such a great show!
I told you all earlier, I pull out our tree pretty much as early as possible. I listen to Christmas music right after Halloween. I plan out about fifty activities in my calendar for the season. So, when my kids were sick for a solid week, I was kind of devastated. We missed the Alpine Live Nativity, which I had gotten tickets for as soon as they went on sale and was heartbroken we didn’t get to do that. We missed the Nativity, which was a new tradition we started with my friend and her daughter. We also missed this other sing-in thing while they were sick. So needless to say, last week I decided we needed to STEP UP OUR GAME to get caught up!
We celebrated St. Nick, where St. Nick comes in the night to put chocolate in your shoes if you’ve been good!
We drove around the neighborhood one night with Christmas music on and looked at all the lights. This is always a favorite activity of mine since the kids are nice and warm, and it’s free! We will probably go out and do this again another night.
We started our #12outfits of Christmas with Danica!
For every one good picture, there are about thirty awful/hilarious ones.
We decorated Gingerbread houses (and then ate it as soon as we finished).
Here’s our video from last year. Finn sure has changed!
We had a really great Thanksgiving. I usually don’t care too much about the holiday, it’s not that I don’t like it… I enjoy being with family, watching the parade, eating some pumpkin pie, thinking about our blessings… but it’s not like on the level of Halloween or Christmas, you know? But this year, it really was!
The days leading up to Thanksgiving were nice, we did a bunch of crafts, including the ones seen below (thanks, Mom for sending those!). And I also got to help in Eva’s class with her Thanksgiving Feast. I’m so grateful I’m in the position where I can help in her school!
On Thanksgiving Day, I started off the morning by going to an early morning High class, I pushed through even though I had a bad cold! We spent the morning cuddling with the kids on the couch, watching the parade, and Facetiming my parents. We then went to TJ’s parents’-the men went to the restaurant to get in line (who would have thought there’d be an hour line for a Thanksgiving buffet?) and then we met them when it was time. A lot of TJ’s extended family-like aunts and uncles on his dad’s side-joined us which was fun to see them! TJ’s aunt ever made these adorable little napkin holders with everyone’s face on a pilgrim’s body. Too funny!
After lunch, we headed to the movie theater to see Moana (we got tickets like three weeks in advance!) and my sister-in-law graciously offered to watch Finn for us, which was so nice not to have to bring him into the theater. The movie was incredible. If you haven’t seen it, go! We bought the soundtrack as soon as we left the theater!
We went back to TJ’s parents’ house where we played games together and enjoyed one another’s company. My mother-on-law prepared a Bingo game for the kids, which they loved. We even got Pie Face out for the first time, which didn’t disappoint!
We were driving home after the great day and I saw my cute kids in the back, TJ and I were singing Christmas songs, and we just said to each other how great of a day it had been! The only thing that could have made it better is if my parents and siblings got to be with us too! I sure miss you all, but we were fortunate enough to see my brother and my sister-in-law the next day since they were in town! We went bowling on Friday and stayed up late talking. I’m grateful for my family-far and near-and grateful for our strong relationships, even if we don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like!
I am the type of person who wants to set up the Christmas tree right after Halloween. But I try and hold off for at least a week! I just love the magic of Christmas so much, I don’t understand what the big deal is to extend the holiday as long as possible! Eva obviously is the same way and I let her get a little tree for her bedroom. She picked out the whole thing and we’re both in love with it!
And the bottom picture is another wreath I made! You just string the bulbs onto an old wire hanger! Easy peezy!
We turned on photobooth tonight and had a little too much fun! I know this is an embarrassing video (plus terrible background noise and image quality), but I don’t really care. I’m just so grateful for a family with whom I can be completely goofy! PS-TJ said I could publish this, don’t worry! #relationshipgoals right here, guys. Not to sound like the girls on The Bachelor, but I love this man!
If you follow me on instagram, you probably saw my post about reading a new Christmas book to Eva each night (most of them are from the library) and then wanting to review them here. We finished our first batch and wanted to share:
The Golden Christmas Tree: Yeah, we were not fans of this book. I can’t even remember what it was about, that’s how lame of a story it was.
I Love Christmas: This one was cute but for a younger audience than Eva’s.
Little Bunny Finds Christmas: I loved this one. The repetition and flow of the book was well done and the story was simple and sweet. That night in Eva’s prayers, she even mentioned some things she learned in the book. Very cute!
Reindeer Christmas: I enjoyed the classic Christmas illustrations in this book and the rhyming was also cute.
Santa Claus and the Three Bears: A Christmas twist on the Goldie Locks story. Eva really liked this book.
The All-I’ll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll: I thought this one looked interesting but it was for an older age group than Eva’s because it’s set back during the depression and Eva just didn’t really understand.
Looking for Christmas: This was the first Christmas book we read this season and it made me cry because it was such a sweet message. The snowman is searching for Christmas and on his journey, gives all of his belongings to woodland creatures that need it more than him. It was such a beautiful yet simple message. It’s only $5 on Amazon, so get this one!
On the actual day of Halloween, we really didn’t have much planned except for trick-or-treating in the evening. In fact, I had TJ take the car, so we were pretty much stuck at home. But I felt like we couldn’t just hang out at the house on Halloween! So, we met up with friends at Zaxby’s for lunch (kids ate free if they were in costume-Finn was a “bunny in a pumpkin patch” and Eva was a cat!) and then because Eva, last minute, wanted to be Elsa, I threw together Finn’s costume while he was napping. It was actually pretty fun getting his costume ready to go and getting Eva all dressed! She looked so cute with her whole costume on! TJ came up with his costume-he was Sven, the reindeer from Frozen. I was going to be a wolf from Frozen (remember, wolves chase the sled?) but the makeup didn’t turn out as planned, so I went as the cat again. We trick or treated in our neighborhood and Eva was running around like crazy. She did up and down the street with some buddies in the time that our group barely went up half the street. It was so funny! We ended the night by visiting TJ’s parents to show them the kids’ costumes.
The Friday before Halloween, we hit up our friend’s brother’s haunted forest. It was kid friendly and the kids seriously loved it. I think Eva went through six times. They were all so cute running through and telling us what to watch out for! Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy that night and Finn was crabby from teething (in fact, we switched off sitting in the car with him since he fell asleep), but we still had a good time catching up with friends.
On our way home, we decided to swing by Gardner Village since that was on my Fall to-do list and I really wanted to see the witches there! We didn’t stay long, considering it was past 9 pm when we arrived and it was a bit rainy. But it was still fun to blow off the kids’ bedtimes and just have a fun Friday night out! Usually I’m so big about getting the kids to bed right at seven, so when we stay out (especially on a weekend), it’s a special treat! Oh, and splitting a caramel apple sure made things nice 🙂 !
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I love the calendar! Great work, TJ.March 30, 2017 - 8:47 pm by Jeanette