25 Days of Christmas - Day 21

Read Christmas books in front of the fireplace

I completely forgot to take any photos of this, we were just enjoying snuggling up with pillows and blankets in our pjs, eating cookies and reading, while outside it was STILL snowing. Beautiful! So here is a photo of our fireplace. :) I love the simplicity of this "event" and was happy that the kids were so excited about it. We should really do it every night in December, as it makes us stop and relax and read about Jesus' birth and what we are celebrating. I have to remember to do this more often, even after Christmas!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 20

We were supposed to go spend the night at the Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach Christian Camp, but due to the snow and unpredictable weather, we opted to reschedule for after Christmas. If you have never been there, it's wonderful and so fun! They have millions of lights and displays, and fun things for the kids, and great food - just a fun event. They have an AMAZING larger-than-life-size Nativity scene. It's incredible. We love to stay overnight there in one of the cute decorated rooms at the Victorian Inn, and it includes a full breakfast the next morning. The kids are thankfully still excited to do this next week and hopefully it won't be as frigidly cold.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 19

Make gingerbread houses

First, I have to post some snow pictures -can't ignore all the fluffy white stuff we got! It was beautiful today, clear and sunny and the air was just so fresh. And I had some major cabin fever so I was determined to get outside in it, though I usually like to enjoy my snow from the warm house. :)

Nothing like a little snow soccer


Snow angels!


Looks like a snow smooch to me

The girls had fun with the gingerbread houses! We were supposed to go to a party and make them but in light of the weather and road conditions, we had to change plans and get our own houses to do at home. It was a lot of fun! And here's a tip: keep all your Halloween candy, especially the icky stuff like Dots and Jujyfruits - great for gingerbread houses!

Having some technical difficulties

Team Hayley & Mommy

Team Ainsley & Daddy

25 Days of Christmas - Day 18

Polar Express Day!

This was supposed to just be Polar Express NIGHT, but since school was cancelled again, we took advantage of a little more fun. We started the day with snowman pancakes (yum!), played in the snow, and then curled up on the couch with some chili (get it? chilly?) and snowman cornbread and watched Polar Express. Well, the girls and Dan did, I pretty much slept through it. :)

Yummy snowman pancakes!


Ready to watch the movie!


Don't ya just love my snowman corn muffins?

Start the movie already!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 17

Make snowman craft - Melty the Snowman

Funny thing is, we had no school because of the snow...anyway, the girls had fun making this craft - quick and easy and cute. Though I'm starting to think all these crafts we are doing are more for me than them because as soon as we were done, they took off upstairs. Hmph.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 16

Breakfast at Starbucks

This was an easy one for us. :) The girls love a little change in the schedule (well, Hayley does, Ainsley usually needs a bit of convincing. I of course managed to snap a couple of photos...with my NEW CELL PHONE!!! I'm just impressed at the quality of these photos.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 15

Make reindeer faces

Aren't these the cutest things? The glue is still drying so we couldn't hang them up yet, but I love how they came out, and the girls had fun making them. I also love having a record of the size of their hands & feet...which, by the way, are the skinniest little feet ever!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 14

Make teacher gifts - homemade granola and peppermint soap

We had a lot of fun making these gifts for the girls' teachers. I hope they enjoy them as much as we did. Aren't they cute? (I mean, the gifts, but yes, so are the girls. :)

25 Days of Christmas - Day 12

Improvise!!

Sometimes, you just can't be a slave to the schedule, right? Things got crazy at the end of the week and we weren't able to decorate sugar cookies that night. So instead, they made birthday cards for Papa. And I have no photos. But they were very cute cards!!! :)

25 Days of Christmas - Day 11

Make sugar cone Christmas trees...and eat them!

We had to do a last-minute switcheroo, as we were supposed to decorate sugar cookies. However, upon arriving at home at 5 pm and the cookies were not even MADE, we had to change it up. But really since it was all about eating frosting and sprinkles, the kids didn't really care. :) Quite the sugar rush though!!!


I love the concentration on her face


Ummm....does anyone else have a problem with this photo?


Yes, Virginia, there IS a mommy (especially when she hands the camera to daddy to take a picture!~)


Dan is ready to chow down


Ahhhh, green frosting faces....

25 Days of Christmas - Day 10

Make crafts with the Irey's!

We had such a fun afternoon with Grant, Lauren & Heather. First we made ribbon/button bookmarks. So cute and easy! Grant was done after about 2 of them and snuck off to play upstairs. I could have kept making them forever...I think I made like 10 of them. :) Anyway, easy and cute little bookmarks that would be great gifts.
We also got messy and made cinnamon applesauce ornaments. It made the kitchen smell so good! The kids had fun rolling out the dough and cutting the shapes...though we had to remind them a couple times to NOT eat the dough. Blech.
I think the kids just had a good time hanging out and playing together...good thing Heather and I planned easy, simple stuff or we would have been doing them ourselves!


Grant and Hayley


Lauren and Ainsley


The whole gang

Heather and the cuties

25 Days of Christmas - Day 9

Red and Green Night!

My kids LOVE this idea...(thanks Michele!) - we have only red and green foods for dinner! Last year, Ainsley would NOT eat the green noodles and it took a lot of convincing to make her realize they don't taste different. :) This year was a bit easier - though the green ranch dressing was a bit off-putting to her.
Our menu was:
Spaghetti (noodles colored green)
Red sauce
Green salad, red tomatoes, green ranch dressing (or red 1000 Island for Dan)
Green garlic-cheese biscuits
Red milk (well, it was actually pink, it was hard to get it RED and we ran out of food coloring)
Red and green M&M cookies

Such a fun night for the girls, and no extra effort/expense for us!

Ainsley and I made the M&M cookies together - this is a fun, easy recipe for little ones!

Uhh....apparently she sampled some of them...


Such colorful food! The pink milk is still making me laugh

25 Days of Christmas - Day 8

Make popcorn bowls at the paint-your-own pottery place!

The girls were SO excited to do this! We had a lot of fun, creating bowls together. It was definitely a new experience for Dan! And now we are looking forward to seeing the finished products...they are supposed to be done this weekend...and hopefully they all survive the firing process!!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 7

Christmas movie marathon

I completely forgot to take any photos of our movie marathon...but can describe it easily. The girls remained in the their pj's the entire day and watched (in this order) The Toy That Saved Christmas, The Grinch, Santa Clause 1, Santa Clause 2 and Santa Clause 3. Whew. It was a LOT of movie watching! We actually had something else planned for day 7 but Ainsley was sick and it was an outdoor event, so we had to do a quick switch with another day. Week one down - and we had lots of fun...and more to come!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 6

Cut down Christmas tree

We were sooo thankful to have a decent weather day for the tree-cutting event this year! Last year, searching for a tree and cutting it down in the middle of snow and sleet and wind and freezing temps...not so fun. This year was 50 and partly sunny - perfect! It was nice to be able to take the time to find just the right tree, not just the one closest to the warm car. I love our tree!


Finding just the right one....

Found it!!!

Difficult to cut down a tree with a dull saw!

I think we have a new tradition - the girls love this book and Hayley sat and read it to Ainsley while Dan got the tree trimmed and into the stand. Can't wait for lights and decorations!!!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 5

Set-up and decorate the "family" Christmas tree

I am a bit over-the-top when it comes to Christmas decorating -we have 4 trees. 3 fakes and a real one. The fake one in the dining room is our "family" tree and it has all the random ornaments, and ones the kids have made. AND they get to decorate it. Which they did, all by themselves, even the garland (Dan helped a bit with the top!). They love to do this and I love to have a tree that they can take some pride in...which makes me feel better about not letting them decorate our main tree in the living room!!!

(disclaimer for days 1-3...I didn't have the bright idea of documenting our 25DOC until the 3rd day, which is why my kids are dressed the same. Sorry Kim, laundry must still take place during the 25 DOC!)

Anyway, here's the pics...

The final ornament...

It always makes me smile when they pose this way for pictures - these girls are just too cute for words! And it's nice to have a record of siblings LOVING each other! :)

25 Days of Christmas - Day 4

Go see the Festival of Trees in Tacoma

We've never done this before and really had a lot of fun! I of course was hugely inspired by the gorgeous trees...but am thinking I will make the effort NEXT year, as I'm about decorated out. And budgeted out. :)


Ainsley's favorite - the "Tinkerbell" tree


Hayley's favorite - the "Monkey" tree


This was just hilarious - I'm sure they do it on purpose. See? The "S" isn't working? It should say Self Storage but it says ELF Storage? Funny, huh? Well, I thought so. :)

25 Days of Christmas - Day 3

Play balloon volleyball

25 Days of Christmas - Day 2

Hot cocoa and puzzle night

25 Days of Christmas - Day 1

We started a tradition last year (got the idea from Michele & Stella!) to do the "25 Days of Christmas" with the kids. Each day the kids find out what activity, or craft, or event we will be doing that day. It's a surprise for them each day and it's fun seeing their reaction and then watching their anticipation all day. I thought this year I would try to take a picture and blog each day, kind of a little scrapbook of our Christmas 2008 celebration. So here is Day 1...

Make paper snowflakes to decorate the playroom

Three Wise Men? Or Four...???