~Our Christmas Activities~

I wish I had been better about taking pictures of all our Christmas happenings this year. We really did have soooo much fun. I think this was the year our kids really got into the whole idea of Christmas. Sadly my camera was MIA for most of it. Still I thought I would record a quick bullet list of some of our fun for posterity's sake.
This Christmas season we....

• Watched The Santa Clause 1, 2, & 3, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Merry Christmas Charlie Brown, Frosty the Snowman, Christmas Oranges, Elf, The Muppet Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story, and just about every Christmas special there was one TV. A little ridiculous but soooo much fun!
• Visited Santa at the mall and both kids walked right up, climbed in his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. I was kicking myself the entire time for forgetting my camera, but not enough to buy the ridiculously overpriced picture the mall photographer offered to take for me.
• Rode the Christmas Train at the mall.
• Watched Alec's Winter Sing at school where Alec was the only kid who refused to sing the entire time. When we got home he gave me a private concert of all the songs. What a sweet, shy, silly little boy.
• Made foam ornament santas, snowmen, and penguins for our teachers!
• Carried on our tradition of making lots and lots of Christmas goodies, including our cinnamon sugared almonds. Sooo yummy! The kids were very patient with us as we made many car trips delivering them around town.
• Ate dinner while listening to lots of Christmas music.
• The kids and I listened to Glee Christmas about a million times until the kids started singing along.
• Alec and Elyssa both sang almost every single word of "Bless Us All" from the Muppet Christmas Carol to my mother over the telephone.
• Watched favorite scenes from the Muppet Christmas Carol many times over while doing the dishes.
• Drank gallons of Stephen's Mint Hot Cocoa (Thanks again, Grandma Shannon!) and the kids learned to love Egg Nog just like their daddy.
• Drove around town and into downtown Des Moines viewing Christmas lights.
• Nick went to class twice a week and we missed him terribly while listening to Christmas songs.
• Started reading a chapter from the illustrated version of The New Testament every night for scriptures and the kids loved reading about Jesus' birth.
• Drove through Water Works Park for the Christmas Lights Spectacular, all while listening to the Glee version of Mr. Grinch over and over again per Alec's request.
• I worked occasionally at The Gap, joining in on the Christmas retail explosion.
• Saw the new disney princess movie Tangled in the movie theatre on a stimulus Tuesday, so popcorn and drinks all around! We all loved the movie, and I made sure to put in a good word to Santa that Lyssa would love a Rapunzel doll for Christmas. Oh! I almost forgot! We also learned that Lyssa loves Cherry Coke. I looked over and the little lady had sucked down my entire cup! Little stinker.
• The kids and I had a sleepover next to the Christmas Tree, complete with squeals, popcorn, ice cream, a movie on the laptop, and late night laughter. It was totally awesome and the next morning the kids woke up soooo excited that they had been allowed to sleep by the tree all night. I think this will be a tradition that we will carry on in the future for sure.
• Went to the Science Center to play and discover the morning away. Then we watched The Polar Express at the IMAX theatre. Alec and I both agreed that the movie was fun, but the IMAX is just not our thing.
• Pulled out all 30 Christmas/Winter themed stories and put them on the piano. They were each read about a million times over by Christmas day.

We really did have a wonderful build up to Christmas Eve and the big Christmas Day. Yes, there were things that I wanted to do but we never got around to, but there is always next year. Considering Nick was in class, I was working some evenings, and we have a new baby I think we did quite well for ourselves! I can't wait to do it all again next year!