We loved the snow that we got in December. I tried to be good about
letting the kids go out whenever they desired. This gets a lot easier
as they get bigger because they can go out by themselves as long as they
stay close. Their favorite outside activity all month was sledding on
the big hill, right across the street. It's not a busy street but the
rule has normally been that they couldn't cross the street by
themselves. We made an exception to go over to the sledding hill but I
felt okay with that because I can see them from my downstairs window and my
upstairs bedroom window. Our little sledding tube stayed on our porch
permanently for a few weeks. I wasn't surprised to see Molly going
down over and over but I was surprised one day to look out the window to
see Stockton flying down the hill face first and happily yelling as
loud as he could. He was a fan this year, that's for sure!
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| Molly out with her friends...Jade at the bottom, getting ready to walk up, Maggie Stephenson in the blue coat, and Molly is the one in the pink hat sharing her tube with Maggie's brother, Ben. |
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More Advent activities:
Day 21: peppermint ice cream sundaes with hot fudge
Day 22: early Christmas Eve with the Goodrich's
I think this is everyone's favorite night of the year so it made sense to do it a few days early. We have our traditional candlelit, appetizers-only dinner, then some singing around the piano (which is not cheesy at all, and really neat, and really special), and usually some sort of spiritual thought by Gene. Brett had gone to a ton of work and transferred all their old home vidoes from VHS to DVDs for everyone so we spent some time watching those as well. I should have been better about taking pictures but I was busy eating, singing, and just visiting.
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| Stockton and Cam being silly at dinner |
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| Riley and Brynn just being so sweet |
Molly played her Christmas song for everyone.
Day 23: watch a Christmas movie and sleep under the tree
It's always fun to jump around on the mattress before the movie starts. This year we just watched some movie we found on Netflix. Looney Tunes Christmas or something, I think I fell asleep. It obviously didn't make too much of an impression on me.
(I must add that I also did a little piano party for my students on Day 23. They had been working on some Christmas songs and I didn't want to go to all the work of doing a recital so I just did a "group lesson" and they were able to play for each other. We also played Bingo and they got to take home a little goodie bag from me. It was fun and something I definitely plan on doing again!)
(Also, we went caroling to our bishop's house that night too with the ward. It was a busy day, but some days are like that!)
Day 24: watch Christmas movies
We kept the mattress out for a while that day and just let the kids jump around on it and watch any Christmas movie they wanted. That always entertains them so we can get all the last minute things done.
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Can I have two favorite nights of the year? Because this is definitely my favorite night too! Christmas Eve this year was at my mom and dad's and it is always awesome in such a different way. We got started right away playing some games that my sisters had brought...
If you rolled doubles, you got to unwrap the siran-wrap ball and find prizes.
Decorate Grandma and Grandpa like Christmas trees.
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| Chloe, Tessa, Abby, Molly |
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| Bryce, Spencer, Gavin, Ben, Stockton, Grant |
I guess you'd call this one orange bowling.
The cousins exchanged their gifts. Molly got Legos from one of the Broadbent boys.
Stockton got Batman slippers from one of the Walker girls.
And Brynn got a little block/princess/horse set from another one of the Broadbent boys.
Santa came, either before or after dinner, I can't remember. Brynn did not like him and literally covered her eyes like this the whole time. It was funny, yet a little sad all at once.
But she did enjoy the early gift he gave her: Minnie Mouse shoes that light up.
Stockton got some Jake and the Neverland Pirate Legos.
And Molly got a Hello Kitty watch.
We did the nativity. Here are our kids...a shepherd, a wiseman (the three older girls were the wisemen), and an angel.
It was a little bit chaotic with 13 kids (although Seth probably doesn't count since he didn't participate) but it's not Christmas Eve without a nativity scene. It's what I remember doing as a kid and I love seeing my kids doing the same thing.
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| I'll try to name everyone! Starting in the back: Abby, Chloe, Molly, Grant (he was the star), Stockton, Brynn in front, Spencer in the basket, Tessa and Gavin looking toward the star were Mary and Joseph, and you can barely see Harper behind Gavin |
After that we wrapped the party up. We forgot to take pictures in front of the tree before the kids got in their jammies, but here is our family, anxious and excited for Christmas morning!
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