December

In years past, I have done an Advent with the kids and done a special Christmas activity every single day.  This worked so well when the kids were younger and didn't have anything else during the day but, honestly, it's been a bit stressful the last couple of years.  They have school and homework and other activities and I'm teaching piano everyday and it was just one more thing to do.  I felt guilty giving it up, I thought it was important to them, but when I asked them some of their favorite Christmas activities, they named a handful of their favorites but didn't mention the Advent at all.  So I decided to do away with it...we still tried to squeeze in our favorite traditions and it wasn't so stressful for mom.  And I tried not to give myself a guilt-trip about it.  So, after that lengthy introduction, here are some Christmas and non-Christmas things that kept us occupied during December.

We wrote letters to Santa.

Molly asked for an artist's easel, an art kit, and a matching doll outfit.

Brynn asked for a Belle doll and a pencil case.

Stockton asked for a Darth Vader lightsaber

Brynn doesn't get as excited about doing crafts with me like Molly did.  I wish she would but it's just not really her thing.  I did, however, get her to make this cotton ball snowflake, but probably because it was so quick.

 

The rest of our time together that afternoon was spent playing with the trains.  We used the cotton balls as the snow that the trains had to drive through.

Molly's class had a field trip scheduled for later in the spring to see Ballet West perform Pinocchio somewhere here in Provo.  There was a mix-up with the tickets so instead they were able to go to Salt Lake and see Ballet West perform The Nutcracker at Capitol Theater.  Doesn't she look so adorable, dressed up nice?

I was a little jealous of her outing.  Seeing Ballet West perform The Nutcracker has always been on my bucket list.  She had a great time and I was happy that she was able to go on such a fun, neat field trip.  She has always loved The Nutcracker.

Brynn and I made a snowman out of magnets.

We are part of a baby-sitting swap with some families in the ward.  The Phillips had a cookie-decorating party when it was their turn to watch the kids.  Justin had to close up at work that night so instead of a date with him, I hung out and watched the kids decorate their cookies.  They had a great time doing that and playing hide-and-seek when they were done.

The Primary kids sang a song at the Christmas party and were supposed to dress as an angel or a shepherd.  I've never had to find costumes at my own house so this is what we quickly came up with.  Brynn wasn't technically in primary at this point but she didn't want to miss out on dressing up.

They also met Santa at the ward party.  Brynn still wants nothing to do with the big guy.

This is usually where my kids are every night while I'm making dinner.  Around the table, coloring, drawing, writing notes, etc.  They can't get enough (mostly Molly and Stockton). 

Here's a drawing of Stockton's that I remembered to take a picture of.  He's getting pretty good-Justin thought Molly had drawn this.

We decorated a gingerbread house.  This is usually a Thanksgiving/cabin activity but we left the cabin early since our kids were sick.  We did it at home instead.  

I always put in for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert but I never get picked for tickets.  Well, except for this year.  We got tickets for Thursday night and were able to take both Molly and Stockton.  It was the Sesame Street Muppets this year so fun for the kids.  Stockton got a little restless but I think he still liked it.  Molly really enjoyed it and understood most of the humor.

My mom and dad also got tickets for the same night and they brought Chloe and Abby along with them.  Our kids have never really seen the lights at Temple Square and it was such a mild night, temperature-wise, so we really enjoyed walking around and seeing all the lights.

Molly, Abby, Stockton, Chloe

Brynn stayed with Gene and April and wanted to wait up for us to get home.  She eventually crashed on the chair in the family room and so this is what we saw when we got home.

Molly loves to set up little games for her and Stockton and Brynn.  It might be a camping game or an art class...whatever her imagination comes up with.  This particular day she set up a store.

She spends most of her time in the set up and actually very little time in the actual play.  It makes for bigger clean-ups but I am happy to see her using her imagination.

We opened a new Christmas book and had Justin read it before bed.

 

Seeing the Festival of Lights is always top on the kids' lists so we couldn't miss that.

Stockton and Molly both had performances at the school Christmas assembly.  Stockton' class sang Rudolph...he makes a pretty cute reindeer.

Molly's class sang and danced to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.  They did a great job!

This is Claire from Molly's class.  She's become really good friends with her this year.

My mom and dad drove all the way down to watch the kids and then stayed the afternoon and evening to make it worth the drive.  They took the kids to McDonald's for ice cream while I did my piano lessons and then we went to Thanksgiving Point.  We saw a couple of Santa's reindeer, ate dinner, and saw the lights.

The one request that Molly made the whole month was to make candy cane sleds so we put together a few of those and delivered them to some friends.  It was a Saturday and Maggie and Benny were hanging out so they got to make their own to take home.

Benny Keller, Molly, Maggie Stephenson

Stockton and Brynn each made one and then the three of them each delivered theirs to a friend.

My kids just love playdough.  Some playdough Christmas cookies (in a pretty orange shade since we didn't get around to making red and green).

I hosted a small piano party for my students.  They had all been working on a Christmas song and I didn't want to go to all the trouble of holding a recital but wanted them to be able to perform...this has been the solution for the past couple of years and it has worked out well.  I just have the students come over, we play Bingo and everyone plays their song for each other.  Short, fun, and they are still getting the experience of performing in front of other people.  I had one of my friends join in with her two kids, just so they could also get the practice of playing in front of an audience.

top to bottom: Dallin Burton, Ashlin Burton, Bryson Riley, Andrew Fuller, Anni Riley, Jaron Burton, Kylie Fuller, Olivia Huff, Kaylen Burton, Alleah Wood, Molly Goodrich, Lizzie Peacock

Decorating cookies for Santa is always a must.  We managed to do it on Christmas Eve...cutting it kind of close!  I meant to do it the day before and had even made the dough but came down with a nasty cold and was so sick and just had no energy.  Luckily a neighbor came through for us.  Sister Tucker had made the kids sugar cookies and provided frosting and decorations.  Took all the work out of it for me.  Plus she makes really delicious sugar cookies and I still have some dough in the freezer that I can pull out later.

A few other things the kids did this season:

-watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and ate caramel popcorn

-Molly made snowflakes and decorated our front window with them

-got Christmas sticker books, great for sacrament meeting

-danced a lot to Polar Express songs

-made Christmas ornaments with Grandma April

-watched lots of Christmas movies

-learned how to make paper candy canes

-wrapped presents for each other

-slept under the tree

Worth mentioning is that Justin and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on the 13th.  It was a Saturday and he had to go to work but we celebrated the following weekend by going to dinner at The Bombay House.  I gave him a hatchet and he gave me a pillow.  We are so exciting.