Christmas Traditions

Every year we participate in special activities leading up to Christmas. Some years we do more than others but there a few things we always do.
My mom got us an Elf on the Shelf five Christmases ago. Every year he makes an appearance after Thanksgiving and hides in various places each night leading up to Christmas. The girls love looking for him each morning and it's been a lot of fun this year because he has been hiding in harder spots.

Hiding in the pocket of my cooking apron.

One morning Relfie the Elfie hid in the same spot he had hidden in before and K yelled at him "Stupid Elf!" While she was getting dressed he moved to another spot. When she spotted him she said, "I'm sorry, I just don't like it when you hide in the same spot more than once. It isn't any fun. Please hide in different places." M and I were shocked she yelled at the elf but even more shocked when she apologized to him.

Hiding in the tree.

We always go pick out a tree together and then come home and decorate it. This year after decorating it the girls and I camped out under it. We listened to Christmas music, read a couple of Christmas stories and enjoyed gazing at the lights while drifting off to sleep.

For the past several years we have been reading a Christmas book each night before bed. Last year I wrapped all the books to make it more fun to choose. The girls take turns each night picking a book to read together. We weren't as consistent this year but we still read most nights.

I love nativities and collect them. I have several in each room and one on the tree. I used to have more nativity ornaments but they broke when our tree fell two years ago.

This year I got to go to the Winter Frolic in L's kindergarten class. We made nine Christmas crafts together and then iced cookies for a snack. It was so much fun hanging out with L in her classroom and seeing her interact with her classmates. K even got to come ice cookies with us during her recess time.

I help out in K's class room each Tuesday for a couple of hours. Her sweet teacher gave me a hand drawn snowman plate with the signatures of all her students. Such a special gift from an amazing woman! I love going in each week and working with these great kids!

For the past several year's M's work has had a family Christmas party at the roller rink in town. The kids have a great time puttering around the rink and we are fed pizza. It's something they look forward to each year.

On Christmas Eve the girls get to open one gift. It's jammies so they look nice on Christmas morning opening gifts. We get on our jammies then go out to look at Christmas lights throughout the town. When we get home we put out cookies and milk for Santa before heading off to bed.

Jammies and robes.

Cookies, milk and notes for Santa.

The stockings were hung.

Fell asleep at 2 in the morning, Santa can finally come.

Christmas Piano Recital

On December 16th the girls participated in a piano recital at church. They both did great and we are proud of how well they are coming along in their lessons. Our friend, Kristan, teaches ten children all together ranging from 5 to 12 years old. She does an amazing job with them and they all love her.

L playing Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.

K playing Silent Night.

Kristan with my girls.

Kristan with all the kids.

Ginger Assault

After winning first place for our gingerbread masterpieces, we decided it was time to get rid of them. And what better way than to shoot them with an air-soft rifle? You can do it from the comfort of your own backyard and leave the mess for the birds and squirrels to clean up . We hope you enjoy the carnage as much as we enjoyed creating it.

L's gingerbread house ready for shooting.

She has it in her sights.

Helping L line up her sights.

After our 5 year old blew up her house, our 8 year old wanted a turn. Her's was even cooler! Watch the video to the end.

 K shooting her house.

 

Total destruction! We all loved it!

We also took out the big house. M started it but I got to shoot my gazebo. I have to admit it was more fun using our gingerbread houses as targets than it was making them.

Gingerbread Building

It has been nine years since we built our last gingerbread house and M thought this was the year to try again. Our last house looked like this.

This year we went a little smaller and only spent a week on our design instead of the several weeks we spent years ago before we had children. We made two small houses for the girls to each decorate and one for us to decorate. I had good intentions of helping out a lot but I was kept busy making cookies and dill bread for friends, shopping for gifts, and wrapping said gifts. I did help out some and I will point out what I made when we get there.

Here are the girls gingerbread houses, made from real gingers:)

Our youngest decorating her house.

Our oldest decorating her house and sneaking some icing.

M found a great gingerbread recipe years ago that we like to use. He mixes up the dough and rolls it out then lays down a pattern for the walls and roof. He cuts out places for windows and doors. In place of the windows he puts crushed up jolly ranchers and bakes the dough. The jolly ranchers melt and then solidify after removed from the oven giving them a stained glass look.

Here is a picture of the house completed and M adding some special features. I made the green gazebo out of icing using a balloon. After it dried we popped the balloon and then M affixed it to the candy canes for posts. After considering different materials, we decided on rock candy for the pathway from the door to the gazebo and for the flooring inside the gazebo. He also used Hershey's chocolate to make little benches.

M had the great idea of making a truck and having it spin out in the "snow". He drew up a design at work and cut out the model at home. It turned out pretty cool.

Here are a few different views of the house. We added lots of details and I love how great it turned out!

Close up of the tire tracks and snow people.

Tree on the side of house and decorated Christmas tree.

Vines for some hominess.

The roof tiles.

Close up of the lights coming from inside and the icicles.

Areal view.

Side view. This turned out so pretty.

Front view.

We entered our house in a contest at church and walked away with first prize. Everyone loved how the house looked and especially thought the flashing lights were great!

L's side view.

L's front view.

K's side view.

K's front view.

While at the 3rd Ward Christmas dinner, which was scrumptious, we stopped to visit with Santa Claus in one of the rooms. The girls told him what they wanted for Christmas. We also got to sing carols and visit with many of our old friends. We had a super fun night!

L told Santa she wanted a puppy for Christmas.

K told Santa she wanted a remote control fire breathing dragon that could grasp things with it's claws. She also wanted the remote to have a video on it so she could see where the dragon went when it was out of sight. She even drew a picture of it for him.

The girls and M had a lot of fun building these houses but they had even more fun disposing of them. Stay tuned for the next post in this series.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

It started snowing in the evening of December 5th and by Friday the town awoke to find several inches of snow on the ground. The girls had a blast playing in the snow. They built forts, rolled around and even went sledding.

Early morning Friday.

Six inches by mid-day.

Building a snowman.

L throwing snow.

Such a cute pic of L.

Playing with neighbors.

Pictures of snowflakes up close that M took with his new camera.

I had driven to Portland the night before so I could go to a doctors appointment and get my hair done. Although Portland only got a light dusting, it was still pretty slick out. I had my husband's truck and didn't feel comfortable driving home after driving to my appointments or talking to him about how bad the roads were south of Salem. Apparently it continued to snow throughout the day and the temperature never got above 12 degrees.
I stayed at my aunts house until Sunday when the roads were better to drive on but even then, when I got into town the roads were very slick and still covered with snow and ice. I had to drive 30 mph or less on the highways and the residential areas were even more slick.
Due to snow and ice the kids were out of school from Monday through Thursday. It was the worst snow and temperatures in almost 20 years. Usually when it snows here it is only an inch or two and is melted by the end of the day. We NEVER get out of school for snow.
I loved having the girls home from school. We spent time making cookies and watching Christmas movies. But by Friday I was happy to have then head back only because I needed to do some Christmas shopping without them around. It was definitely looking like a white Christmas!