Christmas Activities

Finally some Christmas talk!! This year snuck up on us and the craziness seemed to last for weeks (which was very good yet very tiring). We managed to sneak in some traditions like years past and even added a new one. The one tradition that Sevea missed most this year was our cookie baking and frosting. I just couldn’t fathom making more cookies after the cookie exchange with my friends…or this might be the one time I say I couldn’t fathom eating any more cookies! But she enjoyed helping me and Carissa decorate some of the cookies for the exchange. So what fun things did we do again this year?

Of course we started it all off with decorating the tree. As Sevea gets older and older she enjoys this part more and more. 1) She can actually put some ornaments on the tree herself (and they actually stay on). 2) She loves looking at all the ornaments and either asking us who’s it is or pointing out all of hers. I love the unique factor of the tree and I am so happy she finds joy in it too.

Gingerbread house! This one almost didn’t happen. In the end I was happy we did it but I seriously wasn’t sure it was worth all the headache to get there. I try to buy a gingerbread house kit after Christmas each year for the next to save a little money on it. I bought a kit from Target last year and was really happy with it when we started to put it together….that is until I moved wrong and ended up dropping one of the side pieces on the floor. We attempted to salvage it but it fell apart probably due to lack of patience on my part. So on the hunt we went over the next two days to find another kit. We finally found one after going to several stores. The decorating was fun as usual but the frosting was being difficult and was threatening to fall apart minutes after we finished. Oh well we still had fun and got our picture of the final product :) Let’s hope next year goes more smooth.

One new thing we did this year that I would love to make a tradition is a countdown calendar. As Sevea gets older she understands more but yet time isn’t her friend most times. It is still hard for her, like most kids, to understand how long it will be till Christmas since we start decorating and talking about it weeks before. The calendar most definitely helped. She got a little confused when we celebrated with Grandpa and Grandma Appeldorn early and yet it really wasn’t Christmas. But overall it got her involved and she understood having to wait a little more. Next year maybe we’ll go further and do an advent type calendar.

Santa’s beard is complete, he’ll be leaving presents for me to open in the morning!!

Christmas activities complete, bring on the presents!!