Catching up on December Part 4: Lots of Christmas Fun

Despite all of the birthday preparations and fun, we still found time for a lot of Christmas fun too.

One weekend, we headed to a nearby town for a fun little Christmas festival. It featured bounce houses, train rides, sno-cones, a lawn mower parade (that's right....it was hilarious and awesome all at the same time!), and a snow pile to play in. Lots of fun all rolled into one place!

Eli and I made salt dough ornaments this year. It was fun, and they turned out really great!

It was a several day process, but after they {finally!} dried out, Eli took great pride in painting them. We added a layer of Mod Podge at the end to seal in the paint and even some glitter. Once they were all dry, we packaged them up and gave them as gifts to his classmates.

One night, Daddy and I surprised the boys with the Minivan Express this year. I had them fed, bathed and jammied a little earlier than usual. And as they climbed into bed, they found their golden tickets (just like in the Polar Express...a fave Christmas movie around here) that I hole-punched for them as they climbed into the car. We had hot chocolate and popcorn as a treat as we drove around town to look at some of the best lights in town.

The boys loved it, and crashed before we got home that night. Perfect!

There was lots and lots and lots of last minute baking done. Both boys got in on the baking action....and especially loved to lick the beater. Jude caught on very quicky, and though he was once afraid of the mixer, now he comes running into the kitchen begging for a lick.

We were lucky enough to have Aunt Susanna here helping the day we attempted to make sugar cookies to decorate. I don't know what I would have done without her. She helped Jude not eat so much dough roll out and punch his cookie shapes while I helped Eli. Good times and good memories.

Our extended family Christmas gathering happened out at The Lake again this year. It was just the right amount of chilly to feel like Christmas was getting closer. As usual, lots of fabulous family and fun.

 

And of course, we did our usual Advent preparations as well. We tried to keep up with our Jesse tree and lit our Advent candles each night at dinner time. Eli enjoyed helping light them this year and did a great job remembering the prayers. Both boys loved snuffing them out at the end of the meal.

After all of this fun, it was time for Daddy's birthday and Christmas Eve to arrive. We were ready!