December 24th:

Ornament exchange and the reading of How The Grinch Stole Christmas and The Night Before Christmas

Last one!

It's the last day of the Christmas activity advent calendar. I'm not going to lie, this was a lot of work. And I don't just mean the creation of it, or just the execution of it, it was all of the things that happened outside of the activities that I couldn't plan for like play dates with friends, sickness and power outages. 

But it was all worth it because I learned a lot from this experience. The biggest thing I learned was that I had to stop stressing about all the things I think I should be doing and make time for the things I most definitely need to be doing, because the kids didn't care if I didn't get through a pile of mail or mopped the floors, they just enjoyed doing our activities together. And in making time to do those things, I feel like we were able to slow down time. Christmas and Thanksgiving were so close together this year, that I felt as though it was going to whip by. But by taking time everyday to do something meaningful together, it was as if we were able to stretch the days to make them last.

Merry Christmas!

December 23rd:

Buy some hot chocolate and go for a drive to find awesome Christmas lights

Soooo...there's not a whole lot of people with electricity around here, but we did find a subdivision with some Christmas lights. The lights were extra pretty shining through the layers of ice coating everything. There aren't any lights on our cherry tree pictured below, just an example of the ice blanket:

December 22nd:

Enjoy the entire evening with only Christmas lights and candle light

It seemed only appropriate for this activity that the power went out at 5 pm, just as it was starting to get dark. But we only wanted the regular lighting off, we had no intention of going without heat, water and toilets. So we cheated a little and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings where they not only had heat, water and toilets- they had the Detroit Lions game on!

Lorelei has told me before, "coloring helps release my stress."

Ashton was very happy to be back to football.

No electricity, but still having lots of fun.

December 21st:

The first day of winter! Play outside- go sledding or make a snowman

The scheduling of this activity was a big gamble; just because the calendar says it's winter, it doesn't mean we will actually have snow. But we got lucky because there was just enough really wet and heavy snow on the ground to make a happy snowman.

First, we had to hang the bird/squirrel treats we made last night. Then we got to work building our snowman. And then we went inside because it started to rain on us! Oh, Michigan. Where the weather has more personality changes than Sybil...

Meet Snowy!

December 20th:

Make food/decorations for Mother Nature's creatures

We decided to pop popcorn and string it with cranberries. We also made bird feeders with paper towel rolls and seeds.

I'm definitely going to stop with the microwave popcorn because the kids thought this popping process was hilarious!

"There is no butter. This does not taste good!"

The kids loved using these long needles. They liked pretending that they were "surgering."

Ashton may have eaten as much popcorn as he strung.

December 19th:

Write Christmas Haiku

I love nutcrackers
I love the snowflakes outside
I love Santa Claus
-Lorelei

You were smooching me
Underneath the mistletoe
I see dancing plums
-Ashton

ForEver green tree
The star shining from up high
Lights warm in my soul
-Melanie

Christmas is snow fall
Bright lit homes and family
Gifts under the tree
-Chadd

December 18th:

Make hand print snowmen bulb ornaments with dad