i got the idea of doing 24 days of christmas activities from a friend's blog. i finally put the idea into action this year and planned little things to do each day until christmas. the boys loved opening the door on our advent house to see what we'd be doing that day.
day 1 - christmas window clings
best 75 cents ever spent at an after christmas sale. they loved taking turns changing the snowman's clothes as often as they remembered.
day 2 - decorate the christmas tree
it was a little tricky to coordinate some days with ryan, but we got the tree set up and all the ornaments ready so we could decorate as soon as he got home.
day 3 - popcorn strings
ryan's idea. i wasn't totally sold on it, but it ended up being really fun for the boys and didn't make nearly the mess i anticipated.
day 4 - snowman pizza
day 5 - snowflakes
i had young women training with the stake all morning, so ryan did this one with the boys. i was sad to miss it, but they did a great job and hung them up all over the house.
day 6 - first presidency's christmas devotional
ryan and i watched a bit of it, but we mostly watched it the next day for fhe since it was too late for the boys to make it on our long long sundays.
day 7 - play christmas songs on the chimes
it was only slightly less miserable than last time we pulled them out as cody could at least play his chime when we pointed to him number this time around. maybe someday this will be a fun thing for me instead of super overstimulating for me.
day 8 - christmas puzzle
i definitely didn't realize the puzzle i had in mind for this was 1000 pieces, but the boys lasted a lot longer than i expected. don't worry, i still enjoyed doing it myself over the next few days.
day 9 - letters to santa
we had to pull out the christmas lists we made a few weeks ago
isaac - umbrella, yellow clothes, yellow books, trip to uncle david's, cowboy boots, yellow hat, yellow mittens (yes, isaac loves all things yellow as you can tell)
cody - planetarium, bike, kite (written himself), rocking horse, dinosaur oatmeal, car game, race track, the end (written himself), cowboy boots
day 10 - paper chains
day 11 - ward christmas party
between me recovering from being sick, two ear infections for cody, one ear infection for isaac, and calls in for c-sections for ryan, we barely made it but it was fun to be there with our growing ward. it ended up being our last big ward event as they realigned ward boundaries and made two new wards in our stake a couple weeks after this. poor isaac felt so miserable and cried the whole way home....since i thought he was just saying his ear hurt cuz cody had been complaining of his ears hurting. not so.
day 12 - making fudge with dad
i wish i'd gotten a picture of the process of the three boys in the kitchen. this fudge did not turn out so hot, but ryan made more a week or so later and perfected it!
day 13 - reindeer pancakes
happily this fell on a day that ryan was home since he threw in the added bonus of snowman pancakes too!
day 14 - christmas bingo
day 15 - milk and cookies
nothing better than cookies fresh from the oven with a glass of cold milk. mmmmmm
day 16 - christmas cards on random cars
the boys colored most of the cards, but of course the one i happened to take a picture of is one i colored. we put them on cars as we got to story time and cody was so excited when we came out and some of the cards were gone. we hope they brightened someone's day! we left one on kimmie's van and she said olivia thought santa had left it.
day 17 - christmas game
cody and isaac sure have gotten good at playing 'i spy' and coming up with good clues. we actually played with the ford's boys since we were babysitting. fun game!
day 18 - gingerbread playdough
lots of fun for that day and many days thereafter - including days with maddie, bailey, and lily
day 19 - look at christmas lights
i swear this is mr. willowby's house every year at christmas time
day 20 - stories under the christmas tree
we didn't take a picture of that, but we did get a fun picture of our matchy matchy christmas clothes for church.
day 21 - living nativity
we had the ford's and haymond's over for fhe to do bells and a living nativity with us. it was mostly chaos, but we had some fun!
day 22 - watch 'how the grinch stole christmas'
i was waiting all month for this one to come. i love this movie. we had david's girls there (since sam made his way into the world a bit early than anticipated) and i had kimmie drop her girls off too, so we had a house full!
day 23 - cookies for santa
i somehow got suckered into making two kinds of cookies (which didn't take a whole lot of arm twishing) since david's girls would need to take some home for santa and their family. i may have burned my arm and fingers, but totally worth it. they are all delicious.
day 24 - open a present
christmas jammies and a new book for everyone. i love the way the jammies all turned out and i adore this picture :)
this was such a fun way to celebrate and do something together as a family each day. the boys loved to see what we were going to do. i think it'll be a fun tradition to add to our 25 days of christ.
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