days of christmas

we worked hard to plan our days of christmas advent and fill each day with a fun activity.  we ended up falling quite behind and missing several days with all the busy-ness of this holiday season.  here's a bit of what we did actually fit in.

day 1: mesa temple lights

we headed down to annie's after school on friday the first.  we had dinner and then headed to the temple ground with annie and tracy, her boyfriend.  it was fun to take the kids to the temple where ryan and i got married.

the kids loved looking at all the nativities in the visitors' center and checking out all the fun things inside.  

the lights were beautiful, as always.

day 2: letters to santa

we stopped to do some shopping before coming home from annie's.  bonnie and i ran into the mall where we met mrs. claus who gave us these perfect papers for letter writing.

day 3: first presidency christmas devotional

it was fun to be able to watch this with the kids.  in texas it always started after their bedtime.

day 4: christmas window clings

day 5: snowflakes

cody started working on snowflakes weeks ago when he found instructions for how to make them in the friend and then grandma berta brought these doilies up when tyler was blessed and they made more.

not quite a day of christmas, but isaac made this at preschool and insisted that it was "the star of my uncle!"

day 6: stories under the christmas tree lights

we got a new tree after christmas last year and i just love it!  it looks so great - especially after our teeny-tiny tree that we've had since we lived in our tiny condo in california.

day 7: gingerbread playdoh

day 9ish: fudge (with dad - who is the fudge maker)

watch "how the grinch stole christmas."  still my favorite christmas movie.

rice crispy snowmen....not super successful.  ryan said they didn't use enough marshmallows for the amount of crispies.

snowman pancakes

bonnie slept way long, so her's wasn't much decorated

isaac's

mom's

cody's

dad's

day 20: linden christmas concert

cody made a great elf and was so fun to watch.

day 21: polar express

our library put together a little polar express.  they started our group in a room with a little chamber orchestra playing christmas music.  then we moved to where the police chief and fire chief read us the book.  

next we met santa.  and then we had cookies and hot chocolate and the kids got to see the decorated fire truck santa rode in on.  it was such a fun event!  the kids even each got a jingle bell from santa.

we definitely love the tradition of doing fun things as a family each day.  hopefully next year we can keep ourselves on track a little better!