We aren’t traveling for Christmas this year.
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Big whoop!”
But to me, it is a big whoop. You see, we normally go visit my parents in Iowa for Christmas. And by “normally” I mean I have never woken up on Christmas morning anywhere other than my parents’ house. And because I tend to bring them with me wherever I go, my kids have never had a Christmas anywhere other than their Grandma and Grandpa’s house either. I’m pretty sad to be breaking from tradition this way and I’m really going to miss my family over the holidays, but I’m also looking forward to packing our December with lots of fun activities — some traditional and some brand new.
Activity Advent Calendar
One of the big things I’m planning is an activity advent calendar. I’ve started seeing these pop up on lots of blogs in the last few years and I’ve wanted to do this for awhile, but this is the first year I’ve had my act together in time to do one. This is the list of activities I’ve pulled together so far:
- Assemble paper Christmas train.
- Assemble paper Christmas village
- Bake Christmas cookies and decorate them.
- Have a family dance party
- Go out to look at Christmas lights after dark.
- Decorate the gingerbread house
- Decorate the front window
- Have a bubble bath
- Have breakfast for dinner
- Have hot chocolate with all the fixings
- Make a card for a loved one and send it in the mail.
- Make a small stocking. Drop it off on someone’s door as a surprise.
- Make decorations for the tree (I’m thinking salt dough ornaments.)
- Make gift tags.
- Make gifts for teachers.
- Make thank you notes before they are needed.
- Purchase a present for Toys for Tots.
- Read a Christmas book to your brother.
- Recycle some toys to share with others.
- Decorate the Christmas tree.
- Go outside with blankets to look at the stars
- Buy a REAL Christmas tree.
- Donate to the school food drive.
- Tell a friend at school you think they’re really cool.
- Watch a Christmas movie before bed.
- Write a letter to Santa.
- Write a list of 5 things you are thankful for this year.
Some of these are things we do every year and I also pulled some of the ideas from Kiddley, Kid’s Craft Weekly and Ali Edwards.
If you were to count, you’d see that there are 27 items on this list which is technically too many for the advent. Originally, I had planned to get out a calendar and decide what we were going to do each day in advance, but now I think I’m going to be a little more loosey goosey with this project. It turns out that Augie is obsessed with our advent calendar (pictured above) and he loves to open the doors and put little objects behind them and take them out. I realized that if I preloaded the entire advent calendar, it would be organized until approximately 7:35 am on December 1. So now, I’m planning to put a new activity behind the proper door every night after the kids are in bed. This will allow me to pull activities from my list according to what the next day’s schedule looks like and I’ll also be able to incorporate new activity ideas — like a trip to the library for story hour — as I learn about them.
Christmas Cookies
I’m also planning to make a whole heck of a lot of cookies this year. Cookies are my very favorite kind of dessert and Christmas cookies are my favorite of all cookies! My mom usually makes all of our family’s traditional favorites so I just wait until I get to her house to eat them instead of making them myself, but that obviously won’t work out this year. My plan is to package most of them up and give cookie boxes to our friends and neighbors, but I’ll save some out for our family too of course. This is what I’m planning to make:
- Frosted sugar cookies — These are my #1 most favorite cookie!
- Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies
- Caramel Graham Cracker Cookies
- Roly Poly Balls — These are traditional Mexican wedding cookies with chocolate chips added. These are my brother’s favorite and they always make an appearance. It wouldn’t be Christmas without roly poly balls.
- Mexican hot chocolate cookies
- Eggnog Snickerdoodles — This recipe is from the current Cook’s Country magazine and they don’t publish their recipes online.
- Fruit jellies — This recipe is from the current issue of Everyday Food but I can’t find it online either. I’m planning to make some using one of my many jars of home made jam.
- Thumbprint cookies — Another way to use up home made jam!
- Pistachio Cranberry Brittle — I’m going to try to recreate the brittle I sampled at one of the BlogHer Food parties. I’ve never make brittle before though. Anyone have a tried and true recipe?
Hmmmm…nine kinds of cookies seems like a lot. We’ll see if I get to them all.
Crafty Stuff
I’ve also got some crafty projects I’m hoping to complete. I still want to make the kids stuffed gingerbread men from some sweaters I felted last year and I have some ideas for some felt ornaments, too. I’ve also already finished a batch of ornaments (tutorial coming tomorrow!).
Yes, I’m Crazy!
Do I sound completely crazy to you? I kind of feel like I am! This is a lot of stuff, but I think it’s manageable. And if I get too busy, I can just drop some things off my list, right?
So what do you have planned for the holidays?
