since 06'

This was our first Christmas with just our family. We have always stayed in Gunnison, which we do love, but as our kids are older, we decided to stay here in Charlottesville. A huge part of our decision is the cost of flights which is usually around 2000 and the fact that we will be moving to Utah in about five months. Since I didn't have to worry about packing all our presents to Utah and preparing to fly out, we did an Advent calendar which we loved. I came up with 24 things and put them in envelopes that hung on our wall. Each morning Jack got to open one. I included things we would do traditionally anyway like, decorate the tree, make sugar cookies, Ward Party, etc, and I added some things in . We successfully did all 24 days. Somehow most of our activities included a treat, often marshmallows, and Charlotte ate most of them each time.

Our 25 days.

Day 1: Decorating the tree with Christmas treats.

I feel this picture will come back to haunt them someday.

Day 2 was seek and find nativity. We got a new Fisher Price Nativity which I was excited that the kids had their own Nativity to play with through out the month. I hid all the characters around the house and Logan read them clues. Like for Mary it said, "I am the mother of baby Jesus, you will find me in the kitchen." This way we got to talk about the Nativity and then afterward they played with it.

A shepherd in the dish washer.

Day 3: Don't eat the reindeer. There is a version of the is game for each holiday but it's basically Don't Eat Frank. Jack LOVES this game. Charlotte loves marshmallows. Everyone was happy.

Day 4: we did a Christmas craft. Day 5: writing letters to Santa. Jack's Christmas list this year included a remote control eel with waterproof batteries for the bathtub, a remote control carrot, a shower head that moves, a remote control Grinch, and some sticks. So I have my work cut out for me.

Day 6: sent a Christmas package to Elder Lafe. Day 7: made snowflakes. Day 8: Made a gingerbread house. Again Charlotte wasn't much help at decorating as she was at eating. And we had to add some minions to it of course.

Day 9: The church Christmas devotional with popcorn.

Day ten: decorated a tree for the animals. We made fruit loop chains and hung them on a little tree outside our door. A greedy squirrel took them all.

Day 11: Christmas bingo and peppermint mallows.

Day 12: The giving tree. We had a four year old girl. Jack was super excited to buy her a gift and all was well until he realized he wasn't getting a gift too. Then there were some tears.

Day 13: making treats for neighbors and deliver them.

Day 14: Ward party. Day 15: made a candy cane ornament and ate peppermint marshmallows.

Day 16: Watch a live nativity. I found a few Christmas events here and there. Some were a success, some not so much. This nativity was great but it lasted about 8 minutes. My friend Candace came with me. After loading the kids all the way there, we were a bit disappointing but found a playground for the kids to play on so in the end it worked out.

Day 17: Polar Express party. We invited some of friends over in jammies for a little Polar Express party with hot chocolate and popcorn. I was surprised at how long it kept their attention.

Everyone got a ticket that I attempted punch them creatively like in the movie.

Day 18: Roasting marshmallows and hearing stories at Keswick Hall at Monticello. This was one event we tried out that was super success. It was free and lots of fun. Keswick Hall is super fancy and pretty.

Day 19: snowman pancakes.

Day 20: be a foster family for a cat at the SPCA. This is interesting. First of all we aren't even allowed to have pets in our apartment. Second, I was planning on doing this at all. We visit the SPCA a lot to pet the animals and they were advertising being a foster family over the holidays. The process was simplified for December to get more people to do it. We talked about doing it for a few days until finally we went in to look and ended up bring this car, Miles, home. The kids are in love with him and Charlotte tortures him all day. He is a super nice and tidy cat. We ended up extended our foster care for him and currently we still have him. It makes no sense to adopt him being that we will be moving in five months and then would have to figure out how to get him across the country, but Miles knows what he is doing and we are all becoming attached. Time will tell.

He doesn't get much personal space.

We even got him a gift. We are clearly too attached.

Torture.

Day 22: make candy cane play dough and eat peppermint marshmallow. So many marshmallows.

Day 23: Christmas lights, hot coco, Christmas music, and treats. This is another failure. I had heard an advertisement on the radio about a Christmas light "show" near Monticello Lake. I also read about it on the internet and in the newspaper. So even though it was a 30 minute drive, we thought, this sounds fun. So off we went. I made homemade hot coco in crock pot which was delicious. We got there and there was a very well decorated house, but just one. That was it. Apparently Christmas lights isn't a thing here in Virginia. Tiny Gunnison has better lights than this. Also the kids were just catching colds and Jack threw up in the car. Haha. It sounds terrible but it actually wasn't that bad.