25 Days of Christmas: Days 15 thru 25

Day 15:  Go to a Swedish Christmas Market

Friends of ours were involved with this event and we went along to check it out!  While we were there too early for any of the performances, we did get to check out the vendors and make some crafts!  (side note:  Riley climbed his first step while we were there!)

     

 

Day 16:  Make a Memory Jar

We met up with some friends at the High Museum for their Toddler Thursday program and made a memory jar.  Not our best event and I forgot the camera, but it was FUN to hang out with some friends and the playroom at the High is AWESOME.

Day 17:  Make A Snow Globe

This was AWESOME!  We met up with the same friends, Andrea and her son Finn (yes, chasing/calling after two Finn’s is confusing) and went to the Atlanta History Center for their Magic Mondays Winter Wonderland event.  Seriously so cute!  We got snacks, made a Snow Globe, toured a very old very fancy home that frankly just made me nervous with toddlers, and even got a goodie bag.  To make the snow globe they gave us a plastic cup with a lid, a bunch of styrofoam sticky appliques to stick to the inside of the cup and some glitter.  Once we got home we filled it with water and shook it up!  SO cute, love this craft!

 

 

Day 18:  Make a Shape Christmas Tree

I have out-crafted my child.  I found this awesome craft from this really cool website where you’re supposed to make a Christmas Tree out of paper cut into different shapes.  So it was to be a learning craft too.  Well, I’ve asked Finn if he wanted to do this craft every single day from 12/18 through Christmas and I get a big fat no.  I cut out all the shapes and have had everything ready to go.  So I don’t know if this counts as “25 Days of Christmas” or not but I thought it was funny enough that I had to share.  Maybe next year…….

 

Day 19:  Sing a Christmas Carol

We taught Finn the words to “Frosty the Snowman”, “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”.  I should have gotten them on video but I didn’t.  You’ll just have to trust me it is cute!

Day 20:  Baptize your baby

What?  That’s not an annual Christmas Tradition?  More to come in another post.

Day 21:  Ride the Pink Pig

Day 22:  Dress your kids up: 

Finn the Elf and Riley the (Happy) Reindeer

You may remember the Elf costume from last year….it still fits!!!

2008

2009

Day 23:  Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus

At the Hanging of the Greens event at our Church, they gave us this really awesome felt Advent Wreath with candles that velcro onto the wreath.  So every Sunday after church, Finn comes home, puts the next candle on and sings Happy Birthday to Jesus.  So Adorable!

 

Day 24:  Santa comes to town

He filled up our stockings and left some presents behind!

Day 25:  Christmas Day!

There are so many stories and so many pictures (and a video) that I’ll have to do a separate post!  But we had such a great day with our family!

25 Days of Christmas: Days 9 thru 14

Day 9:  Go Visit the Big Man

Finn didn’t cry!  He needed a little bit of time to warm up to Santa, but as you can see, it didn’t take long!  Riley didn’t cry either, just his usual stare-down.

Day 10:  Christmas Pajama Party

We went to a Christmas Pajama Party at the Bla Bla store.  We listened to KIDS playing guitars, violins and pianos and sing along to Christmas songs, so talented and beautiful!  Finn chowed down on some pancakes and sausage and decorated his own ornament.  Of course I forgot the camera, however we ran into our friends Karen and Kate who took pictures for us, here.

Day 11:  Listen to Christmas Music

I have a slight obsession with Christmas Music and have way too many Christmas CD’s, but none of them are the perfect CD.  This picture below is obviously not the full collection, but just the few that I could pry out of the hands of the children who were throwing them all around the house after I pulled them out and began a fruitless effort in finding one that had “Frosty The Snowman” on it.  But we danced around the house anyway (after momma went to youtube and found a video of frosty the snowman to sing along with Finn)!

Day 12:  How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Confession:  I own the VHS version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Double Confession:  I bought it when I was in college so we could play a drinking game while watching it.

Regardless, it is one of my all time favorite movies and while it was a bit of a debacle hooking up the VCR to the TV, I’m quite proud of myself for figuring it all out and being able to show Finn the movie.  We also have a copy of the book.  As you can see in the picture below, I had already started the movie and could not get him to unglue his eyes from the screen in order to take a picture.

 

Day 13:  Cotton Candy Cane Craft

Say that five times fast!  We made these cute little cotton candy canes.  First I cut out candy cane shapes, we painted them red, waited a day for them to dry (so really this isn’t just day 13, it was a two day project), then we glued on cotton balls and voila!

I thought it would be FUN for Riley to get in on the action!

Until this happened…….

(Don’t worry, the paint is both washable and non-toxic.)

    

Day 14:  Coca Cola Caravan

Somewhere along the lines I had gotten word about this event.  But all I had written on my calendar was “Coke Caravan, Walmart, 1-4PM”  So when we missed story-time on Friday I decided to run to the Walmart to check this out.  I tried going to the website to find out what it even was before we drove over there but couldn’t find any info.  I figured it was harmless to at least drive over and see!  And what to my wondrous eyes should appear?

Damn Tree

Ice Pops

Yes, it is December and “freezing” cold outside.  But thanks to Sid the Science Kid, we had to make Ice Pops.  After watching Sid and his friends do it, it was all that Finn could talk about.  And I thought, hey, this is harmless, why the hell not.  Also, Todd had bought these ice pop molds at Ikea this summer and for whatever unknown reason (I don’t like ice pops, I don’t like sticky messes and I’m not a fan of juice….so really there are known reasons) we never actually got around to making them.  So I had promised that after our morning outing and after naptime that we could go to the store to buy “supplies” and then come home and make them….which we did…..but man, toddlers do not have patience for waiting for things to freeze.  But….we eventually got to reap the rewards of our efforts!

We made two kinds, orange/carrot juice kind and some sort of berry mix, with a dash of some kind of vegetable.  (What????  they were good!)

Finn has a taste

Grandma has a taste

Argh!  Brain Freeze!

Happy Boy!

And this video is HILARIOUS (to me).  I know I’ve mentioned his imaginative play, but notice the sounds he is making when “grandma” is eating.  That is what he does whenever he is pretend eating/drinking things and I think it is seriously awesome!  I also think his slurping is adorable, he is whole heartedly enjoying his ice pop!