Day 13 - Christmas books

Day 13 - read all of our Christmas books before bed. 

Day 12 - Dance Party!

Day 12 - Dance Party to Christmas music!

All was going very well until the boys decided to turn it into a grudge match. You will see that the video mysteriously turns off once they start pushing each other! I guess boys will be boys.

Day 11 - Cookie Decorating

Today the boys decorated cookies with Grandma Teresa. She has many traditions that she shared with her grandma, but I think she's finding that 2 very active little boys are much harder to share certain things with than little girls! The boys goal for cookie decorating - empty the sprinkle bottles as quickly as possible. And they did pretty quickly. They piled sprinkles on their cookies, but they had a great time doing it. Thanks Grandma Teresa for a fun afternoon!

 And the best part! Eating the cookies after!

We also have exciting news!! I want to wait and let Jeff & Christy make the official announcement, but their twin girls were born yesterday morning. I will share more details once Jeff & Christy get the chance first. Everyone is doing great and the girls are healthy!

Day 10 - Giving Back

This year we are donating to an organization called Open Arms Mission. We have "adopted" two children in need - we are responsible for getting each child a shirt, pants, shoes, pajamas and a gift item they have requested. The boys are each taking responsibility for one child and today we went to Walmart to get what was needed. I realize they are young (Kale too young to truly understand what we're doing), however we want the boys to understand how fortunate they are to always have food on the table and clothes on their backs. It clearly won't sink in this year and probably not for a few years to come, however it's something Cameron & I feel strongly about and we always want our boys to know about the struggles of others so they appreciate the fact that our necessities are always available.

Here they are gathering their loot:

When Cameron got home and asked Dane about what we bought and for who, Dane explained the situation fairly well which makes me think that maybe a bit of it did sink in for him.

Day 9 - staying out of the cold!!

We were fortunate enough to get about 3 inches of snow yesterday. The bad thing is it's freezing out…as in 13 degrees with a wind chill of -1. I did bundle up the boys after we picked Dane up from school and they played outside for a bit. Kale was back in within 15 minutes and Dane asked to stay out for 5 more. I didn't plan for another movie today, but it's just too cold to be outside for any length of time. Hopefully what I had planned for today will work out again very soon!

So - onto day 9!! Today we watched "Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas" and we got mickey mouse light up snow makers!!

Day 8 - A Grinchy Day

On day 8 we watched "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" and made Grinch floats (green sherbet and sprite…Cameron added red food coloring). Thank you Priscilla for the idea!

Day 6 & Day 7 - catch up

Day 6 - Went to see the movie "Frozen" at our little Libertyville theater. Sorry no pics!

Day 7 - Christmas pajamas!!

A little blurry…. 

Day 5 - Gingerbread House

I am a day behind on this post but I went to see "The Hunger Games; Catching Fire" last night so I didn't get to blog. If you are a fan of the books, go see this movie!! So much better than the first…I give it two thumbs up! Anyway - back to our Christmas countdown. On Day 5, the boys made a gingerbread house. I absolutely know without a doubt that more candy went in their bellies than on the house, but they had fun. It was funny to watch them - again, Dane being very careful about placement and alignment of the candy and him getting very frustrated with his willy nilly little brother putting candy on the house with no rhyme or reason. Such different personalities with these two…however did they both come from the same parents?

 This is what I did, then I let the boys take over.

 

 See what I mean? More in their tummies than on the house...

 Kale with a chipmunk cheek full of candy:

 Proof.