Christmas Countdown Continues.....

Christmas Countdown Day 13

On day 13 we went to visit the Jolly Ol' Elf!! 

Christmas Countdown Day 14

On day 14 we had an indoor snowball fight. Bonus - I bought the artificial snowballs last year for this and we get to reuse them! 

Christmas Countdown Day 15

On day 15 we went bobbing for candy canes. You have to use one candy cane to hook the others. No hands!

Christmas Countdown Day 16

On day 16 we camped out under the tree! Too bad the air mattress deflated on them. Apparently both of our air mattresses have a hole. 

Christmas Countdown Day 17

Cameron & I jetted off to NYC to visit friends and the boys got snowed in with Grandma Teresa. But she went ahead with the plans and on the 17th day they finished their bird wreaths. They decorate them with popcorn and cranberries to feed the birds.

Christmas Countdown Day 18

While we were still out of town, they spent the frigid day indoors making and decorating Christmas cookies!

ONE MORE WEEK TO GO!!!

Days 5-12

On day 5 we were supposed to go see the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train because it makes one stop nearby for about 20 minutes. The boys really liked it last year but this year I couldn't get them to leave our house! 😩 So countdown day 5 was a bust.

Christmas Countdown day 6

Our special treat on the 6th day was candy cane ice cream after school!

 

Christmas Countdown day 7

Today we watched "The Grinch" cartoon and drank Grinch punch!

Christmas Countdown day 8
Today we read all of our Christmas books before bed!

Christmas Countdown day 9

Today we made a trip to Indiana for our twin cousins' (nieces') 3rd birthday party. Our countdown "treat" was watching the movie "Prancer" on the way! Parts of the movie were filmed in Indiana so it seemed fitting. For anyone who hasn't seen it - I'm making a recommendation.

Christmas Countdown day 10
Today we made glitter ornaments with our cousins!

 

Christmas Countdown day 11

Today was an unepected surprise! We had a snow day in Indiana! We planned to head back to IL but mother nature had other plans.

 

Christmas Countdown Day 12

Today we received letters from the Jolly Old Elf! 

 

 

 

Back Again!

December 1st is upon us so it is time for our annual Christmas countdown. This is the only journal I keep and although I don't blog regularly anymore, it's an easy way to keep track of our Christmas countdown tradition so the boys can one day look back and see what we did! 

Christmas Countdown Day 1 - our beloved Elf, Gooey Shoe, decided to join our clan until Christmas!

Christmas Countdown Day 2

Today we got Elf on the shelf jammies!!

Christmas Countdown Day 3

Today we got to watch one of our favorite movies "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." ELF! And we munched on elf popcorn (I tried a healthier popcorn recipe, but last year's crazy corn with sprinkles was a much bigger hit).

Christmas Countdown day 4

Today we wrote letters to the jolly old elf! Our letters very much matched our personalities (Dane's was typed & very neat because he got upset when he messed up on it...Kale's was a bit of a mess).

Christmas Countdown CHRISTMAS day!!

Day 25 is Christmas!

Unfortunately Kale caught a tummy bug and was puking from 10pm until about 4:30am Christmas eve / Christmas morn. He slept until 10am while Dane patiently waited for him to open presents. He was pretty peppy when he came down and I'm sure that Christmas helped to distract him. Thankfully we're a week past and none of the rest of us got it. Our friends that were here on eve eve weren't so lucky - 3 of the 4 got it. 

Christmas Countdown day 24

On day 24, we got a special note from Santa that said we could hold & touch our elf for just the day. The boys loved being able to play with Gooey Shoe who is normally off limits per the rules from Santa. In the afternoon, we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Hatten's for dinner.

 Window cling fun at Grandma & Grandpa's:

 Grandpa photo bomb!!

Christmas Countdown day 23

For 7 years, we've hosted our annual Eve of eve party. The countdown fun for the 23rd was our party - 16 adults, 15 kids and a new puppy! It was so warm out that we had a bonfire outside and most weren't wearing coats.

Christmas Countdown Day 22

On day 22, Cameron took the boys to see Star Wars, episode 7: the Force Awakens.

Little did we know that it was PG13 and both boys left during the first 15 minutes because it was very loud and scary. Whoops! Dane actually left after the previews and I've heard from other parents that the previews were the scariest part! So...they tried but I went to pick them up and Cameron got to enjoy the movie with our friend Steve & his kids.

Christmas Countdown day 21

On day 21, we read all of our Christmas books!