Countdowns to Christmas

Why just have one way of counting down to Christmas when you can have three? Last year, after receiving an Advent calendar from a friend, we did our first ever countdown and this year I decided to add a couple of more.

First, is something I have wanted to do for several years, but never quite got it together. It is something my mom did several times for my brother and me when we were growing up. It is really simple actually. She glued Hershey's Kisses to a ribbon and hung it on the wall. We ate one Kiss a day until the big day. Here is my version. I used a velvet ribbon, mostly because that is what my mom used, but also because it is sturdy enough to hold the weight of 25 Kisses. I used a hot glue gun and it is working pretty well, but the Kisses are a little hard to get off and it leaves a bit of the wrapper on the ribbon. I think next year I will try Elmer's.

Second, is the Advent calendar. It is a really cute one, but the little compartments came empty so it falls upon me to figure out how to fill them. Taking a cue from Amy at The Idea Room, I have printed a list of Christmas related activities and put one in the calendar each day sometime before Spencer gets home from school. Once he is home all the kids open the door together - they physically open it together. This is what they came up with to make it fair. This method works well because I am not committed to anything ahead of time. Like tonight we had a piano lesson, an evening trip to Target (picked up more short wrapping paper by the way), and Bruce had his garage band over. So I threw "Watch the Grinch" in there and we were set for an ever popular, yet very easy Christmas activity. Also, if something last minute comes up I can add it in. We would do most of these things anyway, but finding out about them through the Advent calendar seems to add an element of excitement for the kids. Here are some of the other items from our calendar...

• Write letters to Santa Claus.
• Take a drive to see Christmas lights.
• Go see the lights at Temple Square.
• Watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.
• Read the Christmas story from the Bible and set up the Nativity.
• Act out the Nativity scene.
• Make Christmas cookies.
• Make gingerbread houses.
• Camp out in front of the Christmas tree.
• Clean out old toys and donate to Deseret Industries.
• Go to the store and buy a new toy to donate to Toys for Tots.
• Watch “Rudolph”.
• Watch “Frosty” shows.
• Make a treat and secretly deliver them to two friends.
• Talk about Jesus with our family.
• Do a secret service for someone in our family or neighborhood.
• Sing Christmas carols together.
• Play a game and eat a treat in front of a fire in the fireplace.
• Read the Christmas story in the Book of Mormon.
• Have hot chocolate with candy canes.
• Do a Christmas craft.
• Watch Polar Express.

Finally, I wrapped all of our Christmas books, placed them under the tree, and we are unwrapping one each night. Last year, the boys read a few of their favorites over and over, but there were several I couldn't get them to listen to. This way, each book gets at least one night of glory and I make sure that they are exposed to more of the messages I want them to hear. Again, just wrapping the books and rationing them makes them so much more alluring.

So far all three countdowns are working out well. The boys go straight to the Kisses each morning (Emmarsyn gets around to hers eventually), the Advent calendar is the after school priority, and we unwrap a book after dinner so Bruce can join us. So even though there are three different things going on, the rountine of it all actually seems to be making the Christmas festivities run a bit smoother.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is becoming my favorite holiday of the "holidays". Although I love Halloween and Christmas, Thanksgiving really seems to have stayed true to itself - a fairly hype-free day that celebrates gratitude, family, America, and - of course - food!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

(The idea for our Thanksgiving banner came from Parents magazine, which I am grateful I got for free!)

Fun with Leaves

According to Spencer, this little "invention" of mine is so cool that he is going to keep it in his science kit. Actually it wasn't my invention - I saw it in Family Fun magazine. But when I saw it, I knew it was exactly what we needed for bagging leaves. I just got the really cheap stretch gloves (2 pair for $1 at Target) and hot glued them to coated paper plates. The example in Family Fun used aluminum pie plates which would be more durable, but I just went with what I had on hand to keep the cost down. The kids had a great time picking up leaves this year and they were much, much more efficient and actually bagged more than they dropped. Bonus!

I LOVE Spray Paint!!

We have grown weary of the old light fixture hanging down from our dining room ceiling (see previous post) so we finished up the makeover on our "previously owned" chandelier. I got the idea from Lowe's free Creative Ideas magazine. It has lots of little and big project ideas for around the house. It is amazing what a can of spray paint can do. The little crystal prisms add a nice touch too, but it really did look pretty nice with just the new paint job.

Before:

After:

We Should Have Done This Years Ago!

(But of course time and money are always constraints - and there was the small matter of children sleeping in there.)

Last night we had the first dinner in our new dining room. It was perfect timing since my mom got home from her mission yesterday and stayed with us last night. This is the latest phase in our game of Musical Rooms/Extreme Home Makeover. Once we got Matthew's room finished downstairs we started the process of converting his old room into a dining room. We are pretty sure it was once a bedroom but the previous owners took out the closet and put in french doors that open into the living room. Most of the homes in our neighborhood have little if any eating space in the kitchens and this was their solution to the problem. It is now ours as well since meals in the kitchen had become essentially intolerable. We were so crammed around the table that we ended up just eating and getting out of there as fast as possible. Having friends or family over for dinner was almost out of the question.

Thursday night Bruce stayed up way too late setting up the table and chairs. We got the table at a "Seize the Day" sale at Ikea last October. It has been sitting in the box until last night. The room is not done - we are doing a small makeover on a good but slightly dated chandelier donated by a friend (although I love what Bruce has done with the current light fixture), I've got some ideas for curtains and decor, and we will probably put in a buffet that has been in my mom's storage shed for a few years. But even though there is still much to be done, dinner with a little elbow room was a whole new world. We actually lingered afterward. I was fairly giddy about it all night.

And the bonus - I don't have to look at the mess in the kitchen while I eat!