25 Days of Christmas - Day 13

Well as you can tell we missed a few days of our activities. Just about every one of us is sick so I just decided to take the weekend of and we all just rested or in the case of Bean, got out of the house of sickness.  I'm still not feeling all that great (probably worse than I did feel this weekend in fact) but decided if I didn't get back at the activities Christmas would be here and we wouldn't be done.

Merry Christmas from Sweden, where the merry season begins on the evening of December 13th.

On St. Lucia Day the eldest daughter of the family assumes the role of the Italian saint Santa Lucia. Wearing a dress of white and a lighted wreath in her hair, she serves sweet rolls and drinks to her family, singing carols all the while.

So for tonight's activity we made cinnamon rolls in honor of St. Lucia Day.

Bub getting the butter on the dough

Bean sprinkling on the brown sugar

Little E sprinkling on the cinnamon

Finished Cinnamon Rolls

If you'd like to know my recipe for cinnamon rolls (I make the dough in the bread machine), you can find that here.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 13

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 9

Holiday Rice Krispy Squares

Seems like a lot of our nights the activity gets changed. Oh well, that's life.  I guess it's good to have some back-ups in your pocket if you are going to try to do this with your family. :)  I've been dealing with Little E being sick for nearly 3 weeks now, that includes multiple night time wakings; and now I am starting to get a cold or something.  So I really wasn't up to making latkes and figuring out how we were going to celebrate the last night of Hanukkah (we'll try again next year).  Instead we made some holiday rice krispy squares.  It took 2 batches to get them right, but I think the kids had fun.

Melting the butter & marshmallows

Adding in the rice krispies

Stirring it all up!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 9

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 8

Tonight were were going to make some Christmas candy but some friends of ours called and wanted to do Christmas with us before they go to visit their family for the holidays.  I love visits with good friends so I was more than happy to put off our candy plans for some time with them.  Tonight for day 8 of our 25 days of Christmas, I present Christmas with friends. :)

let the unwrapping commence!

Happily scored a new psp game!

See what I got mom

I'm ready for snow now!

Thank you L & P for a fun evening with great friends.  We hope that you have a safe trip and enjoy the time with your family. Can't wait to see you when you get home! Merry Christmas!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 8

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 7 {Dinner & a Movie}

Tonight's activity for day 7 of our 25 days of Christmas was dinner and a movie.  We have done this a couple times this year and it's always a lot of fun, so I was really looking forward to planning to do this during the holidays. I chose the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for tonights movie.

The kids and I spent a little time this afternoon making the decorations to go along with our themed dinner. And Bub was kind enough to de-decorate his tree and let us use it for our "Grinch tree". We also used some little red hearts (“But I think that the most likely reason of all May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.”), red curly ribbon and tinsel (“The ribbons! The wrappings! The tags! And the tinsel!”)

They would feast on Who-pudding, and rare Who-roast beast
Which was something the Grinch couldn't stand in the least!

The Feast:

• Who Hash {Hashbrown potatoes baked in the oven}
• Who Roast Beast {Roast beef}
• Grinchy Green Beans {Green Beans with scallions & sliced mushrooms}
• Who Pudding {Chocolate pudding with whipped cream & chocolate shavings}

Movie Food:

• Cindy Lou Who Brew {Root Beer}
• Popcorn
• Bananas {“You’re a bad banana with a... greasy black peel.”}

And that was our family fun for tonight! The kids really enjoyed it and Little E kept saying "I love Christmas". <3 This is why I do this.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 7 {Dinner & a Movie}

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 6

Today started off with finding out what Sinterklaas left in the kids shoes overnight.  I think he was supposed to come while we were still awake, but I'm sure with the weather there was a delay. ;) (We've never done this before so honestly I'm not 100% sure how Sinterklaas works. If you know please let me know in the comments.)

Visit from Sinterklaas

This evening for the 6th day of our 25 Days of Christmas we were going to bake Speculaas Cookies in celebration of the Feast of St. Nicolas. However after a busy and stressful afternoon I was completely exhausted. So change of plans included some hot chocolate with a showing of the original Frosty the Snowman.

I love nights like this <3

My little loves enjoying a quiet evening together :)

Hope you are having fun celebrating the 25 days of Christmas in your house. What have you been doing so far? Or do you have different traditions? I'd love to hear what you do.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 6

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 5

My 3 favorite ornaments from my childhood. They used to belong to my grandmother.

For the 5th day of our 25 days of Christmas we put up and decorated our Christmas tree. This day is a huge deal to the kids. It's an all afternoon, into the evening event.

We start off the fun with a little smörgåsbord lunch

Followed with A Charlie Brown Christmas & a few other Holiday programs while I work on the lights.

Then daddy and I put up the tree. I get the lights and beads on just right (or good enough as the case may be)

And then the part the kids have been waiting for all afternoon - the decorations!! Finally :)

She might wanna lay off the eggnog a bit, eh? ;)

Little E really enjoyed examining each and every ornament before hanging them on the tree

Had to be fast to get a picture tonight! 

Having fun decorating our tree so pretty :)

They did a beautiful job! 

Merry Christmas!

Hope you had a fun weekend with your family too. What did you do this weekend to celebrate the holidays?

25 Days of Christmas - Day 5

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 4

Tonight for the 4th day of our 25 days of Christmas we were going to decorate the tree for our activity but both big kids are still gone. They asked us not to decorate the tree without them, so I had to come up with another replacement activity.  Tonight I decided on a hand print and foot print reindeer. Evan loved this! He had so much fun making his very own Rudolph.

Inking up his little foot. (the ink wasn't quite as washable as I thought:/) 

Very carefully stepping on the paper

One little foot print <3

Sure seems happy to be getting dirty hands ;)

Adding the antlers

Almost finished now

Time for the eyes

The MOST famous reindeer of all! 

What did you do with your kids today to celebrate the holidays?

25 Days of Christmas - Day 4

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 3

Initally for tonight's 25 Days of Christmas activity we were going to go to Bean's school for the Christmas Family Dance.  When I put that on the calendar I wasn't anticipating that Little E would still be battling this cough. It dawned on me last night that the last place I should take him is a crowded gym that's overheated & where he will want to run. That will only lead to one thing - major coughing fit.  So this morning I set out to figure out a replacement activity. I wanted something easy because both of the big kids have plans for tonight as well. We ended up making red and green Kool-Aid Playdough.

Little E stirring it up good.
(I wanted to get more pictures of the kids helping make it, but it was difficult without another adult around)

I was happy Bub was still excited about making playdough :)

Little E really, really enjoyed the playdough. He was very excited.

Bean figuring out which cutter to try next

 If you would like to try making your own Kool-Aid Playdough here is the recipe for you.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 package of unsweetened Kool-Aid
• 3 TBS oil
• 1 cup of boiling water

Directions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients
2. Add boiling water & oil
3. Mix throughly
4. Knead the flour and other ingredients until very well mixed
5. Add more flour if necessary for texture to create a soft dough
6. Start playing!

We also added some glitter to our playdough for a little extra holiday sparkle. :)

25 Days of Christmas - Day 3

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 2

Tonight for day 2 of our 25 Days of Christmas the kids wrote letters to Santa and drank hot cocoa with marshmallows. :) This was a nice quiet activity, just what I needed after a full day with a sick toddler. The kids were excited to get this done because Santa always writes back to them. I also brought out some Christmas stickers so they could decorate their letters.  I think everyone had fun.

Bub making sure he gets his list just right

Little E working hard on his wish list for Santa

Bean writing her (really long) list to Santa :)

If you would like to write letters to Santa with your kids and you live in Canada, Canada Post has the mailing information and Santa always writes back to the kids.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 2

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25 Days of Christmas - Day 1

Finally managed to finish our Advent chain and get that hung up tonight. Yes, just in time to start using it! Last year I used origami envelopes. This year I made origami cups. Inside each one is a treat for each kidlet and a slip of paper with the activity for the day. I may regret this idea, since little E is already asking every 2 minutes for a treat...live and learn. ;)

Tonight the kids each made their own advent chain that they could hang in their rooms. Each night or morning (it's their chain) they can take a ring off the link. At the top is a Christmas tree and that is for Christmas Day.

Bub working on his advent chain

Bean making good progress - she plans to teach her class how to make these. ;)

Little E working hard - the glue stick was a BIG hit! :)

How was your first night of the 25 days of Christmas? What did your family do tonight?

25 Days of Christmas - Day 1

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