Christmas Countdown

Christmas is just 3 days away! We're on our way to Arizona to spend Christmas with the DeFrancis side of the family! I thought I'd take advantage of the 10-12 hour drive and post some of the Christmasy things we've done thus far. Most of the pictures speak for themselves, and are activities from our advent calendar. When I was a kid our family had an advent calendar, and each day we pulled out a slip of paper with a Christmas activity written on it. They ranged anywhere from seeing Christmas lights, to singing at the nursing home, to drinking hot chocolate with candy canes. So a few years ago my sisters and I made advent calendars just like the one we had growing up (thanks to my mom who did most of the work) and we use those now with our own families. My kids love pulling out the slip of paper each day and get so excited about each activity, no matter how small. One day we turned off the lights and read Christmas books around the fire. Some of our favorites to date: Santa Comes to Little House (Laura Ingalls Wilder), Moosletoe (Margie Palatini), A Christmas Stocking Story (Hilary Knight) and The Little Drummer Boy (Ezra Jack Keats).

Chase's Christmas list this year consisted of Star Wars Lego's (big surprise), and Skis.

Clara's Christmas list was simply: a Hippopotamus, a purple flip phone that worked (in other words not a toy), nail polish, Girl Bakugans (Zoobles), and Ice Skates. I have no idea where she came up with the hippopotamus - I don't think she's even heard the song! And she'll have to wait a few years for the cell phone too, poor thing.

We have had such a busy and fun December, and I can't wait for even more of it all with the family in Arizona!