merry christmas

the 25 days of christmas...
last year i put together a scrapbook highlighting 25 things that happened from thanksgiving til after christmas.
i wanted to try again this year. i haven't blogged since thanksgiving, and then i didn't even blog about that day. but i did try to start putting the actual book together.
so here on christmas day i thought i'd put my list together. (in no particular order)

1. christmas caroling (wish i had a picture of this one) - we went caroling with the gormally girls! it was great. we sang "deck the halls", "joy to the world", "rudolph" and "we wish you a merry christmas". we sang at rachel's, the pett's, the crozier's/johnson's, the best's, and the platt's. but of course, before we started our rounds we went out to eat at mcdonald's!

2. making and decorating sugar cookies - wish i had taken a picture of the kids walking through the neighborhood with plates of cookies. but got pictures of making them!

3. rachel's surgery (she'll thank me i have a picture of this one)

4. mom & dad here (still no picture of them together!)

5. christmas eve @ george & pam's - as always, spoiled!

6. christmas day at home, rachel's and george & pam's - lots of pictures

7. the food of christmas - so much food! cookies, pumpkin bread, pies, pretzel candies, and then the food of christmas eve and christmas day. my brothers and sister-in-law outdo themselves each year

8. wrapping presents - not enough pictures of this one. but we had it done before christmas! really!

9. xander painting cassidy's present

10. decorating the christmas tree - we started putting up the tree Thanksgiving night and decorating just a few days later. i was so busy with my master's course that i missed todd and the kids doing most of it, but i joined in at the very end and took pictures of todd putting up the star.

11. elf on the shelf - this is the first year the elf has visited our house. i've heard of the elf and the book, but it was kind of pricey to buy, so i have never invested. this year i looked it up on the internet. turns out the elf looks just like the two that my parents had in our house when i was growing up. i told the kids about it at dinner one night. xander's comment was "did you touch it?" "yes, everytime we set it out them out for decoration." "oh no! you made him lose his magic!" evidentally you can not touch the elves, or they won't work. each day the elf sits in your house and watches you. then at night he leaves, reports back to santa at the north pole. while we sat at dinner that night i called my mom, "mom, do you remember the two elves that we used to put on our organ for decoration....did you know that they were magic elves? all that time they were reporting back to santa! do you think you could bring an elf to us when you come visit?" each day we'd wake up and try to find where the elf was, because he'd have moved to a different place in the house.

12. cassidy's performance @ lake lanier islands - so cute. she did great. she loves dancing. and even commented the other day when listening to the nutcracker music "i love this ballet music".

13. christmas cards - finally finished them this year and got them sent out on the 23-24th! yeah me!

14. attempt at gingerbread houses - we started a box set of gingerbread house that we have had for at least a year, if not longer. the candy was skimpy and the frosting wasn't setting fast enough. so we put it aside for the night. we never got back to it. then, at school i do a gingerbread house decorating party at the end of gingerbread week. it is our "holiday" party. i had extra houses, so i brought them home with extra candy and frosting. but the kids never wanted to do them, so they stayed undecorated the whole time

15. countdown blocks & advents - love these! and so do the kids

16. music -every day, all day

17. sitting on santa's lap - i don't have a picture of us visiting santa at the mall, or when we ran into santa and mrs. claus at kroger when they were buying candy canes. but i did get a picture of cassidy sitting on santa xander's lap telling him what she wants for christmas.

18. hanukkah - each year i get out the menorah and try to do each of the 8 nights. we even did hanukkah with the missionaries here. the kids loved it. we were really close to doing all 8 nights this year. but we haven't done the last night yet because xander wanted latkes when we did the final night, and we haven't had a night that we could put them together. so the menorah is still out, and it is in the middle of the nativity scene. xander asked on christmas eve..."mom, do you think that santa will be confused when he comes down the chimney and see the menorah?"
some of his other comments have been "Mom, do you think we are the only ones who celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah?" at school he was doing an activity with the teacher during class party (so I was there) and the teacher said something to another child about being half-elf by the way he was coloring his activity. Xander's comment was, pointing to me "She's half Jewish." and then pointing to mom (who was already here visiting) "And she's all Jewish!"and the best... "WHAT! Jesus was a Jew? Did he celebrate Hanukkah?"

19. reindeer food & cookies for santa - must take care of them. left reindeer on the lawn christmas eve night. when we saw santa at the mall he specifically told us he loved homemade chocolate chip cookies, and if we didn't have milk his next favorite drink is coca-cola. so that is what he got.

20. family photo - we didn't get it done until the monday before, but did it and sent it out with my christmas cards

21. snow on christmas day - for the first time in over 100 years, snow on christmas day and it stuck! looks like we got 2 inches, and 1:00 church has already been canceled for tomorrow.

22. hand-made ornaments, calendars & shopping plan of attack - projects i made for tombow, but used for myself and presents

23. wish lists & list of presents received -working on this one! but when we went to visit santa at the mall there was no one in line behind us, so he took the time to read the kid's wish lists that we had brought to drop in his mail box. when he was done he told the kids he'd hold onto their letters. on christmas morning, next to the plate that had his cookies and carrots were the kid's letters, signed "Love Santa"! amazing!

24. marshmallow fight -it hasn't happened yet, but it we'll host our annual take down the tree marshmallow fight, to make it not so sad.

25. my birthday - this hasn't happened yet either, but 3 more days of being 33

oops, one more.
26. pj's - love opening new pj's on christmas eve.

time to get to work on it!
merry christmas 2010!