December Daily 20-24

I got all caught up in doing Christmasy things that last few days before Christmas, that I failed miserably at staying caught up on blogging it all-so here's what we did the last few days leading up to the main event....

Sunday-We brought these for the kids teachers, music leaders and primary presidency at church. Bekah made these for her friends in her class at church (the Magic Reindeer Food toppers were from someone on Today's Creative Blog-I will need to research it to give her the credit-if you want it, I'm sure I could find it!)

I made these for the neighbors of my mom, my mom and a couple friends here out of some Stephens hot cocoa cans.Monday-I decided to make Chad's ornament this year-because I couldn't find one to purchase that I liked enough-so we made salt dough ornaments-lots of fun!Bekah made a heart and Topher made a dinosaur-and I couldn't get them both to look at me at the same time-so we get the goofball twin pictures!Tuesday we made a gingerbread house and a gingerbread train... Wenesday-Christmas Eve- We had so much fun! We went to the Appah's for sledding and fondue and playing together-and I took no pictures-not a single one! It was such a good time though, you'll just have to take my word for it!

Afterwards we came home and opened our Christmas Eve jammies, and all the presents that were under the tree. We usually just do the jammies, but we were leaving early Christmas morning to my moms, so we let them open them all-so it wouldn't be too overwhelming the next day. I really liked doing it that way-then they could really focus on what they got each day-and stuff didn't get lost in the piles. It may be the way we do things from now on!
Then we all opened our ornaments-the kids all get themed ornaments; Bekah-snowmen, Topher-Santa's and Porter will get reindeer.

Porter is at the age-where if something is in his hand-it goes straight for then mouth-so we end up with a lot of these kinds of pictures-don't worry, he's not hurt, a little upset it's not food, but that's it.
Chad and I do something that represents the year, so he gave me this one, because we are finally in a home-even if we are just renting, I am so grateful to be in a house at last, so this means a lot to me this year!
I made this one for Chad, it has our yellow house, our apple tree we (he) have spent so much time on this year, an owl in the tree for him becoming an owl at OIT, a baby bottle and blocks that spell boy, because we had Porter this year, his truck, our Yukon and a hand with a bent thumb. I pretty much got the whole year on there, including a big red heart because I love him more this year than any year previous.It may not be as pretty as a storebought ornament-but we've had quite the year-and I didn't want to forget any of it!

We then left magic food out for the reindeer, so Santa could find us....
...and left out some cookies for when he did.
We had a great countdown to Christmas, even when the kids were a little overwhelmed with all the fun stuff and started acting spoiled-we still enjoyed spending all that time together and will probably try to do this every year!