Day 22 - Christmas Cookies!

Yesterday we decorated Christmas cookies. Delish! I was impressed with how long the boys actually stayed to help. Colin kept saying that his hand was getting sore, but when I told him he could stop, he insisted that he wanted to continue. Everytime Eli started getting bored, he would ask for a different color frosting and his interest would be renewed. Of course, by the end, he started mixing all the colors together which drove this mama a little crazy, but I'm learning to let it go. :) I think the most amazing part about decorating the cookies is neither boy tried to eat any of them or the frosting. They both waited patinetly until after dinner. *I* didn't even have that kind of control.

 Eli's Cookies

 Colin's Cookies

The Whole Lot

Day 21 - Little Elves

Today the boys (OK, it was just Colin, Eli watched) helped me wrap gifts for their cousins. He did a great job putting the tape where it needed to go and attaching the tags. At first it was challenging to pull him away from his playing, but once he started he got really into it. He kept telling me to use enough paper to cover the gifts so nobody could see what they are. He also kept telling me that he wasn't going to tell anybody what the gifts were so they could be a big surprise. Love it!

Day 20 - Lights at the Zoo

Last night the whole family went to the Toledo Zoo's Lights before Christmas display. It was beautiful and so much fun to walk around and look at all the different lights. Every year since moving down here, Chris and I have talked about wanting to go, but this is the first year we've actually done it. We're hooked. And can I also mention that once again our zoo membership has proven to be one of the best investments we've made.

The kids also loved it. Although I think Eli was a little frozen by the time we left, despite being dressed like the kid brother from "A Christmas Story". Colin was so excited to be out after dark and kept talking about how it was past his bedtime. Don't get me wrong, we were home before 8 PM so it really wasn't that much past his bedtime, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that. The only disappoinment was that Colin wishes he could have seen more animals. Thankfully we have that membership and can easily go back some time during the day to check out all his favorites.

 

Day 19 - Making Peppermint Play Dough

Today we made peppermint play dough. It was very easy to make, smelled delicious, and the boys had a great time helping cook it up. They really love helping me in the kitchen. Well, I think what they really like is the opportunity to stand on the chairs! After it was done, Colin had fun playing with the play dough and pretended to make pizza and cookies. Eli, on the otherhand, wanted nothing to do with it and ran away. I did get one shot of the two of them near the play dough so it at least kind of looks like they're both having fun. :) Really Eli's eyeing the dough like it's about to jump out at him and he ran off about 2 seconds after I took the picture.

Days 17 & 18 - Christmas Coloring and Even More Books

On day 17, I had the boys color pages out of some Christmas coloring books that we have. Sometimes we all need easy, low-key days.

On day 18, Colin woke up begging to go to the library. It *had* been awhile since we last went and the kids really do love the library. So, we turned it into a Christmas activity and in addition to Curious George and Flat Stanley, we also looked for wintry and Christmas books. The boys had a blast, picked out tons of books, and made new friends.

Day 16 - Colin's Christmas Program

Colin and his preschool class put on a little Christmas program and it was so cute! Colin was a shepard during the "play" part, got to ring bells during some of the songs, and put a camel on the felt board as his teacher read the Christmas story. I was really impressed with how different he behaved during this program in comparison to his Halloween program. He didn't sing very much but he did a lot of the movements, he smiled, and he looked like he was having fun. At Halloween, he just looked lost. It was also really special because both sets of grandparents got to come down to watch him. I think that helped encourage him to participate more.

Day 15 - Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock

Today the boys and I turned on Christmas music and had a dance par-tay. Very fun and a great way to get their energy out since we've been spending a lot of time indoors due to the bitterly cold weather.

Day 14 - Just Give Me Stickers

Today I bought a foam craft kit from Michael's as our Christmas activity for the day. Colin did a couple of these last year and they were really easy and turned out well - A Christmas Craft. This year we didn't have the same luck. Last year I bought a kit that just came with stickers. Simple, easy, and kids love stickers. This year's kit also came with stickers but in addition it had glue and glitter. The glue is where it all went wrong. It got off to a bad start when I had to roll up a strip of foam and use the glue to adhere it to itself. Sounds easy but the glue didn't want to stick. And it got everywhere. That's where Eli enters the equation. I don't know what drew him to the glue as opposed to the glittering foam pieces but of course he had to have it and he wanted to eat it. After snatching it from his sticky little fingers, the rest of his contribution to the craft looked like this:

Colin, on the other hand, was actually quite helpful and did a great job getting the backs off the stickers and attaching them to the coil. At least that part of the craft went well.

Here's Colin holding the finished snowman. Not bad, but wait...

Here's Eli holding the finished, I mean falling apart, penguin. I gave up trying to add the finishing touches which were sparkly pom-poms for earmuffs and a sparkly pipe cleaner as the headband. Check out that look of disgust. I think he's peeved that I used the glue on the chintzy craft instead of letting him eat it. Ha ha!

Day 13 - Handprint Christmas Tree

Fianlly! A handprint craft that looks like it's supposed to! Today Colin and I made a handprint Chirstmas tree. He made green handprints on green card stock, then painted half of a piece yellow and the other half red. I cut out the handprints, the star, and the base of the tree and glued them all together. When I asked Colin to help with those tasks, he said he was too busy playing with Eli. Clearly gluing and cutting are not as interesting as painting. Then we used markers to draw ornaments on the tree. Fun fun! Oh, and did you notice that it looks like a tree as opposed to something completely demented? Handprint success!

 

Day 12 - Gifts for Teachers

Today I had Colin help me choose gifts for his teachers. I want to make sure he understands that Christmas is not just about receiving lots of presents from Santa. I want him to have just as much fun (if not more) giving to others. Originally I wanted him to be more involved with wrapping and giving gifts to the families our parent's group sponsored this year, but the season is busy and I had to squeeze that in while the kids were unavailable to help. As for his teachers, Colin had lots of ideas including Toy Story toys, the Cars movie, and sleds. Thankfully he agreed on a compromise and we're going to make home-made fudge.
We also got a chance to play outside in the first big snowstorm of the year. Here's some pictures of the boys' rosy cheeks after we came inside. I don't think I'm going to be able to get away with only going out once this year. I better invest in some seriously warm winter-weather gear!

 

Days 10 & 11 - A Craft and A Book

Due to lots of cooking and cleaning to prepare for the annual TPG cookie exchange, we postponed our Day 10 activity until today and we did double duty with the boys. First we made a holiday paper chain and then we read a new Christmas book. I love that Colin is looking forward to checking our advent calendar everyday. He gets so excited to see what the day's activity is going to be. It makes the extra work well worth it!

 

Day 9 - Mixed Emotions

When Colin opened the little piece of paper from our advent calendar this morning and found out we were visiting Santa, he was over the moon. Eli was equally thrilled and started chanting "San-ta, San-ta". When we were actually up close and personl with the big guy in red, both boys were singing a different tune. Colin fell to the floor to hide behind me and Eli started bawling. Thankfully, there was a very clever and helpful lady working there who distracted Colin by having him find a hidden polar bear ornament in the tree next to Santa. This calmed him down enough to at least stand by him, even if he was leaning as far away from him as he could. With Eli, we had no other choice than to rip the band-aid off and just set him in Santa's lap and take pictures as fast as we could. The funny thing, is when we were riding home, I asked the boys if they had fun and they both said "yes". They can't wait to see Santa again next year. Go figure.