Hello! and more countdown shenanigans...

Hi!  I hope everyone is having a great time leading up to Christmas.  We really enjoyed having Lonnie home last week and we really didn't want to send him back to work today.  But the good news is that he is not on call for Christmas so we get him home on Wednesday too.  Winning!  I officially purchased and wrapped my last present today and we are ready for Santa to come.  (Except Santa hasn't put B's table and chairs together yet!  Hopefully tonight!)  We have Christmas with my dad later today and I am really looking forward to that.  B is going to love the presents from him.  I need to catch up on the Christmas countdown so this post will be a little long.  I have just been doing so much snuggling with my honey that I haven't had time to blog.  ;)    

We may not finish all of the activities by Christmas but we will try.  Some of the activities that are left are for Christmas Eve so maybe we will finish after all.  As usual, I have changed some of these for whatever reason.  The full list is at the bottom of this post with completed activities crossed off or highlighted.  

We watched some Christmas movies one night.  I attempted to make a pallet on the floor so we could all just relax but I obviously picked a bad night for this little activity!  This is basically what happened the entire time.  

jump off ottoman, climb back up, repeat

Last year, I bought a Christmas coloring book and Blakely "colored" a page in it.  I decided to let her color a page each year, write down her age and a little tidbit about it and see how it turned out when it was finished.  This may be my favorite tradition so far.  She loves coloring right now and the hardest part was not letting her color on every page!  Ha!  

she goes back and forth using her right and left hands.

finished product

Last Friday night Blakely spent the night with GranDi.  She helped decorate her tree and B still says "GranDi pretty little tree"!  

I'm ready to go, Mom!

My mom sent this to me that night.  

I cried.  I cried my ugly cry.  I saw that picture and it hit me that my baby is growing up with my mom in the house that I grew up in.  My mom still lives there and I don't know what it was about that picture but it just squeezed my heart so much.  I am so thankful.  

We decorated a gingerbread house.  This went much better than last year!  She liked putting the decorations on but she really liked pouring them from one cup to the other.  

We made hot chocolate with a ton of marshmallows one night.  She loves marshmallows (that is what I bribed her with at the wedding) so this may have been her favorite night.  

We went downtown to get our family pictures made one morning and stopped by the life size gingerbread house.  There was a preschool class there at the same time so she was a bit distracted but still neat to see.  

One day I made cranberry apple cider (SO GOOD) so we enjoyed that while reading some new Christmas books I got for her.  She carries these books around all of the time now.

A few nights ago we went to Garv.an Gar.dens to see their display of lights.  We took my mother in law since she has never been.  The display was beautiful and we all had a great time.  I didn't get many pictures because B did not want to stay in her stroller so I was making sure she didn't get lost in the woods.  HA!  

The parade this year was on December 1st and it was about 15 degrees outside.  So I decided real quick that we would be skipping that one.  My Grand turned 78 and her sister (Aunt Jerry) turned 90 on December 19th!  We went to a birthday lunch for them and B was very excited about it.  She talked about birthday party and cake all morning.  She even took an early nap because I told her she had to be rested to celebrate.  Worked like a charm.  She was so sweet the whole time and had such good manners.  I was very proud of her.  You never know how a sit down lunch at a restaurant will go when you have to be there for over 2 hours.  She was a trooper!  

Beautiful ladies!!!  (Aunt Jerry on left and Grand on right)

One other thing we did was give gifts to her teachers.  I forgot to take a picture but we got them gift cards to the book store.  B said over and over that she wanted to get them books for presents.  So I just went with that.  I also baked and sent them a bunch of treats with the gift cards.


We are planning on driving around to look at Christmas lights tonight on the way home from my dad's house and I am really looking forward to that.  Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!

1.  Go to a Christmas Parade. (changed to go to birthday party for Aunt Jerry and Grand)

2.  Go to Garvan Gardens and see the lights.

3.  Make some treats for some special people.  (Can't be too specific!)

4.  Fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child

5.  Open an early Christmas present

6.  Make a pallet on the living room floor and watch Christmas movies. 

7.  Make hot chocolate (with lots of marshmallows) and sit by the fire.  (NO TV) (oops...we watched a movie!) 

8.  Make a Christmas craft for family.

9.  Decorate Blakely's Christmas tree.  

10.  Go to the Arlington and see the life size gingerbread house. 

11.  Color another page in her Christmas coloring book and date it. (same book from last year)

12.  Daddy/daughter date night.  

13.  Spend the night with Gran Di. (because we all know she will have fun Christmas stuff for      B to do!)

14.  Get pictures made with Santa. 

15.  Decorate cookies and leave them out for Santa

16.  Read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

17. Do three random acts of kindness

18. Make a red and green lunch or dinner.  

19. Cut out snowflakes and decorate the windows with them.  Changed to make felt tree

20. Decorate a gingerbread house.  

21. Make a pine cone bird feeder.  

22. Make apple cider and read Christmas books before bed

23. Drive around to see Christmas lights.  

24. Make or pick out gifts for her teachers.  

25. Go to a Christmas event (Santa story time or Christmas craft) at the library.

I posted about the items crossed off the list HERE.