A Very Merry Christmas

This year's Christmas was a little different with my parents being gone on their mission. It was the first time I haven't spent Christmas (even if it was a fake Christmas a day before) with them. Luckily Kate and Jonathan were able to come out and so we were able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the majority of Adam's family. The main activities were presents and eating. Christmas Eve was primarily spent making and eating gyoza, a delicious Japanese food.  The kids also got to open their traditional pj's on Christmas Eve. Samantha was especially excited that she and Lily matched. Christmas morning we opened our stockings,  presents from Santa, and our presents from Stacy with the Lee's. Then we had to hustle and get ready for church where we were able to focus a little more on the real meaning of Christmas (only a little because the rest of the focus was on not killing our sweet kids who were all hopped up on Christmas candy). After church we headed down to the Hopkins' to finish opening presents. After lunch we headed back up to our house for naps and dinner. The day was also apparently filled with not the best pictures. Either my kids weren't looking or they wouldn't smile normally. Also, the camera was on the wrong setting for our pictures before church so they are blurry. Oh well!

PJ's with a freaky looking Lily

Samantha looking goofy with her favorite present

Paul sporting his new safety goggles that came with his tool set.

The best of the bunch

A Homemade Christmas

Last year I decided that I was tired of buying presents for my kids that would break or get lost within days. So, the past two years I have handmade all my gifts for my kids as well as for everyone else on my list. Although it took A LOT of time and the week before Christmas I swore this was the last year I am happy with the way everything turned out.  I think I will still do it next year, but aim to have everything made before Thanksgiving. That way I can enjoy the holidays without so many projects on my list. I failed to take pictures of many of the things that I made, but here are a few...

This was actually pre Christmas, but I made it so I'm counting it :)

A more delicious version (a caramel, chocolate, toffee version) of an apple for the teacher. 

These were a big hit.

A calendar/menu planner that I copied from "A Girl and a Glue Gun." I actually made four, but this is the only picture I have. By the way, I want be Kim from that blog, she is amazing.

The chocolates (this is only the bottom layer of the box)

A desk for the car. Paul's is blue. To be fair, only the idea of this (and not even this final version) was mine. The majority of the credit goes to my amazing father-in-law who built these for the kids. It is already a huge hit with Samantha.

There were also a variety of small toys that were quick and simple, other smaller gifts that I cannot remember at the moment, calendars (with the help of snapfish.com and mixbook.com), and a book for my mom and dad with letters and pictures from each of their kids and grand kids. All the work paid off and I felt like the presents were a success and definitely more meaningful.

The 25 Days of Christmas

Two years ago we decided to add activities to our advent calendar. I know a lot of people do this, but I had never heard of it before so I was pretty excited. It turned out to be one of our favorite parts of Christmas that year so we have continued to do it. Many of the activities were things that we would do anyway, but somehow having it in the calendar made it more fun for them. I was really bad at remembering to take pictures but I thought I'd still jot down a few of the ones that were a little different and that the kids especially enjoyed...

• Getting a new REALLY soft blanket to watch movies in and then watching a Christmas movie as a family.  I got a really good deal on the blankets during my black Friday shopping. It was fun to give that gift early since it spread things out a bit. The kids were excited to open something and I know having the blankets that early made them more special since they weren't competing with Barbies and Legos. 
• Getting a new board game to play as a family. Paul is really getting into board games so it was a great activity and one we have done many times since.
• Making graham cracker houses. Although not too original, my kids had a great time. The last few years I have bought kits right after Christmas to use the following year. That has meant that my kids had to share. They both preferred the graham crackers since they each got to do their own. (The pictures are not great)

On a side note, notice the shirt? It was Adam's when he was little and is now Paul's favorite. Also, Paul insists on having ALL his buttons buttoned on every shirt. Nice huh?

• One thing we didn't actually get around to doing but I thought sounded like a lot of fun was writing a Christmas story as a family. Each person would say a sentence or two and then "pass" it to someone else. I was planning on writing it down, having the kids illustrate it and then adding it to our Christmas book collection. Oh well, there's always next year.
• Making candy. My great Aunt Shirley taught me how to make DELICIOUS chocolates. They are a lot of work and each time I do them I swear that I am not doing it again, but they turn out so great that I seem to keep doing it the next year. The kids had fun helping with the centers, but I wouldn't let them help dip.

There were a lot of other activities (like hot chocolate bar, making cookies for Santa, etc.) but these were our favorites of 2011.