Twas the Night Before the Night Before Christmas

We celebrate Christmas with our family on Christmas Eve. That means that Santa has to fill the stockings on the night of the 23rd. We explain it by saying that Santa has so many houses to go to on the 24th that some lucky children get their stockings filled early. This year Abigail wrote the note to Santa, Henry picked out the cookies (and chocolate milk of course!) and they all posed for a picture before going to bed. Then Santa got to work...

Johanna at 9 Months

Again, a little late. Again, I apologize. Johanna turned 9 months on December 17th. She weighs around 16 pounds, wears size 2-3 diapers, loves her bottle, doesn't really like table food and loves to smile and charm anyone around. She sure is a blessing to our family!

Celebrating Christmas at School

Both of the kids had special days at school before the break. Henry had "Jingle Bell Day" where a parent came and the kids sang songs, listened to a story and did a craft with their parent. It was a fun day and we had a great time making Henry's Jingle Bug that he named "Rainbow."

Abigail's day was a special day for a parent to come and make a Gingerbread house with their parent. We had so much fun making the old-school house with the milk carton in the middle, graham crackers on the outside and LOTS of frosting and candy! It was such a fun day with Abigail!

Visiting Santa

Making a Gingerbread House

We bought one of those pre-made Gingerbread House kits this year. It looked like a fun activity until we had everything out and had started and then read the directions. We had to put the walls together with icing...then let it dry for at least an hour. We did that even though the kids were dying since they thought they'd get to decorate it right away. After the hour was up we put on the roof, then read that it said "Let dry for at least 2-3 hours." Seriously?? Needless to say we still tried to decorate it. It caved under the pressure. So...the kids decorated Gingerbread panels...walls, roof pieces, etc. They had a blast and it didn't matter that it wasn't a house in the end. Next year I'll get the house all together ahead of time. :)