Holiday stuff so far...
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at 02:56AM Okay. I'm back. Four things:
THANKSGIVING. Did I mention that I had a great time over Thanksgiving? I did. :) Lots of fabulous photos…maybe not technically perfect, but awesome in that we captured the groups of people that we wanted to…some in group photo mode and some in candid action. Yay! I’d post my favorites, but certain people might be peeking… ;)
GIVING TREE & JUST PLAIN GIVING. Last Friday, the boys and I went with our homeschool group to select ornaments from a local giving tree. (Yes, I took the camera…is that wrong?) The boys each wanted to pick a boy roughly the same age as themselves and started their shopping right away. It’s wonderful to see them so excited over giving! Incidentally, this is also the first year we’ve had them do their own shopping. We gave them each a set amount and that’s what they’re to use for their two brothers, us parents and the giving tree…though we made a deal with them that they could buy one of the items for the giving tree recipient and we’d spring for the rest. So far, they’re amazingly true to form. Asher gets an idea and immediately acts upon it, without really worrying about cost or budget (just knowing he’s under his average gift cost limit). Doesn’t stop to ponder other possibilities, just enjoys the thrill of the purchase. Noah has been listing off all sorts of ideas and weighing them against each other and doing mental tallies of how much he can spend on one thing if he spends so much on another. (By the way, setting a budget is an awesome math lesson!) He might even be enjoying the shuffling more than the actual decision-making. I'm thinking as they get older I'd like to introduce more ideas like requiring at least part of their gifts be things they make or do themselves rather than buying, but this will work for now.
SANTA. This past Saturday, we saw Santa! We like to try something different each year and this year it was the Hammond Candies Candy Cane Festival in Denver. Despite the, um, freezing temperatures (darn wind chill), the boys proclaim they had a great time. Nathan held our place in the line:
While we huddled near the little outdoor stoves:
The Festival had crafts, food vendors, a “train”, live reindeer, face painting, story telling and, of course, candy sales. (And, wow, so many flavors of awesome candy canes!) The boys, though, were pretty much only interested in seeing Santa and doing the free factory tour. Micah was so excited (alongside his brothers) to see Santa, seemed to really be understanding the whole deal more this year and definitely loves all the Christmas decorations and yells “ho, ho!” whenever he sees a Santa. (How cute is that?!) But. When it came time to sit with Santa, all that went out the window in favor of protesting being held by someone new. Oh well. :)
Noah made a list to show Santa…broken down by year and with estimated costs (I swear I did not give him these ideas!). Yes, his list (though surprisingly short this year) is categorized by what year he thinks he’ll most enjoy the present…right now it goes out two additional years. For example, he thinks he’ll most enjoy this rocket software he’s used in 2009, thinks he’ll be ready for a remote control car in 2008 and is all about the science kits this year. Weirdo. Asher thought this particular Santa was wonderful…after all, he knew about Optimus Prime. ;) Yup, the boys declared him one of the best Santas yet. Plus, he even had gold sparkles on his face…apparently a desirable thing in a Santa.
COUNTDOWN TRADITIONS. What else? A few days late, but I hauled our advent calendars out of the basement yesterday. We’ve got these two different wooden ones with little doors that open and you take out the miniature ornament and hang it either on the door or on the top portion of the calendar. Noah and Asher each are in charge of one of the calendars (going to need to find another for Micah next year). I know there are all sorts of cool ideas for making my own, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. :)
We also started year two of what I hope will be a long-standing Christmas tradition last night. (It was a couple days late, but that’s okay…should have started on the first.) We gathered all of our Christmas/winter books (we have more than 25 for sure) and wrapped them up. At bedtime during December, the boys get to pick a book (or two) to unwrap and have as their bedtime story. It’s so much fun…the boys get to unwrap things before Christmas (which helps curb the incessant asking to open a package…hee hee), we don’t have to read “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” 24 times, and it’s just plain fun. I let the boys help wrap the books this year, though I had to give Nathan a crash course in Gift Wrapping 101. (For those who care, I do sneakily have a method to the madness. I use three different colors of wrapping paper so that I know roughly how long the book inside is. Some nights, after all, you just don’t have the energy for “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”.) I throw in some new books during the month as a surprise also. Once we get our tree up, we’ll put them underneath and it’ll look much better than sitting in a pile in that room like they are now. ;)
Okay, that’s the last week or so in a nutshell. Back, now, to reorganizing my office so that I can do some major scrapbooking because I’m going through withdrawals.
Reader Comments (5)
LOVE the santa picture! hee hee hee
The Santa picture is so cute! I was terrified of Santa and the Easter bunny so all the pictures are of me crying!
Love the book idea. I might have to do that too. Drew loves reading books and it does get a little boring reading the same ones a dozen times.
You're amazing, Amanda! Who else would think of all those cool ideas?!
Hi, I got to your blog from Allison Davis's blog. I was just online looking for cool Christmas activities. My daughter just turned 2 and I'm wanting to start some cool Christmas traditions with her. I'm a little late on this one, but I totally want to steal your book idea. My daughter loves books. This will be so much fun! GREAT IDEA!!!!
That is so funny... we went to Hammond's on Dec 1st and it was COLD but super fun! Sounds like your boys had fun, too! It was our first time there and my son had a blast in the candy shop. Have a great Christmas!