Christmas Countdown

Last Christmas, Nanner (our mama) made all of her grand kids Christmas Countdowns. Each day has an activity to do with the kids. Last year, Love Bean was only three months old, so I was stuck doing stuff alone or just skipping it all together.

This year, she'll be able to enjoy many of the activities, so I'm really excited about it! The countdown started on Saturday with "Make a bird feeder and hang it outside for the birds." I didn't plan the activity out ahead of time very well, and we were stuck using what we could find around the house. I had bird seed left over from last year, and I sent Tim out into the yard to find pine cones. Apparently, we only have small round pine cones, so once Tim tied a couple together, and we rolled them in peanut butter and bird seed, they ended up looking a little bit like...well take a look.

On Sunday we listened to Christmas music and yesterday we had a popcorn party and watched a Christmas movie. We picked Elf. Today's activity is "decorate your Christmas tree" we got our tree on Sunday, and it's already decorated, but I think Love Bean and I might make a few ornaments today and hang them up.

I'm looking forward to continuing our Christmas Countdown tradition every year. I can't wait to see how much more excited Love Bean gets as she grows older.

The Schrock's have been doing the same thing. We have had make a bird feeder (which I was totally not prepared) and we have yet to do that. Well the real story is that my kids are hellions and found the bird seed and spilled them ALL on the floor of our back porch. . . three weeks ago. And yes, they are still there. We have also decorated our tree, had a hot chocolate party and watched a Christmas movie and had popcorn. 

We made those ornaments last week, so they were so excited to finally get to hang them on the tree. And yes I did not buy enough lights for our tree. I will be purchasing 3 more strands on Thursday. 

On the tree topic if you are looking for a tree, Spitzley's Tree Farm in Mulliken is the place to go. $28 to cut your own tree and the kids have so much fun running/falling through the tree. Beware though if you have a husband like me prepare for a hour of searching for "the perfect tree". Seriously though, we saw every single tree.

Any holiday traditions you have with your family??!

Gifts for Love Bean

Last year we only bought Love Bean one gift plus a few little things, like hair bows, for her stocking. This year, we're planning on moving toward our plan on doing for Love Bean and other future children when they're old enough to get into Christmas.

Love Bean will get 4 gifts, plus her stocking. We haven't really decided how Santa is going to factor in—not sure if he'll leave a couple of the 4 gifts, or if he'll bring a couple extra. But we have a little while before we really need to have that figured out.

Gift #1: One thing she needs. Like this year, it will probably be toddler plates. This gift must be something she actually needs, even if it's not a fun gift.

Gift #2: One thing to read. This one doesn't really need to be explained, she'll get a book every year. This mama loves books in the house.

Gift #3: One thing to wear. I love buying clothes for Love Bean, so this one would probably realistically read, "one outfit."

Gift #4: One thing she wants. I don't think this one needs much explanation either. When she's older, this one will be something she really wants (within reason).

I think this gift strategy will work pretty well. This year, I think Santa will bring one of her 4 gifts. We'll see what happens when she gets older though. Maybe he'll bring one or two more of her wants.