Christmas Note To Self

WARNING: I'm writing this post just for myself so I have a record of the activities we did this December! It will be too long/boring to read all the way through.

I made a new advent calendar consisting of little envelopes with Christmas family activities inside. This starts on December 1st and goes through Christmas Day. Activities can be adjusted or switched as we go along. I really liked this because it's going to help remember traditions that we want to keep. I'm making some changes for next year right now. Activities are as follows:

1. Listen to “Mary Did You Know?” on the computer. Wrap Christmas books for picture book advent.
2. Read “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”, “A Christmas Carol” or another story to get into the holiday spirit. Pick a day to attend the nativity exhibit.
3. Listen to “The Messiah” or some other Christmas music CD. Get all of the Christmas CDs out!!
4. Sing Christmas carols. Dance and sing to a Christmas music CD.
5. Make a paper chain for the Christmas tree.
6. Put up Christmas decorations, make ornaments, string popcorn
7. Decorate the tree.
8. Go to the nativity exhibit.
9. Buy a gift for a family in need via World Vision.
10. It’s family game night!
11. Go to Zehnder’s and Bronner’s in Frankenmuth.
12. Make homemade hot chocolate.
13. Make Christmas cards for family and friends
14. Go for a nighttime walk in the neighborhood.
15. Make paper snowflakes and decorate the windows
16. Bake a batch of Christmas cookies.
17. Bake another batch of Christmas cookies to share with friends.
18. Christmas Service Project.
19. Christmas Service Project. AND, Make a list of ten things you are thankful for. Hang it where you can see it every day.
20. Make and hang edible gifts for the birds and squirrels.
21. Watch a Christmas movie. (Nutcracker?? Maybe this will be the tradition?)
22. Go for a Christmas lights drive around town.
23. Listen to a First Presidency message about Christmas (from Christmas Devotional Fireside).
24. Have Christmas Eve Dinner and dress fancy for it. Watch PBS specials. Read and act the Christmas story.
25. It's Christmas Day! Remember your two greatest gifts: Jesus gave us the gift of Eternal Life AND you have a Family who loves you!

We had a great time putting out food for the birds and squirrels. We made feeders by emptying out grapefruits. Cut the grapefruit in half and empty out the fruit. Put strings through these halves so that they can hang balanced (three to four strings). We mixed a huge container of peanut butter with the following seeds/grains/fruit: blackberries, dried cranberries, steel cut oats, lentils, sunflower seeds, raisins, niger seed, bird seed mix, peanuts. We stirred that all together and packed it into the grapefruit halves and then hung them around the yard. It was fun to watch the squirrels haul whole grapefruits away!

The PBS Specials were excellent. MSU Children's Choir concert was followed by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert. That was on Christmas Eve. We let the kids stay up until about 10:30 and they were pretty tired by the time they went to bed.

We read several Christmas picture books each night and I rated them on Goodreads so that I'd know which ones to check out for next year.

Santa brought only candy, fruit and one small gift. Under the tree, we had mostly books. Our big gift for the kids we took care of with a fun treasure hunt where they got a couple more gifts (I'll write about that in a separate post).

For the first time this year, we had a huge Christmas Eve dinner AND a huge Christmas Brunch (we looked at what Santa brought and did the treasure hunt and then took a break to make and eat breakfast before opening the presents under the tree). We gave the kids menus to let them choose what they wanted to eat and we loved that! I made Chocolate Cream Pie, Coconut Cream Pie and Carrot Cake for dessert, which we still have not touched! The menus were as follows (for remembering which recipes we used etc.).:

Family Christmas Eve Dinner Menu

Food Selections

• Ham
• Stuffing
• Sour Cream Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole
• Crinkle Cut Carrots
• Pumpkin Bread
• Rolls with Butter
• Butternut Squash
• Cranberry Sauce
  
• Pickles

Drink Selections

• Water
• Ginger Ale
• Apple Juice

Family Christmas Breakfast Menu

Food Selections

• Quiche
• Sausage
• Bacon
• Delicious Apple French Toast (Jodi's recipe)
  
• Berry-Almond Crumb Cake
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Fresh Pineapple
• Fresh Bananas (or other fruit)

Drink Selections

• Orange Juice
  
• Hot Chocolate
  
• Milk