I'm not sure if it was because of the fierce morning sickness I have been experiencing with this pregnancy or if I'm just becoming a Scrooge about Christmas, but I would have just laid in bed and waited for December to be over if it was my choice. But I have three kiddos who deserve more than that so I came up with a plan that would force me to provide some fun Christmas experiences and memories for the kids. I planned out an activity for each day, like I have in years past with our advent calendars, only this year I wrapped a present for each activity and placed them all under our downstairs tree with numbers on them. Each day the kids would take turns opening a present to find out what we would be doing that day. Some of them were outings like going to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop in Council Bluffs (the best people watching I have ever experienced), the gingerbread festival at the trail center, driving around looking at Christmas lights, or going shopping for each others' Christmas presents. Some of them were activities at home like making gingerbread houses, dipping chocolates, cutting out snowflakes, reading books by the fire, watching a Christmas movie, or simply having hot chocolate. Truthfully some of my plans may have fallen through and I started to fizzle out toward the end, but all in all I think it helped us have an enjoyable Christmas season.
Of course the thing the kids were most excited about during the month of December was finding our elves, Zippy and Bella, each morning. On December 1st they arrived in Brynn's barbie car with a Just Married sign on back confirming the kids' suspicions that they would get married. Apparently the more elves there are the more mischief they get into because we sure found them in some silly situations this year. We started to notice a pattern that Zippy always seemed to be the one getting into trouble or getting hurt while Bella innocently stood by watching. All I know is I would gladly welcome these elves all year long if it meant my kids popping out of bed each morning so they could go find the elves before school. It's never been so easy getting them up and going in the morning.
It turned out to be an okay Christmas season after all.
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| Nothing says Merry Christmas like shoot BB guns while you wait to see Santa. |
