Advent Calendar - Day 4

On Sunday, the kids got to decorate gingerbread houses.  Poor Gracyn missed out on this because we did it during nap time, but the big two absolutely loved it.  Last year we just decorated one house, so this year I decided we would do a little village.  Well, it was quite a mess.  I think I will stick to just one house from now on or at least until they can build the houses a little better by themselves.

 Gaitley liked eating the candy best!

 Gaitley's finished houses

Garrett's finished houses

North Pole Breakfast, Visiting Santa and Advent Calendar

 I love this busy time of year.  Our days are packed with fun, family traditions, new and old.  We got our Elf on the Shelf, Elvie, last year and the kids were so excited for him to return.  He came back the Sunday after Thanksgiving and even brought a breakfast straight from the North Pole with him.  We had white powdered donuts, chocolate milk and Hershey Kisses.  The kisses were from Santa of course.  He even brought each kid a new pair of Christmas socks too.  I got this idea from pinterest and it is definitely going to be something we do from now on.  The kids absolutely loved it!

 The set-up.  I think I was just as excited about Elvie returning as the kids were.

 They were so happy to see Elvie.  After I took the pictures the night before I had to move Elvie to the light fixture above the table.  I didn't want him to accidentally get touched and lose his magic.

 Yummy!

 Each kiddo got a letter from Elvie too.  He told them he was glad to be back and reminded them that he was going to keep an eye on them until Christmas.

After our North Pole breakfast we headed up to Bass Pro Shops to get a picture with Santa.  Two out of the three loved it.  Not too bad!  Our percentage is getting better each year. :)

 Garrett was happy!

 Gaitley was happy!

 Gracyn was not so happy!

Advent Calendar - Day 1
We have been doing our Advent Calendar for a couple of years now.  I had to change things up a bit this year.  It was getting way too expensive.  We are going to focus more on family fun activities than getting little gifts each day.  They did get their Christmas pajamas in it today, but they were going to get those anyway.  Here are some of the other ideas I have:
*watch a Christmas movie and enjoy a special treat
*make a Christmas craft
*drive around and look at Christmas lights
*write a letter to Santa
*make a Christmas ornament
*listen to Christmas music and bake Christmas cookies
*make snowflakes
*read the story about the birth of Jesus out of the Bible
*do a random act of kindness
*unwrap a new Christmas book to read tonight
*make a gingerbread house

Garrett has been waiting for December 1st for weeks now and it was no surprise that he woke up at 5:45 ready to find his surprise.  I made him go back to bed and told him we couldn't do it if he continued to wake up that early.  Hopefully he will sleep in a little later tomorrow.  If not, it might be a long month.

New Christmas pajamas