December in Review

What a wonderful month full of holiday joys, busyness, love and laughter, and family & friends.
This is the 3rd year we have used a Christmas countdown (or Advent calendar) during the month of December.  We have a board with little boxes on it (that a friend and I made together).  Each day, from December 1st to December 24th, we open a box that contains an activity for our family to do together. 
Here are some pictures of the activities:

Grandma Lynn came to celebrate Grandparents' Day at WC with the girls.  They all enjoyed a mass led by the students, a short Christmas program, and visits to the classrooms. 

This is Mya's sheep hat from the program.

We colored Christmas pictures and sang Christmas songs one evening.  (Do you see Mya's tongue sticking out.....she was coloring with intensity :)

We enjoyed hot chocolate with whip cream and read a Christmas story after an hour or two of playing in the snow.

We all made paper snowflakes and hung them above the tree.  We really like how this turned out......I think this will be a yearly thing.

We made yummy snacks (more than once).  The girls absolutely loved helping out.  We delivered some to our neighbors. 

 I truly enjoyed using my new stand mixer!!!!!  Thanks honey!!!!

We had family game night.  We played UNO, Diego, and Just Dance.  Very fun!!!

We all worked together to put our Christmas cards together and get them mailed!!  Team effort!!!

We enjoyed 'The Nutcracker' ballet.  Mya had her heart set on this little Nutcracker.  It was fun to watch and listen to the girls act out the scenes using the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. 

Gymnastics Christmas shows--We had 2 nights of fun.  The girls did an amazing job!!

Christmas Eve we went to 4:00 mass, came home to open Christmas pajamas, and then we played Mexican Train Dominoes with Grandma and Grandpa Buhr and Bud!!  We are in love with this game!!  Sure wish I would have snapped a picture.   

 The Christmas countdown is sometimes hectic.  With busy schedules, it is hard to fit it in.  But we are always glad that we did it successfully!!  These are just a few of our activities.  We had a couple of evenings where Ally read to us from her Day by Day Bible lessons, and many others.  My mom mentioned how she thought the countdown probably helped keep the girls from getting too anxious about the actual holiday.  I hadn't really thought about it that way, but when I think back....I think it does, and it helps them focus on the meaning of Christmas, the lessons we learn from each other.....and it helped us spend more time together!!  Can't wait to see what next year brings.