Keeping December Simple {and fun!}

The last few Christmas seasons we've done an activity advent calendar with Brooke. It was one of those good ideas I got off of pinterest and honestly, it's been kind of a nightmare--more stressful than fun. Brooke was so excited about picking a daily activity and she'd drive me nuts begging for it each day. Also, how can I plan out a month's worth of activities beforehand? What if decorating sugar cookies falls on a day where something unexpected happens and we're not able to do it? Major disappointment and tears were to follow. So this year, knowing that I'd have a new baby, I decided not to do the activity advent calendar. And you know what? It was...nice. Peaceful. Stress-free. I just decided to keep it low key and just see what we could fit in. Some things were planned, and some were spur of the moment things. It kept December simple and the lead-up to Christmas low key for my kids.

Here are some of the things we did:

Breakfast with Santa on December 13th. We love this free community activity.

Our ward did a Polar Express themed Christmas party on December 19th. A lot of work was put into making everything run smoothly and it was our favorite ward Christmas party ever. The kids got to give their tickets to the conductor to ride the Polar Exress onto the stage to see Santa where they each got a bell.

I wasn't sure how Porter would react to Santa this year. Last year he didn't cry, but he definitely didn't want anything to do with him...just looked at Santa from afar. This year, he could barely contain his excitement to see Santa and we kept having to pull him back to keep from butting in front of the other kids in line.

 Brooke has always loved Santa and asked for a stuffed unicorn. Santa promised he'd leave her something special under the tree.

Another favorite was an unexpected night snowstorm. It was our first real snowfall of the season, right in time for Christmas! The kids wanted to get on their snowgear and play right away.

Another night we popped popcorn and watched Christmas movies. The Grinch was a family favorite this year. The kids were walking around the house saying, "da-da-da-daGRINCH!" for days afterward.

We made sugar cookies and took them around to friends.

On another snowy day Blake pulled the kids on a sled behind his four-wheeler around the neighborhood on our snow-packed streets.

If Brooke looks like she just got done crying it's because she just got done with a timeout.

Grant was mesmorized by our Christmas tree lights. 

 We received a box of homemade chocolates from one of our old college friends. What a talented lady!

I love the magic of Christmas as seen through my children's eyes. Each time we'd drive by a house with Christmas lights both kids, but Porter especially, would exclaim "Cwispmas tree!" (how Porter said Christmas and every decoration was a tree). Even though we kept it pretty low key, we still were able to fit in some fun things and make great memories.