Christmas In July: Holiday Happenings

A few festive things we did between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The kids' Christmas jammies for 2010:


And sometime during the weekend after Thanksgiving, I was able to talk Jaosn into setting up the tree and such. He never likes to do it that early. But he was a good sport about it once we got started:




Our first ornaments on to the tree are usually the new one picked out for the year. Easton's was this Luke Skywalker one from Hallmark:




Dalton chose a Chip and Dale from the Disney Store:




And Autumn was in her big Beanie Boo phase, so we had her pick a Beanie Boo keychain and we used it as an ornament! Ha! I was pleased she chose the wintery penguin when given her choices:






Then it was general festiveness and merriment as we set up the rest of the tree and decor around the house but most of the pictures worth sharing are of Autumn:












The finished product...room lights on:


...and lights off:


We had a couple of crafty projects during the season (I would've liked to have done more). We made our own red (more like pink), green, and white playdoh:





We made the white to smell like mint. And it is awesome playdoh, let me tell you. It's still good even these many months later.

I made a few wreaths. Very simple and cheap projects. I got most of the supplies from the Dollar Tree:


Then I whipped up a pink and silver one that hung in Autumn's room:


And a red and blue one to match the bedding in the boys' room:


I also made an ornament wreath for the living room. We're heading more and more towards purple and gold decorations so I made this...

...but didn't add the purple ribbon to hang it from at the top. I bought it. Just never put it on.

Dalton had a school Christmas program. He dressed real sharp:


With his buddy Sam at the church:


And Autumn with Berkley in the audience:


Our little city does it's own "Winterfest" and we went to that for the first time this year. It was chilly but fun:




The boys loved all the fire pits they had set up to warm up by...not sure why they're both looking so alarmed here:






Autumn sporting a festive hand-me-down for church one Sunday:

Her furry Santa boots are handed down from Easton. :)

We paid a visit to Bass Pro's holiday workshop and made some moose ornaments (for Gramoo):


I feel like Jason didn't come with us for that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he didn't. No clue where he was, though. But we were here:


And, of course, we made a trip to the mall to see Santa:


And, of course, Autumn didn't like him:


The boys both had Christmas parties at school. I got to go to both of them...and I know Jason had Autumn and Dalton while I went to Easton's but I cannot remember at all where Autumn was while I was at Dalton's but I'm fairly certain Jason couldn't do it that day. Maybe Miss Tracy??? Hmmmm...

Anywhere...here's E's. We made reindeer sandwiches and decorated upside-down ice cream cones like Christmas trees and made reindeer food.






We came home and made reindeer sandwiches for Dalton for lunch:


And the envelope with a gift inside for E's teacher:


Dalton's class party was a p.j. party. How fun! I was a volunteer to help get the party set up so I didn't bring my DSLR...just used my phone so a lot of these are blurry. Oh well.




Dalton and longtime buddy Sam (we met Sam on the first day of Easton's preschool nearly 3 years ago):

Sam won't be going to pre-K with Dalton next year. :(

Dalton and Emery who we've also known forever since she lives across the street:

She'll be there next year and I'll probably drive her home most days since I won't have half-day'er Easton with me at pick up anymore. :(

Dalton, Sam, and Holton:

Holton will also be there next year.

Dalton's candy cane he made to go along with the made up candy cane story to try to make it about Jesus:


And D with Mrs. M:

She loves Dalton. She thinks he's such a funny kid (and he is!)...but she really seems to get a kick out of him. Most people do.

Jason and his FJ Cruiser really got into the spirit this year as well:


And we did our annual gingerbread house. Actually we didn't. The kids did with Jessica, Janna, and Caise. They did us a huge favor by babysitting our crew so we could go to the worship band Christmas party. The date was changed sort of last minute and our usual sitter (Gramoo) had other plans or had just babysat for us or something (of course I forget more than 6 months later). Anyway...it was something fun for Jess and Janna to do with the smalls:








Pretty soon it was Christmas Eve. The boys showed me how there were no more chocolates in their advent calendars:


And we went to the annual Christmas brunch that Gramoo does. Yum!


We do a white elephant exchange with all the extended family and Easton ended up playing with the Floam someone opened:


I know we opted not to attend the Christmas Eve service at church this year. And I have absolutely no clue what we ended up eating for dinner on Christmas Eve. But each kid was allowed to open one gift that night as has always been our tradition (even Little Kristin's tradition, too):


Autumn opened her Baby Alive Bouncin' Babbles doll although the entire family actually calls her "Baby Foofypants":


Dalton opened Buzz Lightyear Operation:


And Easton opened his VTech KidiJam Studio which we decided to get him last minute sort of on a whim feeling like he needed something more:

It has been a really fun toy to have around.

So we must've eaten...and from the pictures we played with their new stuff for a bit:






Then we must've done jammies and got things ready for Santa...we put the reindeer food Easton made at school out on the lawn. And Dalton tried his best to carry out a bowl of water for the reindeer:


We put some snickerdoodles on a plate for jolly ol' St. Nick:


Easton wanted to change it up for Santa and gave him chocolate milk...

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......and.........
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a hard boiled egg:

E knows he doesn't feel his best when he eats too much sugar. He knows he needs to balance it all out with some protein. He can only assume Santa is the same.... :)

And then the children got nestled all snug in their beds. Next post will be Christmas, I guess!