{Christmas Countdown}

December is HERE!!!!

The official countdown to Christmas has begun! I must admit, this is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love decorating the house, singing Christmas carols, and watching ALL of the Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel and ABC family. I love driving around different neighborhoods in hopes of finding houses full of lights and taking the kids to visit Santa. I love the nights when we sit around the table playing Christmas games and drinking hot cocoa as a family.

This year we started some new traditions. Now I know that today is Thursday and that some of you look forward to our weekly link up with {Embrace the Camera} but today I am changing things up a bit. In honor of December 1st and the official start to the Christmas countdown, I thought I’d share some of the “happenings” that are taking place in our home.

First and foremost:

Over Thanksgiving break, Kalyssa and Travin were given individual projects to complete.

Travin had to create his very own snow globe. Although he loves to draw, arts and crafts really aren't his thing. So, I was really surprised at how excited he was about doing this project all by himself.

Kalyssa had to dig deep in order to come up with a creative plan. Her project required a bit of originality, some imagination, and even a few brain sprinkles. The 2nd grade wing is putting together a Who-Ville project in honor of Mr. Grinch.

“I know he’s mean and hairy and smelly. His hands might be cold and clammy, but I think he's actually kinda... sweet.”

Because,

He puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! “Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!”

The project consisted of creating a Who-Ville person that represented Kalyssa and writing a paragraph answering one question, “What does Christmas mean to me?”

After some brainstorming and a few of her own questions, this was how she answered her question:

The final step was to create "Kalyssa from Who-Ville"

I mentioned that we started some new traditions this year.

This year we decided to scour our bookshelves to find any and all Christmas books that we have collected over the years. Our goal was to have 24 different stories. I wasn’t sure if we would meet that goal but the kids split up and tackled every bookshelf in our house. By the time they were done, we had a pile of books in the middle of the living room floor. Bryanna counted them and if I remember correctly we ended up having 30 different Christmas books! Don’t laugh (or judge), I have mentioned a time of two my obsession with books. Point proven! (=

Anyhow, our mission was to wrap each book and stick it under the Christmas tree. Each night the kids take turns sliding under the tree to pick out a wrapped book. They unwrap the surprise book of their choice and then we get to read a new story as a family. PRETTY FREAKIN’ AWESOME…RIGHT?!?!?! I can’t even begin to describe the excitement that leads up to this moment every night. The kids absolutely LOVE IT!!!

The day after Thanksgiving I had a few helpers in my living room wrapping all of the books for me. I must admit, I could get used to seeing these little faces doing this every year. They were all so excited about their task!!

These are the books that we read this week. We started on Sunday (because we had a few extra books). One book has 4 stories in it so we had to break it up into two nights. I’m sure we could have sat through all 4 stories because it is Jan Brett after all but, we decided to say some prayers and tuck in early instead.

One last thing:

This morning we had a little visitor waiting for us when we woke up.

We have a new addition in our family and her name is Ella. Ella is one of Santa’s scouts. If you have never heard of the scout known as Elf on the Shelf, you can read all about the tradition here.

The kids were very excited to meet Ella. They couldn’t believe all that she did and they are pretty sure that we have a very special new addition to our family. Kalyssa and Travin were especially excited to read the letter that Santa sent.

We hope that you will check back with us from time to time as we continue our countdown to Christmas because I’m pretty sure that we will have some mischievous acts to share. After all, Santa did say that Ella can be a very tricky elf!!