December 22

A sweet invitation from friends made todays advent extra special. We went to the Hensleys for movie time popcorn and hot chocolate! And were surprised with some really sweet and thoughtful gifts! We love the Hensleys!!!

December 21

Woah! What a day! We spent the entire morning at a wrestling tournament and Rollin got to wrestle in his first real match. Then Thadeus had a wisdom tooth extracted and we came home to a big box full of goodies from Mimi and Pawpaw! The boys had so much fun opening gifts from them which included pocket knifes, lanterns and family games! So we followed that by having family game night. Mouse Trap was a huge hit with these boys!!

December 20

The boys had a lot of fun receiving a package from their Nanna and Poppa today. It had twix caramel popcorn and all the necessities to make sugar cookies and decorate them. Including cookie cutters! hmmmm................. Santa cookies??

December 19

Well I had a fun blindfold game planned for this day but the time seems to be speeding up as we get closer to the holiday. We had a fun busy day and before I knew it boys were in bed and we never picked the calender.

December 18

While we were having lunch today Thadeus came out of the bedroom wearing a Santa suit and passed out candy canes. Then we put candy canes all over the Christmas tree.  They were very excited about it all.

December 17

It was a great school day, which is worth mentioning since every day is not but today was and I am grateful  for that! Then we headed to the gym for a workout and some family swimming. It was so fun because Rollin realized he could lift me up in the water and he got so tickled. It was precious! I told him all those corn dogs must have made him really strong. Then we headed home and began our advent a little late, still it was fun. We made home made dog biscuits for our sweet Koda and John Wayne,  Christmas gifts of course. It was pretty comical because we tried to keep it a secret from Koda and so we talked in code about it all day.

December 16

9 days until Christmas and this is what they read "It's Holiday fun! Who needs a bun? We will eat our dogs on a stick. You'll have to chew, not just lick! xoxox"  And some how they guessed that we where having corn dogs but their eyes almost popped when I told them we were making them. Some good friends joined us for a fun evening and the corn dogs where good, but the next day I perfected the batter. I don't know what it is but making corn dogs from scratch makes me giddy. They boys raved about them and Rollin suggested that we start up our own corn dog stand. They were so good, I actually pondered it for a bit. We also made cheese on a stick which is delicious! So these photos are from the second go and the perfected corn dogs!

December 15

Oh what a great evening. We had "party food" which consisted of green and red tortilla chips with a lentil and bean dip. Popcorn, which I attempted to make green and red as well. I tried to dye the kernels with food coloring and it looked promising but when they popped there was hardly a trace of color. There was also a veggie tray and pretzels. But the highlight, by far was the IBC root beer straight from the glass bottles. My heart was warmed with multiple "thank you's" and even a "your the best mom ever"  and exactly three hugs!  Then we watched "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" which is Fantastic and one of my favorite family movies these days. We even had time for a couple of card games after.

December 14

That's right we finally made those ginger bread cookies!  what a fun mess, and I stress the mess! It is amazing what three little boys can do to a project like this in the time it takes to open a bottle of wine!  I told the boys to only roll their dough out to about a quarter inch thick, Tucker chimes in with "uh oh, mom this one is only a dime thick." Mr funny pants, I didn't hear him the first time so he repeated himself "mom is this okay? It's only a dime thick?"

Then because the cookies were actually a make up from the other day we also played hot and cold, which seems to be their new favorite game. I hid for each of them a new Christmas animal ornament.

Down by the lake

Time in the woods

A little pre-hike monkey business

                                                                 A little pre-hike fuel

                                                       And the much needed time in the woods.

December 13

Well we have had a very busy day. The boys had their first ever choir concert! It was adorable and entertaining and our special event for the advent was to meet up at our dear sweet friends the Hensley's' for a pre-show dinner. It was lively and fun!

December 12th

Ugh. Mom fail day, We picked the calender late in the evening and were supposed to make gingerbread cookies but I was tired, kids were tired, Thad was just walking in the door from hunting all day and I just couldn't cope. The boys were sad and mad with me, so gingerbread cookies have been postponed. We will do it soon, and I will take lots of pictures.

December 11th

Christmas Story time with Daddy! 

Thankfully Thadeus picked up the slack because I was not feeling well. I think he actually sang the story to them. :)

vitamin tea

So, this morning I made the boys raspberry zinger herbal tea. I even put a little sugar in it and the boys enjoyed it. But I could not leave well enough alone, so I added a berry flavored vitamin fizzy drink. Then I asked Fynn what he thought. "Do you like it?" I asked. He took a drink and turned to me and said "It's hot, very hot but good, but hot. It taste good but then when I swallow it, when it gets to my throat, (insert gagging face here) not so good. And HOT!"

December 10th

Well I had intended to go to breakfast with Santa and the boys today but the breakfast was cancelled. So as the last bit of our day was winding down and we had not yet "picked the calender" I came up with a very quick plan. I cut out three little green Christmas trees out of construction paper, taped them each to a piece of chocolate and while the boys weren't looking I hid them in the living room. Then We played "Hot and Cold". Fynn had a hard time figuring this game out but after watching Rollin he was much better. Tucker was quick! A little too quick!

December 9th

No photos of this event. We had a quick breakfast from a restaurant this morning on our way to choir practice. That is all.

December 8th

We took a break from the Christmas Festivities to celebrate Thadeus' Birthday.

 Thirty years old! I feel so lucky to have spent all of his twenties with him! Now I look forward to the   thirties. I have a feeling it is going to be fantastic!

December 7th

Tucker tapped me gently on the shoulder this morning as I lay sleeping in bed. I rolled over and he whispered with a smile "there is like this much snow on the ground." From his finger gesture I was trying to picture two inches of white everwhere, but I just had to get up and see it for myself. As I made my way down the hall I saw a naked flash then Fynn turned and came back to me and said "Mom you gotta see this" and he lead me to the back door...............later we got some warm clothes on him.

I can't say for sure, but I think when most kids play in the snow they come back cold and maybe a little wet. My kids come back with a bucket of grubs. And of course you can't go grub collecting without getting entirely covered in mud! I just can't get used to these "southern winters". When I was growing up winter was frozen through and through, through enough you could drive a truck out into the middle of the lake. Here under the beautiful layer of snow there is an even thicker layer of mud and apparently grubs!

So after a long day of playing, Chiropractor appointments, workouts at the gym and a little super last minute birthday shopping, and getting stuck in a traffic jam, I let the boys stay up much past their bed time to we could fulfill our advent for the day which was to make white chocolate covered pretzels.  We added green and red holiday sprinkles and I think they did turn out well. It proved to be an easy and super fun thing to do with kids! We may make them again for Santa.

And now, now it is nearly 11pm and my kitchen is piled high with dirty dishes and the floor is covered with sprinkles and tiny muddy shoes and what not and I am headed back in there to clean it because I must make a beautiful home made apple pie. For the love of my life turns 30 tomorrow and I will not fail him in this simple pleasure I know I can deliver. But  I absolutely cannot, will not, make a home made  apple pie with an old family pie crust recipe and fresh crisp apples in a dirty kitchen. So first I clean!

December 6th

Our Tree is naked! Oh My! Oh No! Lets dress is up and make it glow!

December 5th

For the fifth of December we played a couple of family card games, read "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey" and Thadeus gave the boys their first taste of egg nog.  They loved it!

December 4th

I thought it would be fun to add a couple of Christmas movies to the collection, I'm not sure they agree.

December 3rd

Paper snowflakes.............................

December 2nd

We brought home a beautiful tree.........................

December 1st

December 1st!! As children.........well I guess until we moved out, December first was a day to look forward to.  I remember waking up to the record player and my parents singing Christmas songs as they marched into our bedroom to serve us breakfast in bed. Then we had a fun filled advent calender with something special for every day of the month. So finally I have started this tradition with my boys. The calender is nothing special or fancy by any means but it does the job! 

The boys almost always beat me out of bed so I kind of knew I wouldn't be waking them up with a serenade. Instead we played Christmas music in the kitchen and made Santa cakes! The boys all had jobs to do as we made a batch of red pancake batter and a batch of green pancake batter. Then they each got to make their own pancakes and flip them! Of course we topped them with real maple syrup and snow (powdered sugar).

family marbles

Family game of marbles.