Hello mid-December! Where has the month gone?
I cannot believe that my kids are out of school for Holiday Break starting this Friday. I might pull my hair out by the start of January! I try to plan a few fun & local activities for us to do as a family over their break. Between that, our daily advent calendar and the holiday itself, we tend to stay fairly busy. And guess what? If my few chosen activities don't make the cut with my kids, there are plenty more for us to check out on the Macaroni Kid Colorado Springs "Event" tab, which should do the trick of having fun & wearing them out.
Our family has stayed busy this month with our daily advent calendar, so far 1-14 have been hits! I asked my kids this morning which gift they've liked the most so far. Miles said his personal Yeti ornament, Elle enjoyed building the gingerbread house and Ava was asleep in the car on the way to school so no answer from her. My favorite and funniest was our Family Spa Night. We were laughing at each other with face masks on. We looked like we came straight out of a horror movie!
We have baked four different types of cookies so far this month; gumdrop cookies, chocolate chip, Reese's Pieces and sugar cookies (which were the best sugar cookies I've ever made by the way). We've made so many that we've started shipping them to family and I wrapped some up and dropped them off on our neighbor's doorstep. This weekend I'm attending a cookie exchange and let me tell you... this is now called the Cookie Diet! I love the idea of exchanging treats because I can try all of the different ones without creating a catastrophe in my own kitchen. When we bake here at home, I think my kids just throw the sprinkles up in the air leaving an interesting concoction of ingredients on the bottom of my feet by the time we're done. And my help quit half-way through leaving me begging my husband for his hand in the kitchen.
Have you ever tried making ugly Christmas sweaters? Who would've thought that it would be such a trend that you could buy NEW and not quite ugly sweaters at stores? Run into Target and they're right there! I couldn't do it, buy a NEW ugly sweater. I feel like that kind of defeats the purpose so when my 12 year old had an ugly sweater dance a week ago and my other two kids seemed interested in crafting, I ran to a couple thrift stores and bought some simple supplies. My 10 year old even made some holiday decor for her dinosaurs! Apparently, my kids like things that hurkalurk because out of three sweaters, we have a reindeer and a Santa throwing up. Happy Chunka-lunka-days!
My son had a Boy Scout holiday party the other night and it was so great watching all of the little guys work as a team to build sleds out of rope, duct tape and cardboard boxes. Funny, at one point, the boys stood like reindeer holding the "reins" as the dads fixed up the sled. The faces they made while pulling their sleds were priceless and I'm so glad to see them all enjoying themselves.
I hope you all have a wonderful week before Christmas is here, when your kids get home and snoop around the house for gifts and act like they're dying of boredom! Happy Holidays!
Nicole
