Christmas Countdown Part 1

Two years ago my sister made this amazing Christmas Countdown for us. I'm obsessed with it. There are tons of great activities to pick from and I can look at the calendar and arrange the activities how I want before putting it together. It's perfect. We tried to do it last year, but Elliott was still a little too young. But this year, it has been perfect.

**This post was getting too huge so I decided to split it into two parts. Days 1-12 and days 13-24. Enjoy!**

Day 1: Make a red and green paper chain. Elliott is obsessed with waking up and ripping a link off the chain. I don't think she quite gets that it's counting us down to Christmas, but she still loves it.

Day 2: Buy and decorate a Christmas tree! See this post. 

Day 3: Write a letter to Santa. This was adorable. We are still trying to teach her the point of Santa. She gets that he flies around but she is still trying to understand that he brings presents. We're getting there. But her letter was hilarious. She didn't want to ask for anything at first. She just wanted to tell him all the things she likes. So cute. 

Day 4: Visit the Festival of Trees. This was one that wasn't included in my sister's list, but we added this year. This was Josh's day off so we went up to the festival with Morgan and Jenn and their kids. It was beautiful. People and companies donate trees and then they do an auction and you can bid on the trees. All the money goes to charity. And then you can walk through and look at all the trees. They were beautiful! After walking around the festival we went to The Habit for dinner. It's a cheap, yummy burger place! Then we went to what they call the "tree of life" in Draper. It's just a big willow tree that they wrap with lights. They literally wrap every branch! It was huge and amazing. What a fun day.

Before we left for the festival, I took the girls outside because it was like 60 degrees. It was gorgeous. Elliott was adorable.

Way too bright for pictures, mom.

Sleepy babies on the way to the festival.

Such a fun display. Grinch butt.

Talk about impressive gingerbread house!

Running to the tree.

It's hard to tell, but that's Elliott and I.

Day 5: Make paper snowflakes. Elliott wasn't at interested in this as I'd hoped, but she did make one and then enjoyed watching me make them. Then we taped them up in her window. She loves looking at them.

Day 6: Call Grandma and sing Christmas carols to her. Elliott's favorite carol is Jingle Bells. She was so excited to call her grandmas and sing to them. Neither grandma answered but we left messages. Of course as soon as the beep went off, she got really shy and wouldn't sing. Haha. We did end up singing to my mom later that day though.

Day 7: Read Luke 2. We did this one on Sunday. It was so sweet. Josh would read a verse and I would paraphrase it for Elliott. When we told her about the manger for baby Jesus and how animals eat out of those, she got concerned that the animals were going to eat baby Jesus. Hilarious. But she was really excited to learn the story and paid really close attention as I described it to her. So sweet.

Day 8: Dance to Christmas music. Elliott was being a bum and refused to dance, so I scooped her up and swung her around and it wasn't 2 seconds before she had a huge smile on her face and was giggling like crazy. She's adorable. So we danced together. It was a blast.

Not in the mood. Haha.

A little bit of twirling.

Action shot.

Love her.

Day 9: Make a treat. I totally forgot we had to make a treat this day, so the only thing I had everything for was Rice Krispie Treats. And the best part? Elliott only ate half of one piece. I got the rest! Yum! Talk about yummy and easy.

We just made a small bowl of treats otherwise I would have eaten a whole pan. Let's just not.

Day 10: Read Christmas stories. On this day, Elliott and I just read Christmas books all day long. We have about 20 Christmas stories and 20 snow books. (I didn't buy all these. I get used books from my mom on a regular basis and from other people as well!) It was a fun day full of Christmas!

Day 11: Draw Christmas pictures with crayons. Elliott decided to draw a Christmas tree and a picture of Santa. Adorable. It was perfect because that night we went to Kneaders and saw Santa! Elliott's reaction was the best! When we pulled up, Santa was standing outside waving to the cars and people. While we were still in the car, she spotted him and started screaming at the top of her lungs, "SANTA, SANTA!" As soon as I unbuckled her, she ran towards him screaming and gave him a huge hug. It was seriously the cutest thing ever. Then we went inside and met up with Jacob and Valerie and their boys for dinner. It was such a fun night.

Running to Santa. I was chasing her with my camera but I missed most of it. Including the hug. Bummer!!

Going in for the hug!

Telling Santa her name.

They are the cutest!

Cuties!

Sisters and Santa.

Elliott seriously loved him.

Day 12: Drink hot chocolate by the light of the Christmas tree. This was one of my favorite activities. We waited until after dinner and bath so we were in our jammies and it was dark outside. Elliott was so happy and kept saying, "mommy, I love you." She does that when she's really happy. I love it. So we sat on pillows sipping our cocoa in the light of the tree. 

To be continued . . .