Day 13: Whoops! We missed a day. We were so busy all day long!
Day 14: Make a homemade ornament for the Christmas tree. I found these little CD ornaments on Pinterest and I already had all the material. Perfect. Elliott loved painting them and gluing all the pieces on. And she has played with them everyday since.
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| Putting on his buttons. |
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| Hanging them on the tree. |
Day 15: Race to see who can eat a candy cane the slowest. This was pretty hilarious. We didn't do a whole candy cane because it was right before bed. So we each took a piece. Elliott was on track to beat me (she eats candy so slow) but then frantically started saying, "yucky candy cane, too spicy" and ran and spit it in the trash can. Apparently they aren't here favorite. Haha.
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| Haha. Elliott's fake smile. |
Day 16: Share a favorite Christmas memory. Elliott just sat on the kitchen floor for this one and she listened to me intently as I shared with her some of my favorite Christmas memories from growing up and from the past couple years. I love telling her stories and seeing her sweet little face looking up at me.
Day 17: Give service. This year for my sibling gift exchange we did service for someone instead of buying gifts for each other. Our family decided to put together a care package for a close friend of mine with Christmas gifts, scripture references and conference talks to uplift. It was a great service activity.
Day 18: Play a game. This was Morgan and Jenn's last day in Provo before their big (final) move to South Carolina. I went over and watched the kids for a couple hours while they did some final cleaning on the house. We played hide and go seek and made up all sorts of fun games while we played in an empty room.
**The rest of these activities weren't necessarily done in this order. We just squished in as much as possible while grandma was here**
Day 19: Go out for a special treat. This wasn't so much family as a date night for Josh and I. My mom babysat the girls so Josh and I could go out and grab some ice cream at ColdStone. Yum! Thanks mom. (Josh also realized he was hungry so we swung by SLAB Pizza for some delicious pizza too.)
Day 20: Build a snowman. On Christmas Day Provo got dumped with snow. We got about 6 inches in one night. It was magical. So after dinner we went outside and built a snowman. He even had a carrot nose! He was adorable. We wanted to make a huge one but the snow was so powdery that it didn't pack very well. We also went sledding on a little hill next to our complex. Elliott loved sledding. She was so brave. She went down multiple times all by herself, including a couple times on her belly.
Day 21: Make a gingerbread house. I picked up a kit at Target before my mom got here and we put it together as a family. Let's be real, Elliott was mostly interested in eating all the candy. But she loved putting the frosting on and sticking on the candy. She was pretty cute.
Day 22: Watch a Christmas Movie. On Christmas Eve we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and after sledding on Christmas day we watched The Muppets Christmas Carol. The original grinch was so cute. It had been years since any of us had seen it.
Day 23: Go see the lights at Temple Square. (Dec. 27) On the Saturday after Christmas we finally got up to Temple Square. Kendal and Matt met us up there, which was awesome. The lights were absolutely stunning (as always). Josh had to work that night, which stunk, but we made the best of it. It was less than 20 degrees that night so we bundled up really warm and enjoyed the beautiful lights with some hot chocolates. We went up to the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building to see the lights from above which was really cool. I had never done that before.
Day 24: Make Christmas cookies. On Christmas Eve, Kendal brought sugar cookie dough over and we made cookies and decorated them. Elliott loved decorating the cookies and using the sprinkles. Then we picked out a few to leave out for Santa that night.
I am completely obsessed with this Christmas countdown! It was so much fun this year! And I can't wait to do it year after year from here on out.
Day 17: Give service. This year for my sibling gift exchange we did service for someone instead of buying gifts for each other. Our family decided to put together a care package for a close friend of mine with Christmas gifts, scripture references and conference talks to uplift. It was a great service activity.
Day 18: Play a game. This was Morgan and Jenn's last day in Provo before their big (final) move to South Carolina. I went over and watched the kids for a couple hours while they did some final cleaning on the house. We played hide and go seek and made up all sorts of fun games while we played in an empty room.
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| The house was empty so we had to get creative. Kate is washing Kitty Jane's fur. |
Day 19: Go out for a special treat. This wasn't so much family as a date night for Josh and I. My mom babysat the girls so Josh and I could go out and grab some ice cream at ColdStone. Yum! Thanks mom. (Josh also realized he was hungry so we swung by SLAB Pizza for some delicious pizza too.)
Day 20: Build a snowman. On Christmas Day Provo got dumped with snow. We got about 6 inches in one night. It was magical. So after dinner we went outside and built a snowman. He even had a carrot nose! He was adorable. We wanted to make a huge one but the snow was so powdery that it didn't pack very well. We also went sledding on a little hill next to our complex. Elliott loved sledding. She was so brave. She went down multiple times all by herself, including a couple times on her belly.
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| It was chilly! |
Day 21: Make a gingerbread house. I picked up a kit at Target before my mom got here and we put it together as a family. Let's be real, Elliott was mostly interested in eating all the candy. But she loved putting the frosting on and sticking on the candy. She was pretty cute.
Day 22: Watch a Christmas Movie. On Christmas Eve we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and after sledding on Christmas day we watched The Muppets Christmas Carol. The original grinch was so cute. It had been years since any of us had seen it.
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| Playing games on Christmas Eve |
Day 24: Make Christmas cookies. On Christmas Eve, Kendal brought sugar cookie dough over and we made cookies and decorated them. Elliott loved decorating the cookies and using the sprinkles. Then we picked out a few to leave out for Santa that night.
I am completely obsessed with this Christmas countdown! It was so much fun this year! And I can't wait to do it year after year from here on out.
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