Christmas Plans

So, I LOVE Christmas, and I USUALLY totally over commit myself, and set myself up for failure and exhaustion (is anyone surprised at this?) This year, I’m hoping to keep it fun and my plans realistic. (For example, in years past, I would have a gingerbread house party, making parts for 8-10 gingerbread houses and having friends over to decorate them. This year, I’m keeping it real and just making one or two with my boys).

All I Want For Christmas

I’m going to make a list of the stuff I really like to do with the kids, but it’s looking a little bare…do you have any fun family activities you’d like to share so I can make the list longer?

  1. Trim the tree
  2. Make new wreath
  3. Make new garland
  4. Make Christmas cookies
  5. Make gingerbread houses
  6. Watch The Grinch (original, none of this Jim Carrey stuff)
  7. Liam’s holiday concert
  8. Watch Rudolph
  9. Trombone Christmas Carols
  10. Christmas eve tradition: watch A Christmas Story

I’m learning how to import and add widgets to my blog…the 1st thing I’m tweaking is the category clouds. I love the 3-d one (that says “I’m Babbling About” at the top), but it requires flash to work – did you have any problems with it? Do you find it annoying?

6 Responses

  2. Hey, I have a Liam, too! Of course he was only half of the egg, so he has a twin named Brendan! Mine are Liam Michael and Brendan Joseph. Liam has a son named Michael Liam, and Brendan’s son-to-be, due in February, will be Brendan John. I would have preferred they worked hard like I did and think up new names, but I guess that means they like their names.

    At the holidays, we always did “gingerbread” houses, but we used graham crackers instead of baking the gingerbread. With 7 kids, I didn’t have the time or the energy……lol. In 1983, when I was pregnant with my youngest, I had become a stay-at-home mom, and tried to do more crafty things with the older kids. I made stamps out of potatoes and made wrapping paper out of a big roll of butcher paper. They liked it for a while, but lost interest and wanted to go out to play. I also made ornaments with them – this they were really into – by (1) filling a bucket about 3/4 of the way full with water and then you (2) spray regular spray paint in whatever colors you like, one or more colors on the surface of the water; you (3) take plain, clear glass ornaments that you have taken the tops off of, and insert a dowel or paper tube/cone into the top and tape it to hold and (4) dip the ornament in the water and then as you pull it out, swirl it around. They look really pretty and if you sprayed them with some kind of top coat after they dried, they would probably last forever! Mine lasted quite a while before they lost the paint, but I didn’t do the top coat. I got this idea from Sunset magazine.

    If you like pies as much as I think you do, I have some peanut butter pie recipes you might like. One of them is like pecan pie. It is yummy!! The others are varying kinds. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll send them to you. I also got them in 1983, when I was pregnant. I must have been ‘nesting’.

    I love the pictures of your kids and their friends!

    😎 Linda

  3. I LOVE ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS!
    When we were kids every year we would play robber bingo. Everyone brings a couple of wrapped gifts (good or gag gifts) and then you play bingo. each time someone wins in any way, they get to pick a gift, or steal one from someone. We never had a limit on how many times you could steal a gift, so it can go on for quite some time. I loved this because we had a tongue scraper that went around for a few years, and we have an on-going chapstick joke, haha. You can easily adapt this to any game the kids like to play, and its fun for all ages!

    I also love making candy, which was such a novelty to me as a kid. Making caramels is super easy and delicious, and I have a great recipe if you want it 🙂 I might try making candy canes this year, I’ll let you know how that goes!

    We also used to walk around my grandma’s neighborhood and sing christmas carols. caroling is such a lost art, i think. one year we had a family go get guitars and sing feliz navidad back to us. it was fun 🙂

    that’s all i can think of right now 🙂 Merry Christmas!

  4. I can only think of one thing to add – we usually made a birthday cake for Jesus. I don’t think your cloud is working for me.

  6. Your list is way longer than mine! We may visit a local nativity display, just need to figure out when we can go when 4 kids won’t be overwhelming . . . serious 😉 Elf is a new family favorite we’ve watched it twice this month already!