Countdown to Christmas - Day 1213141516

I've totally dropped the ball on this. Sorry boys. I wanted to have this Christmas holiday all written down, pictures taken, thoughts explored. Instead, we've been busy busy busy doing a ton of things, but not exactly what we were "supposed" to do.

Here are just a few random pictures from the past few days.

Here's my sweetheart of a child Beckett, playing in the sunlight.

He can't get enough of the outdoors!

Making a Christmas craft!


Stealing a marshmallow while making rice krispie squares for his concert tomorrow.

Licking butter? Fancy his new haircut?

Countdown to Christmas - Day 9, 10 and 11

Preface: We aren't exactly following the activities I had laid out. We're adding some, deleting others. Doing all this with a baby is sometimes challenging, so I do the things I can on the days they are both cooperative and willing to help a mommy out :)

Day 9 - trip to the library to pick out Christmas books and listen to Christmas stories!

It didn't exactly turn out as it should have. Instead of Christmas books we got digger books (surprise surprise). And we listened to Christmas stories but the woman reading the stories had her knickers in a knot and kept getting discouraged because the kids were loud, not paying attention, running around, laughing etc... Honestly, what did you think lady? You're reading stories to toddlers! So that kind of put me in a foul mood so I encouraged Carson to run around some more. I was sitting out of the circle with Beckett (he was kind of yakking/screeching) because I didn't want to disturb everyone else and she asked me to come sit closer so Carson wouldn't disturb the other kids by doing his own thing. Argh.

Day 10 - visit Santa!

Carson had to be bribed, he's quite leary of all things dressed up (mascots, bears, costumes, clowns, santa clauses - I think he gets it from me, they freak me out). But offer him a candy cane and he's all yours. He didn't necessarily smile, but he sat on his knee. The Santa wasn't super friendly or anything. Sure he said the right words, but not in a super Santa way. Beckett, in total Beckett fashion was happy as anything.

Day 11 - Breakfast for supper!

It was supposed to be dessert for supper, supper for dessert. Instead, we had pancakes for supper and sundaes for dessert. We invited Auntie Carrie, Uncle Rob and the twins over.

Annddd as seems to be normal as of late, I didn't take pictures. I KNOW. What's wrong with me?

I did get a picture for Day 12 - decorating the Christmas tree.

Carson put on all his decorations in one spot. It's so cute. Daddy helped Carson put the star on top of the tree.

Here they are doing the doe-see-doe
Helping Daddy put the star on!

Quite proud of himself
Decorations!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 6, 7 and 8

Day 6: Go get our Christmas tree

Ok, so this year we decided to just buy our tree at Ikea instead of cutting it down ourselves, for lots of reasons. I didn't take pictures as it wasn't as much fun as cutting it down. But the tree it ready to be put up!

Day 7: Visit Grandma and Nono

The boys sat on the rug, in front of the fireplace and watched the Christmas Holiday Train go round and round under Grandma and Nono's tree. Carson could have spent hours doing it. They have a beautiful tree up. Beckett loved it too! Of course, I left our camera at home.

Day 8: Make a gingerbread house

Pretty self-explanatory. Here are some pictures.


We had a HUGE snowstorm here in Ottawa today! And Carson couldn't be happier. He asks to go outside all the time. I have to admit, it's rather hard to go outside with a 4 month old in this weather, so I kept putting Carson out on the back deck and Beckett and I would watch him from inside! It worked like magic, Carson was happier than anything to be outside with his dump trucks and tractors. Then when Daddy got home, he helped him shovel. Then after Beckett went to bed, Carson and I trekked all the way to the bookmobile and stopped at some hills on the way back. I'm sure the winter wonderland thrill will wear off at some point, but until then we will be enjoying it.






And on the B-ray front, we started him on cereal yesterday. He loves it. When I first started Carson on cereal he was nowhere as interested as Beckett is. See for yourself.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 5

Another fail.

Well, the day wasn't a failure at all.

The Christmas challenge was though.

Jeff and Carson went to the wave pool, while Beckett and I did some Christmas shopping. So I don't have pictures from any Christmas activity, but I do have cute pictures of the boys.

Countdown to Christmas - Day 4

Jammy Day!

Nursery school was having jammie day, so I figured it only logical to make it our jammie day too. We had to go to Grandma's for the afternoon, and I didn't want to bring any craft stuff over, so we just stayed in our pjs all day. Well, I should be sure to mention that I'm in my pjs here, but I got changed and it was only Carson who stayed in them all day :)

Countdown to Christmas - Day 3

Big FAIL on my part. We just had so much fun doing other stuff that we didn't get around to it!

Christmas Challenge

I had my original post about the Christmas challenge, but I guess it got deleted somehow. Now that it's already started I can't really remember what I said about it.

The idea came from Andrea over at a peek inside the fishbowl, who thought up this superb idea! I thought it was a great idea, to get the kids excited for Christmas, and a good way to introduce the Christmas season to them, not focusing solely on Christmas Day. I'm sure my ideas will change and evolve as each year goes on and the kids get older, but here it is so far:

I've looked at other lists and borowed some ideas from there too....

1 – Celebrate Carson's birthday. Open up Advent calendar
2 - Write letter to santa and mail it
3- Make a gingerbread house
4 – Make Christmas tree craft
5 – Go get our Christmas tree
6- Decorate the Christmas tree
7 – Make paper snowflakes and hang them on the window
8 – Invite Nono and Grandma for breakfast
9 – Visit Santa at the mall
10 – PJ day! Watch Christmas specials & sing songs
11- make a snowman (if there's snow)
12 - listen to Christmas music and dance (Frosty the snowman song and craft)
13 – Do a Christmas craft
14 - Dessert for supper, supper for dessert
15 – Take a bus ride on an adventure!
16 – Bring Snow in the house to play in a bucket. Put some in the freezer, some in the fridge. What happens?
17 – Make a list of 10 things we are thankful for. Hang it where we can see it on the Christmas tree
18 – Have a hot chocolate date
19 - have a snowball fight
20 - Make Christmas treast & have friends over to eat them!
21- Take a drive to see the Christmas lights
22- Play Christmas hide and seek with a Christmas bear! Can you find him?
23- Make Christmas cookies and bring them into Daddy's work
24- Open a Christmas present (Mom and Daddy get to choose which one)
25 - Spend Christmas Day with family and friends!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 2

Write a letter to Santa Claus.

He dictated, I wrote. Then, he drew. We put it in an envelope and mailed it. He couldn't reach the drop box so I had to lift him up - hence no picture of the actual drop off.