One of my favorite traditions that my husband and I have for our kids is a birthday date in place of a big birthday present. We do like to give them something to unwrap on their birthday, so I also always get them a book. I love this combination!
When my oldest was turning two, we had a four month old as well. I had the idea to take her to the local dinosaur museum (she was very into dinos as a toddler), with just Mom and Dad. She hadn’t had a lot of time with just her parents since the baby had come. We did this in place of a big present and got her a book to unwrap and she loved it! We also loved it, as it meant making memories with her for her birthday and reducing how much stuff we were bringing into the house.
Now that we’ve had our final birthday of the year (for the kids anyway), I wanted to share what we did for each child’s birthday date and what book/s we ended up getting them!
Parker
Birthday date: Cereal Party watching a favorite TV Show
Book: Game Over by Benjamin Bird
The book we gave Parker is a short little one (I think it has three chapters in it) called Game Over. She found this book on her Kindle when we had the free trial of Kids Kindle Unlimited and loved it. She would read it over and over again until the free trial ended and then she missed it, so I thought it would be the perfect book to buy her.
All of our kids ended up choosing lower-key dates this year, which ended up being perfect as we are juggling older kid traditions with our new baby (I tried giving them each a different option, but this is what they wanted and we weren’t going to complain).
There is a little bit of back story with Parker’s desire for this date–when her older sister turned 10, we started doing a late night movie night with her each week after her siblings are in bed. Parker has been very jealous of that and can hardly wait until she’s ten to join. This date was a way for her to do a movie night like that a year early and she loved it.
For the show, we let her watch Leverage with us. Leverage is one of our favorite shows where we got Parker’s name. We’ve talked about the show and shown her some different clips of the character she was name after, so she has wanted to watch it for many years now. She was super excited to watch some episodes with us before she officially turned ten (and before her older sister watched any as well). It made the night even more special to get out cereal (something we usually only eat on Saturday mornings after chores) as the treat.
Rylee
Birthday Date: Cereal Party with special cereal and a movie
Book: Barb the Last Berzerker by Dan Abdo
Barb the Last Berserker is a graphic novel that my kids have checked out from the library many times and loved. Rylee recently got very into them and kept renewing them and rechecking them out (until I decided to buy them for her, then I made her return them). It’s a fun series and I wanted to own them. We got her the first three in a box set.
Rylee wanted to do a cereal party for her birthday date as well, after seeing Parker do hers. I was open to the idea, but we didn’t have a show that would make it special for her the way we did for Parker, so I was worried it would be a bit of a letdown. To make it more special for her, we added a little twist–I took her earlier in the day to the store and let her pick out a new kind of cereal to have that evening. She loved picking it out! It was a hard choice, with so many to pick from, but she eventually picked … Fruit Loops with Marshmallows! For her movie, we watched The Karate Kid, which she loved. It ended up being a very special night together and she was glad she picked it as her date.
Oliver
Birthday Date: Coldstone Cereal and Playing Video Games
Book: Magic Treehouse Graphic Novel and The Princess in Pink: Cat Catastrophe
Each night after scriptures and before I read a novel outloud, Ben reads out a book to Oliver in bed. At the time, they’d been reading through the Magic Treehouse Graphic Novel and the Princess in Black books and loving both. We owned most of both series, but not the newest ones of either, so that’s what I decided to get Oliver for his birthday. He was so excited and loved having Ben read them to him!
For his date, he really wanted to go get ice cream at Coldstone, so he could get blue ice cream with candy in it (one of his sisters brought some home from an activity they went to earlier in the year). We took him to Coldstone while my sister-in-law watched the kids and he got his blue cotton candy ice cream and picked putting gummy bears in it. He also took some home, just like his sister, and couldn’t be happier. Then during Leah’s nap, we took him into the office for the second part of his date–playing video games with Mom and Dad. He loves to play video games, especially on Ben’s Steamdeck, but he is still young enough that he needs a lot of help, so this was the perfect date for him.
Ashtyn
Birthday Date: Play Harry Potter Legacy with Treats
Book: Just Add Magic by Cindy Callaghan + Fun and Easy Crafting with Recycled Material
I bought these same books for her cousin just a month earlier for her birthday, so Ashtyn was excited to match! Just Add Magic is a book I’ve never read, but I’ve heard it’s really cute and it combines cooking with magic–a perfect combination for Ashtyn. She and her cousin are really into crafting, so this crafting book is practical and fun for them.
For her date, she wanted to play video games with treats–it’s her favorite birthday date. Because she did a Hogwarts themed birthday this year, she leaned into the theme and played Hogwarts Legacy. For the treats, I made them “Harry Potter” themed as well (we did things like cream soda for butterbear and pretzels for wands). I even made little notecards for each food to label what it was. We had a lot of fun eating treats and playing through the game together.
That’s what we did for our kids for their birthdays this year! We had a lot of fun helping our kids feel special on their day and making new memories with them. What birthday traditions do you have? I’d love to hear from you the comments below!
A few years ago, I saw the idea on social media of doing a scavenger hunt to find Christmas gifts on Christmas morning. I loved the idea and we adopted it! We already had a tradition of gifting the kids a combined gift that they opened last–we’ve given them things such as a guitar, a Get Out Pass for the year, a nugget couch. Now we hide their combined gift somewhere and they do the scavenger hunt to find it. I knew they enjoyed it, but I didn’t realize how much until one of my daughters picked this tradition as one of her top three favorite Christmas traditions!
I’ve been busy making our scavenger hunt clues and I wanted to share what I’m doing for it this year.
While it’s a scavenger hunt, I like to make the clues escape room-esque. They have different puzzles or hints to figure out at each stop. I do 10 clues, and the first one is always wrapped under the tree and marked for them to open it last.
Here are the clues I’m leaving this year:
Clue 1
Starts: Wrapped under the tree
Leads to: The top of the fridge
For the first clue, I wrote a little silly story that had the key words in it that would lead them to the next place they need to look (“on top of the fridge”). Then I took a piece of construction paper and cut out spaces to show only those words from the story (I held it up to a window and traced the words so I could get it right before cutting). When they open up the clue, they’ll need to align it correctly to see where to go next.
Clue 2
Starts: On top of the fridge
Leads to: A bathroom cupboard
For this clue, I used lemon juice as “invisible ink” and used a q-tip to write the next location on the paper. At the bottom, I give the hint of adding heat (they can use my blow dryer) to reveal the clue. I have never tried lemon juice as invisible ink, so I hope it works like it says it will online.
Clue 3
Starts: A bathroom cupboard
Leads to: Bottom of our exersaucer
This clue will be between the towels in our bathroom cupboard (I’ll make them search for the pieces a little bit). It is just the word “exersaucer” cut into strips, so once they find it, it should be fairly easy for them to put it together.
Clue 4
Starts: Bottom of our exersaucer
Leads to: Cupboard of cups
I am going to tape this clue underneath our baby’s exersaucer toy to make it just a little tricker to find (the kids will have to tip it up to find it). Once they find the clue, they need to connect the dots to spell out the word “cups”. This will lead to the cupboard where we keep our cups, something they’ll need to figure out from the word cups.
Clue 5
Starts: Cupboard of cups
Leads to: Bulletin board
These popsicle sticks have the letters to the words “bulletin board” written on them and then each letter is covered up by a different color. If the kids arrange the colors in the same order as the paper, then the letters will be in the correct order when they remove the colored paper. I will have the pattern paper and the popsicle sticks hidden among the cups in the cupboard.
Clue 6
Starts: Bulletin board
Leads to: Bread machine
I kept this clue simple–a riddle. It will be stuck onto the bulletin board backwards to make it a little harder for the kids to find, and then the kids simply have to figure out what the riddle refers to (I made the riddle pretty easy because I think that will be more fun for them while they are so young).
Clue 7
Starts: Bread machine
Leads to: Front door
This clue will be inside my bread machine and is a simple code for the kids to decipher. They love codes (we make codes for each other all the time) so this will be right up their alley. The code says, “front door”.
Clue 8
Starts: Front door
Leads to: Laundry room
This puzzle is very homemade. I really hope the kids are able to put it together and that they’ll know what it is once they do. I printed off a puzzle and then on a separate piece of paper, I drew a picture of our laundry room. Then I glued the puzzle piece paper and my drawing together and cut out the puzzle pieces. I am not the greatest artist and I think I should have added some color as well so it wasn’t just lines, but I will just have to learn for next time. I’m going to leave tape with the puzzle so they can tape the pieces together as they solve it and I’m hoping that helps them figure out what it is a picture of.
Clue 9
Starts: Laundry room
Leads to: Nativity
This clue is inspired by the scavenger hunts that our library often has in their kids’ area that my kids love to do — they hide little figures (like these elves) around the kids’ area and each figure has a letter and number on it, with the letters spelling out something. I am going to hide these elves around the laundry room and once the kids have found them all, it will spell out “nativity”.
Clue 10
Starts: Nativity
Leads to: Mom’s bed
This final clue will be taped on the back of the nativity pieces. The kids simply have to find each of the four words and then unscramble them. The words will lead them to my bed, where their present will be waiting (the last two years, the scavenger hunt has ended in Dad’s office, so I think the kids will be surprised). This year, their combined gift is a karoake machine, which I think all of them will love. I foresee many fun family evenings with it. I also got them some new magnet blocks to go with the karoake machine because a lot of our old blocks are starting to break or get lost.
So that is our scavenger hunt this year on Christmas morning! It has become one of my favorite traditions on Christmas day. What is one of your favorite traditions? What does your family’s Christmas morning look like? I’d love to hear from you in comments below!
My reading month in November was great! It wasn’t my highest reading month of the year, but I did read a lot and I simply loved so many of the books I read. It was very difficult to narrow down five books for this month (and I may have cheated just a tad).
I read 16 books in November and 5,341 pages, for an average of 334pages per book. I read 12 books by female authors and 4 books by male authors. I borrowed 8 books and owned 8 of the books I read. I read 1 physical book, 6 eBooks, and 9 audiobooks. I read 7 books that are a part of a series, finishing 4 and starting 0, while DNFing 2 series. I read 3 middle grade, 1 young adult, and 12 adult books. I shared 2 read alouds with my kids and read 2 new releases. Of the 33 books on my yearly TBR list, I read 0 books and DNF’d 2, leaving me with 1 unread book on the list. I read 10 five star reads, 3 four star reads, 4 three star reads, and 0 one or two star reads.
Here are my favorite reads from last month!
So True a Love by Joanna Barker
This regency romance mystery is the second in the series, though they can both be read as stand alones. I love this series, I wish there were twelve more! It’s a little cheesy, but super fun to follow the main characters as they solve mysteries together while falling in love.
Death Comes at the End by Agatha Christie
Death Comes at the End is a little bit of a different book for Agatha Christie than usual–it’s more historical, set in ancient Egypt in 2000 BC. For that reason, I was nervous to read it, but I got sucked in and couldn’t put it down. Despite the different setting, it is very much a classic Agatha Christie book, with great characters, amazing set up for a murder mystery that keeps you turning pages, and a twist at the end.
The Love Haters by Katherine Center
The Love Haters is Katherine Center’s newest book and was so fun. Katherine Center always has fun and quirky main characters and this was no exception. While the story got a little silly at times, it did so in the best way possible for a rom com. It was fun and light for the most part, but with a more serious plotline (following body image) to give it a little depth. I loved the family relationships and the healing that took place as well.
Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee
Stacey Lee is one of my favorite authors for historical fiction and I’ve been reading through her backlog. Despite being published quite a few years ago, Outrun the Moon really lived up to my expectations. This has a hate-to-friendship that is very satisfying, a focus on family and grief, and a strong female lead who is so fun to read about. On top of all that, I learned a lot about this time in history, in way that makes the story come alive.
Two Truths and a Murder by Colleen Cambridge
Two Truths and a Murder is the fifth book in the Phyllida Bright series, a series I have been devouring as each book has been released. Phyllida Bright is the fictional housekeeper for Agatha Christie and, taking inspiration from Poirot, solves mysteries as they come up. I love the characters and the mysteries themselves in these books and this one was fun as we went “home” to Mallowan Hall after being in London. I loved seeing Phyllida deal with the drama of managing a household staff again between her sleuthing and her romance.
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Volume 7
So I know I’m cheating by adding in a sixth book here, but I just couldn’t quite narrow it down. I’ve loved The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion and this new volume was just as delightful. I haven’t been able to get to volume 8 because I didn’t read it before my Kindle Unlimited ended, so I’m hoping to get to it soon (and then wait impatiently with everyone else for volume 9 to come out).
Those were my favorite books of November! What were your favorite books last month? Is there a book you recently read and just loved? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
We have a lot of Christmas traditions that I love to do with my kids and as they get older, I know things will get crazier and we’ll probably need to adapt and maybe start changing some of our traditions (which means stopping some old ones as we start new ones). This year, I thought it would be fun to sit down and ask each of my kids what their top three favorite traditions of the season are.
Here are their answers!
Ashtyn
Polar Express Party
Each year, we do a party where we buy a few treats (like chocolate oranges and candy canes), make white hot chocolate, and put on pajamas to watch The Polar Express. I also have some Polar Express tickets that I printed off and laminated a few years ago and we always invite their cousins to come watch with us. It’s very simple for me to set up, but the kids all love it.
Candy Hunt
This is another simple tradition that we’ve been doing for years–we read The Legend of the Candy Cane, which talks about the symbolism of the candy cane and how it relates to Christ, and then I hide a candy cane or two around the house for the kids to each find.
Making Ornaments Every Year
This tradition started the year Ben and I got married–we didn’t have a lot of money, so instead of buying a new ornament, we decided to make one. We’ve done it every year with our kids since and we have many homemade ornaments from grandparents and great grandparents as well for our tree. I love that this is one of Ashtyn’s favorites!
Parker
Polar Express Party
It made me happy that Parker also chose this as a favorite! It’s such a simple tradition, we will definitely be continuing it.
The Combined Gift
It surprised me that Parker picked this one. Every year, we give our kids each one big gift from Mom and Dad and then they also get one combined gift from us to share. We try to make the combined gift a fun one that they can use all year long–we’ve done things like a guitar, a Get Out Pass, and nugget couch. This year, we’re doing a karoake machine.
The Scavenger Hunt Christmas Morning
It was so fun to me that Parker picked this one too! I love this tradition, but I didn’t think my kids cared that much about it. I saw this idea online a couple years ago and loved it, this will now be our third year doing it. I set up an escape room-esque scavenger hunt for the kids to find the last present of the morning (their combined gift). I always have a ton of fun with it, so I’m glad the kids do too!
Rylee
Decorating the Tree
It’s always good to remember that sometimes the simple traditions are the things our kids will remember most.
Opening a Present on Christmas Eve
It’s funny to see how married couples handle bringing together different traditions–Ben was surprised when he found out that we always opened a present on Christmas Eve. To him, that was cheating (you had to wait until Christmas!). We always opened something on Christmas Eve–sometimes pajamas, but sometimes it was something like slippers. The first few years we had kids, I did Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve, but I didn’t love saving them so late. I like getting out the pajamas (and not always buying new pajamas either) at the beginning of the season. What our tradition has now turned into is each family member (Ben and I share) getting a new blanket to open on Christmas Eve. The kids always know it’s a blanket, but there’s still something so special about opening that first present.
Playing in the Snow
Again, the simple traditions are the best.
Oliver
Playing in the Snow
I was very curious what Oliver would remember and talk about, because he’s so young. I love that he remembers playing in the snow together.
Watching Christmas Movies
This one made sense to me, since we had already started watching some Christmas movies this year when I had asked him the question. I am with him—watching Christmas movies is one of my favorite parts of this time of year as well.
Wrapping Presents
Again, we’d already wrapped some when I asked him. Whenever I can, I let him come in with me to wrap and he’s watched Hallmark movies with me while wrapping. I love that he loves to come in and hang out with me.
Mom
I thought I’d add in my top three favorite traditions, since I asked my kids!
Acting out the Nativity
Growing up, we always acted out the nativity on Christmas Eve and helping my kids act it out has remained one of my favorite traditions. It brings such a sweet spirit and really helps me remember the reason for the season on Christmas Eve.
Ninja Elves
When I first married into my husband’s family, they drew names with the siblings and each person got someone else a present. As the siblings all reached adulthood, we decided to forgo getting presents for each other and instead pool that money to give to a local family in need. We often do other things with the money, like a fruit basket, a box of chocolates, or stuffed animals for the kids. Then we let the kids be “ninja elves” to doorbell ditch the money and goodies. One of my favorite parts of this tradition is seeing how my kids, on their own, every single year, get money from their own piggy banks to contribute. To me, that is the true Christmas spirit.
Christmas Tree in the Morning
Remember when I said the simplest traditions can be the best? The same holds true for adults. One of my favorite parts of this season is sitting in front of our Christmas tree in the mornings while everyone else is asleep (I am a morning person anyway and I wake up early everyday leading up to Christmas … it’s a blessing and a curse). It’s so peaceful for me to sit and work on my book or my blog with the lights of the tree in front of me.
Those are my kids’ favorite traditions, according to them! I love the holiday feeling in our home at this time of year and all the traditions we have. What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
Advent calendars and countdowns to Christmas are one of my favorite parts of the holiday. I love the anticipation of Christmas and we always do at least two different countdowns each year.
This year, I have a friend who has been going through a hard time and is facing a more difficult Christmas, so I wanted to do something special for her. We both are big book nerds and had an idea of a gift–a book countdown to Christmas! I am going to gift her 24 individually wrapped books and a treat attached, to unwrap one each day leading up to Christmas.
To start, I got on Thriftbooks to help keep the cost of this more manageable. I went through my Goodreads list to find books I have read over the last few years that I think she’d really like and found some on Thriftbooks. Many weren’t available, weren’t in good enough condition, or were too expensive. I tried to keep the price to about $5 per book and I didn’t go with anything under “very good” condition as I’m gifting the books. This friend loves Thriftbooks and finding books at thrift stores (we often go shopping there together!), so I knew she would be fine with receiving used books.
I also know her favorite treat, so I got on Vitacost and bought the treats in bulk.
I made some tags to go in with the books. On the tags, I wrote down (in red and green, of course) the book title and then a little explanation of what the book was about along with why I personally liked the book so much.
Once all the books arrived, I decided what order I wanted to her to receive them in (the middle ones weren’t as important, but the first and last were more important, and some books were part of a series that I wanted her to unwrap in sequence). I wrapped them each in brown paper and twine, putting the countdown number on the top (24 down to 1). I used these free printable gift tags from Lovely Planner. With the twine, I attached the treat.
Then it was ready to deliver and let her countdown start!
This was honestly one of the most fun things I’ve done for Christmas in quite awhile (and that’s saying something, because we do a lot of fun things for Christmas!).
Do you do any fun countdowns for Christmas? What is a fun, service-oriented tradition you have? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!
It’s that time of year when we are finalizing all our presents for everyone (I like to have it done earlier, but it just wasn’t going to happen this year, on top of the fact that my family wasn’t as on board with deciding what they want for Christmas super early). I love the process of deciding on what we’re getting everyone and buying/wrapping it all almost as much as I love Christmas morning.
Our tradition is to get our kids one big thing (we have a $50 budget for it) from Mom and Dad and then we get them stocking stuffers from Santa (we budget about $100 per stocking). My two older kids know about Santa and my two younger kids don’t. We are doing less for the baby’s stocking this year.
Our oldest girls are 11, 9, and 7. We also have a 4 year old boy and an 8 month old baby.
Here is what we are buying our kids for Christmas!
Ashtyn
Makeup
Ashtyn’s biggest Christmas wish this year is makeup (she just turned eleven), so I got some mascara, eye shadow, lip gloss, and lip stick for her. I also have some face powder that I never use that she wants, so I’m going to give her mine.
Makeup bag
I also thought it would be good for her to have a bag to keep her makeup in and found this cute one on Amazon.
Scissors and Faux Leather
Ashtyn got supplies for making bows for her birthday recently from an aunt and loves it. For her stocking, I picked out some cute new faux leather I think she’ll like and the same aunt had some extra scissors that are nicer that she gave us.
Rubics Cube
The one other thing she is asking for is a rubics cube, and especially a 2X2 rubics cube. I found this combo for not too expensive on Amazon.
Bluetooth headphones
Both Ashtyn and Parker have Kindles and love using bluetooth headphones to listen to audiobooks on their Kindles. Ashtyn’s headphones are starting to break (only one headphone currently works), so I’m getting her a new pair.
Joycons
My grandparents send $25 every year to pick out a gift from them and this year, we’re getting Ashtyn joycons for her Switch that she already has (she currently uses a controller because her joycons broke).
Parker
Switch
For her big gift, Parker wanted us to get her a Switch. We put $50 dollars toward it and she paid the remainder. We found one for $130 on eBay, that came with a charger and joycons.
Nintendo Store Gift Cards
In her stocking, we’re giving her a $20 gift card for the Nintendo eStore so that she can get some games on her Switch (we only own a few physical copies of games). We’ve also picked out a $25 giftcard for her from my grandparents, so she should have enough to get quite a few games that she wants.
Headphones
Something Parker (and Rylee) really want for Christmas this year are headphones they can plug into their school computers (they often use them to listen to music as well). We found these on Amazon for not too much.
Bluetooth headphones
Just like Ashtyn, Parker could use a new pair of bluetooth headphones (you can’t plug headhpones into a Kindle), so she’s going to get some as well in her stocking.
Colored pencils
I bought myself some new colored pencils this year when I did my bullet journal and then we gave them to Ashtyn for her birthday. Both sisters were very jealous, so I think they’ll be very excited to find these in their stockings.
Rylee
Telescope
Rylee has been asking for a telescope for a long time, but we didn’t think we’d be able to get one for her (nicer ones are so expensive and we didn’t want to get one that didn’t work very well). When we were helping clean out Ben’s grandmother’s house recently (she passed away earlier this year), there was a very nice telescope there and her children gave it to us for Rylee’s Christmas. We had already told her it wasn’t something we could do, so she’s going to be beyond excited when she opens it!
Animal Crossing for 2DS
All the girls have a 2DS and both Ashtyn and Parker have Animal Crossing for theirs. They are synced up and will play together, and Rylee wishes she could play with them too. I got the DS Animal Crossing game for her stocking so that she will be able to!
Colored pencils
Just like Parker, I got these colored pencils for Rylee. I know they’ll both be excited to find them in their stockings.
Headphones
Like Parker, Rylee really wants headphones for Christmas, so we’re getting her the same ones, just in a different color.
Oliver
Remote Control Car
Oliver’s big gift this year is a remote control car. I’m really excited for this gift, because I have wanted to give him something like this for a long time, but we were trying to wait for him to be old enough to really enjoy it. This is the year! We found one on Amazon that seems to have a good battery life, has two batteries (so one can be charging while they are still using the car with the other), and doesn’t have frustrating controls.
Spiderman DVDs
Oliver loves superheroes right now and often wants to get superhero DVD’s from the library, but most of them are Marvel movies we don’t want him watching yet. My husband has always loved The Spectacular Spiderman series, so we got the DVD’s for Oliver for his stocking.
Animals
We have just a couple animal figurines that Oliver really loves playing with, so I’m getting him more for his stocking.
Bath Toys
I’m also getting Oliver some new little bath toys, including little boats that I think he’ll really like.
Magnet Blocks
From his grandparents, we’re getting him some new magnet blocks. Magnet blocks get played with all the time at our house, especially by Oliver, but some of them have started breaking. These cost a little more than what my grandparents budget, but his main gift from us cost a little less than what we budget, so it works out in the end.
Leah
Teething Toys
Leah is just reaching the age where she loves to put things in her mouth to play, so her main gift is going to be teething toys. We’re not doing a lot for her, because she won’t know the difference, but we are getting her some things that I’ve been wanting to get her and her siblings would be disappointed if she didn’t get anything.
Snuggly
I am also getting her a little snuggly toy for her crib (she’s almost old enough that I’ll feel comfortable leaving it in there with her).
Wooden toy
From her grandparents, I’m giving her a little wooden activity toy that I think she’ll like. I also think the other kids will play with it some, which is always a win.
Baby treats
In her stocking, I’m planning on putting some baby crackers and yogurt drops. She’ll love it, because she loves food right now!
Combined Gift
Karoake Machine
In addition to one big gift for each child, we also get them one combined gfit (for all the kids to share). In the past, we’ve done things like a Get Out Pass, a guitar, a nugget couch. This year, we decided to get them a karoake machine. I think it’s going to be huge hit because all our kids love singing and we love to do karoake using YouTube as a family as well.
Blankets
We always get out Christmas pajamas early on in the season so the kids can wear them all month long (and we also reuse/pass down our Christmas pajamas). Our traditional Christmas Eve gift is to give each child a new blanket. We always get the Queen sized ones and the kids usually use them in the living room in the mornings or while watching shows.
Stockings
There are also a few things we are getting for each stocking in addition to the individual gifts they are getting.
Outfit
I love getting everyone a new outfit to wear on Christmas Day and for the rest of the winter. This year, I went for comfy and cute. I also got Oliver and Leah a similar outfit.
Coloring Book
Each child is getting a coloring book this year because they all love coloring and these coloring books were too cute to pass up! I got Oliver this ABC one instead because he’s very into letters right now.
Pencil bag
To go along with their colored pencils and coloring books, I got them these cute pencil bags. I got a different color for each girl (I didn’t get Oliver one).
Murdle book
I also got each girl a puzzle book–these are really cool mystery puzzle books that I think the kids are really going to like. I got Murdle ones and a Cluedle.
Thrifted Book
At a recent trip to the thrift store, I also found a book for each child that I think they are goign to like. For $2 or less, I got them each the book for their stocking!
Jerky
We love to put a beef jerky packet into our kids’ stockings. It’s a great way to do a snack that isn’t candy and our kids love these, but usually don’t all get one because of how expensive that would be.
Candy
This year for candy, I let the kids tell me a couple of nicer things that they like rather than getting a lot of smaller candy from the Christmas aisle. I also got some Neco wafers from the dollar store, because their great-grandma who passed away earlier this year always gave them Neco wafers. I think that is going to be a special addition to our Christmas.
Cheetohs
We love the Simply Cheetos and it’s another snack my kids love that isn’t candy!
That’s what we’re getting our kids for Christmas this year! What are you most excited to gift your children this year? Do you love the preparation for Christmas or just endure it? Let me know in the comments section below!
When Leah was first born (she is almost 8 months old now!), I felt like I lost all margin in my life for quite awhile. As she started sleeping a little better at night, I decided I needed to start waking up earlier to get some of that margin back.
I want to make some caveats here, because not everyone’s life is the same and expecting ourselves to keep up with other people’s goals and expectations for themselves when our circumstances are different is simply not fair. My caveats include that I am a morning person, so I’d rather go to bed earlier and get up earlier to do things. My kids have a very consistent sleep routine where they get in bed at 8:30 (they can stay up until 9 reading) and stay in bed (even if they wake up) until at least 7:30, and they all sleep well at night. I waited to start waking up early until my baby was sleeping better at night–if she woke up at 4, I turned off the alarm, and there were times at first when I woke up early to do my own things and had to go nurse her back to sleep instead.
As I’ve been waking up earlier, I’ve gotten into a pretty good routine and I wanted to just share it here (mostly for my own memories looking back on this time).
6:00 am
I wake up, use the bathroom, and jump up and down 50 times. This is something I heard about on Instagram and decided to try. I’m not sure if I’ll keep doing it longterm, but I do like the way it wakes me up in the morning and gets my heartrate up first thing. Then I kneel down and say a short morning prayer.
6:20 am
Open up Google Docs on my computer and work on writing. Right now, that looks like me working on a writing exercise that I’m doing rather than a novel, but eventually I will transition back to novels.
6:30 am
Open up Wix and start working on blog posts. This is my favorite part of the morning and what gets me out of bed. I love my blog and it’s one of the things I do for myself right now when life is so crazy.
7:20 am
I put away my computer (usually reluctantly) and go in the kitchen to make protien hot chocolate for myself, my husband, and my son. I used to make it for the entire family, but our girls wanted a break.
7:30 am
I get the baby and nurse her while I read my scriptures. When I’m finished, I drink my hot chocolate. The other kids come down and get themselves breakfast.
8:00 am
I take a quick shower and start my day while my kids get dressed and start on their chore/school list.
It’s a pretty simple routine! Sometimes I wake up a little later and just have less time to work on my blog (or work on my blog during one of Leah’s naps), but 6:00 is a late enough time for me that I can be consistent with it. I also love how much time it gives me in the mornings before the kids get up. Starting my day this way gets me going for the rest of the day, which helps me feel good about how the days go at this stage of life.
So there is my morning routine! What do you do to start your day feeling good? Are you a morning person or a night person? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I’m wondering where the time went! I love the holiday season, especially as a mother to young kids. Thanksgiving isn’t as busy as Halloween or Christmas for us, which is nice because it gives us a chance to catch our breath, but we do have some traditions that we really love as a family.
Today I am sharing our favorite November/Thanksgiving traditions!
Gratitude Tree
Our gratitude tree is my absolute favorite tradition this time of year! I have a whole post about it here, but in brief, we put a paper tree up on the wall. Each day, every person in the family gets to add a leaf with something they are grateful for written on it. We watch the tree fill up with leaves all month and get to focus on all our many blessings.
Make Butter
I did this years ago with my girls for a homeschool activity and they have asked every single year to do it again. I use this post I found on Pinterest. I take a cup of cream and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and put them in a jar. Then the kids and I all take turns shaking the jar until it turns into butter–you can tell it’s done because the butter becomes a ball in the middle with the buttermilk around it. Then we can talk about the science behind why it turns into butter and enjoy eating the butter on bread!
Dancing Corn
This is another science experiment I did years ago with the kids that they request every year. It’s a super simple and fun one! You put popcorn kernels, water, and vinegar in a jar, then add baking soda. As you add the baking soda, little bubbles appear around the popcorn kernels, making them float to the top. As you watch, the kernels the move up and down in the water, looking like they are dancing.
Handprint Turkeys
Who doesn’t love tracing their hand and making it into a turkey? The thumb is the head, the other fingers become the turkey feathers, and the hand itself is the body. It’s such a simple activity, but my kids love it every year.
Make pie and rolls
The day before Thanksgiving is my baking day! I love making pies and rolls each for Thanksgiving and as my kids have gotten older, I have loved including them in the process and teaching them how to bake. I have a basic pie crust recipe I use every year and then I make at least one (often more than one) pumpkin pie using my great grandma’s recipe and apple pie using a recipe I got from my mom. I also like to make two chocolate pies, one with a graham cracker crust and one with an oreo crust. I keep these pies simple by using whipping cream in pudding mix. This year, I am also trying out a new recipe and making a pumpkin roll cake for any of the kids who don’t love pie.
Watch the parade on TV with Coloring Pages
The morning of Thanksgiving, we relax and get out Christmas coloring pages with the Macey’s Thanksgiving Day parade going on in the background. I finish up any prep work for Thanksgiving. One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is how relaxed a holiday it is for us.
Watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
When my kids get tired of the parade or when it’s finished, we turn on A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I love watching it on Thanksgiving each year!
Make Turkey Hats
Every year, I print off turkey (or pilgrim) hats for the kids to color and wear on Thanksgiving. I like these ones I found on Pinterest.
Dinner with Family
Then, of course, we get together with family to eat Thanksgiving dinner. We almost always do it earlier in the afternoon to make it easier for great grandparents to come. Every other year, we get together with my father-in-law’s family, and on the off years, we do something with just my in-laws at our house. We used to drive out some years to see my family, but we love spending the holiday relaxing at home, so we save those trips for other times of the year now.
Watch Miracle on 34th Street
In the evening, we are ready to just relax again! We have leftover pie and watch Miracle on 34th Street. I love watching this movie on Thanksgiving because the movie itself starts on Thanksgiving. It’s such a cute, heartwarming Christmas movie to start the season off. I like both versions, but the 1947 version is our favorite.
Pie for Breakfast
The next day, we have leftover pie for breakfast! This is everyone’s favorite way to continue Thanksgiving weekend.
Holly Days
Growing up, I always went Black Friday shopping with my mom. While I cherish those memories, it’s not a tradition I’ve continued with my own kids (we don’t live somewhere with great Black Friday shopping anyway and I am almost always pretty much done shopping for Christmas by Thanksgiving). Instead, we attend a local event called Holly Days. They have all sorts of fun activities and food and the kids and I love to go enjoy the day together (and Ben gets to stay home with the baby or napping toddler, which he’s more than happy to do). It’s a fun way to finish off the holiday weekend!
Those are our favorite Thanksgiving traditions! What are your family’s favorite holiday traditions? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
I love Christmas and am so excited that it is coming up! One of my favorite things to do this time of year is plan our family’s annual countdown to Christmas. Each day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have our kids open a holiday-themed children’s book. We read it together and do an activity (I like to have the activities and book correspond as often as possible).
I have spent years building up our library of Christmas books. Thriftbooks has been one of my favorite websites to do this with, and while we were working on our own stash of books, I often utilized our library’s selection for this tradition.
While I start as soon as Thanksgiving is over (that has always been when Christmas “starts” for me, even growing up), it would also be very fun to do this tradition starting on December 1st.
If you want to try a similar tradition with your kids, I’ve made a few free printables to help, including a book list of the Christmas books we are using this year, a list of Christmas activity ideas, and a page to fill out what book and activity you want to do each day, whether you want to start right after Thanksgiving or on December 1. *The page to fill out link will let you make a copy to edit right on your computer, the other links are for printing off.
Here are some other printables (a blank printable calendar and printable chart rather than Google docs) to help you get organized:
Here is my plan for the Christmas season 2025:
Friday, November 28
Book to Unwrap: C is for Christmas by Tonya Skousen Arenaz
Activity: Holly Days
C is for Christmas is a poetic Christmas book with the most beautiful illustrations. I always read it on the first day of our countdown because it covers so much of Christmas. It is the perfect read as we’re anticipating the Christmas season.
Each year, our community has a big event the day after Thanksgiving called Holly Days. They have activities going all day, including free bounce houses, popcorn, hot chocolate, hayrides, and train rides. I love to take the kids for a few hours in the afternoon (when it’s warmest) before going home for movie night. If there aren’t any local activities in your area the day after Thanksgiving, this is a good day to go window shopping and see all the store’s decorations that are up or have pie for breakfast (we often do both of these as well!).
Saturday, November 29
Book to Unwrap: The Mismatched Nativity by Merrilee Boyack
Activity: Make a Paper Christmas Countdown Chain
The Mismatched Nativity is a cute book about a boy who moves to a new place where he doesn’t have friends. A church teacher helps the class befriend the new boy by sharing different pieces of their nativities with him, until he has a full nativity. I love reading this book as we bring out our own nativity and other decorations.
I love having a visual countdown for the kids. I think it really helps them understand how long until the big day. I usually cut the paper strips in advance (we use red, green, and white paper). Then the kids get to pick what pattern they want with the colors and put their own chain together. We enjoy making the paper chain and then we hang them by our back door as a sort of decoration.
Sunday, November 30
Book to Unwrap: The Last Straw by Paula Palangi McDonald
Activity: Draw Service Names
The Last Straw is a book about a family who brings the Christmas spirit to their home by doing secret acts of service for each other, and when they do an act of service, they get to add a piece of hay to the manger for Christmas Eve. There’s a twist at the end that makes me tear up every time I read it.
A few years ago, my father-in-law helped me make a wooden manger for our own secret service tradition. Before that, we used a cardboard box. For “hay”, we actually use felt cut into strips while our kids are young. It was my husband’s idea and every year I’m grateful for it as it is so easy to clean up every time the toddler empties it out.
For our tradition, each family member picks a name out of the hat and does secret acts of service for that person during the week, putting a piece of “straw” in the manger for each act. At the end of the week, we draw new names. My oldest daughter loves this activity every year and is in charge of helping us pick new names each Sunday. The kids love trying to make the manger as full as possible for baby Jesus (who gets laid in the manger on Christmas Eve).
Monday, December 1
Book to Unwrap: Little Blue Truck’s Christmas by Alice Shertle
Activity: Decorate Kids’ Tree
We are big Little Blue Truck fans at our house and my kids love the Christmas one! In the book, Little Blue Truck is delivering Christmas trees to his friends, and it finishes with light up Christmas lights.
I love having a tree for kids in their room. It’s mini and cute and they are allowed to move the ornaments around all they want. We pull out a few “kid” ornaments we don’t want on our tree downstairs for and then spend the morning making paper ornaments to put on their tree.
Tuesday, December 2
Book to Unwrap: Corduroy’s Christmas Surprise by Lisa McMue
Activity: Write Letters to Santa
I have to admit that Corduroy’s Christmas Surprise is not my favorite picture book, but the kids enjoy it and we’ve read it every year since my oldest was a toddler.
I love to pair the book with writing to Santa because throughout the story, Corduroy writes many different letters to Santa. I like to try to get letters to Santa in nice and early, so there aren’t any surprises right before Christmas (which has happened to us before!). This year, I’m going to use one of these letters to Santa templates. Then I’ll put them in an envelope that has their name on it to keep in my folders to look at in the future. On this day, we can also do some Santa themed activities together.
Wednesday, December 3
Book to Unwrap: The Christmas Wish by Lori Evert
Activity: Visit Santa
The Christmas Wish is such a fun book! The story follows a little girl who wants to be Santa’s helper, so she is trying to find him. As she looks, she has a lot of animal friends help her along the way. The illustrations are photographs and really bring the book alive.
Our kids always love to visit Santa. This is one of the activities where we have to be flexible for when Santa visits are available (I think this is the day our church will have them, but if not, we’ll find somewhere else). We also have some Santa-themed activities that we can do, and my kids often like to make a little present or note to take to Santa. My two oldest understand about Santa (it happened a lot earlier than I had wanted) and they still love visiting Santa.
Thursday, December 4
Book to Unwrap: Maple and Willow’s Christmas Tree by Lori Nichols
Activity: Decorate the Christmas Tree
Maple and Willow’s Christmas Tree is a new book we got last year that I love (I also love the original Maple and Willow books)! Maple and Willow are sisters who are so excited to get a real Christmas tree, but one of them might allergic! I love the way the book portrays sibling relationships and the way they work things out together. It’s also the perfect book to read when decorating our tree.
With so many kids, decorating the tree is never a calm activity, but we do try to keep it simple. We turn on Christmas music and let the kids cover the tree with our ornaments while I try to turn off my perfectionism. (Of course, I do change things after the kids are in bed to even out the decorations).
Friday, December 5
Book to Unwrap: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Activity: Polar Express Party
The Polar Express is a classic that we love reading every year! We purposely do this activity on a Friday so that we can watch the movie for movie night. We invite cousins, wear pajamas, and I prepare our own “train tickets” (I actually have them laminated, so we don’t punch them, but I’ve seen many people who do punch their tickets at parties like this). Then we have a spread of treats and hot chocolate while we watch the movie. The kids look forward to this party all year and it’s a pretty simple event to put together.
Saturday, December 6
Book to Unwrap: The Broken Ornament by Tony Diterlizzi
Activity: Make Ornaments as a Family
The Broken Ornament is a story about a boy who wants Christmas to be as big as possible, but in the process, he accidentally breaks his mother’s special ornament. To make things right, he has to learn the true meaning of Christmas (there is “magic” in the book with a Christmas Elf appearing to the boy after he breaks the ornament). I love to pair this one with our tradition of making a new ornament every year.
When I was growing up, my mom bought us all an ornament each year. When Ben and I were newlyweds, we hardly had money for a gift for each other, much less buying things like ornaments. We decided to make an ornament together. My mom gave us the ornaments her grandmothers had made years ago and our tree became covered in beautiful, homemade ornaments. We’ve continued making new ornaments each year with our own children instead of buying ornaments and we’ve made such fun memories together doing so (though I also love other people’s tradition of buying ornaments that have special meaning!).
Sunday December 7
Book to Unwrap: Mortimer’s Christmas Manger by Jane Chapman
Activity: Decorate Gingerbread Houses
Mortimer’s Christmas Manger is a cute book about a mouse looking for a place to belong. With a focus on the nativity scene, a gingerbread house plays a big part, making it the perfect book for our gingerbread house activity!
We have tried many ways of making gingerbread houses from making our own gingerbread to using premade kits to cutting up graham crackers. For us, graham crackers are by far the easiest method. Ben cuts the same pattern out of the graham cracker each year for me. Then I cut a base from a cardboard box, wrap it in tinfoil, and use my great grandma’s frosting recipe (which makes the houses practically indestructible when it dries) to put the houses together before the kids come. Then we dump candy into bowls, get out store frosting for them to decorate with, and let them at it.
We also like to include an upside-down ice cream cone in the “yard” of each house and green (food-colored) frosting to make Christmas trees as well.
Book to Unwrap: Mouse’s Christmas Gift by Mindy Baker
Activity: Make Cookies for Neighbor Gifts
Mouse’s Christmas Gift is a sweet story about a mouse who brings a community together for Christmas. He’s just a small mouse and does just a small act, but his actions have big ripples. I love the community aspect of this story and love to pair it with our neighbor gifts activity.
I love making Christmas cookies and I love doing neighbor gifts, so I make Christmas cookies to gift to neighbors every year. I take the whole day (and usually mix up some cookie dough the day before to chill overnight) and make several batches of several kinds of cookies and then distribute them to gift bags. I like to get out coloring pages for the kids and watch some Christmas movies while I bake. The next day, the kids help me deliver cookies up and down the street.
I usually make green cookies with Christmas M&M’s (I use my chocolate chip cookie recipe and just replace the chips with M&M’s), red chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, peanut butter kiss cookies (rolled in sprinkles), and homemade Oreos with red and green frosting. I make big batches of all of them so I can do about 50 bags to deliver.
Tuesday, December 9
Book to Unwrap: A Christmas Dress for Ellen by Thomas S. Monson
Activity: Ninja Elves
If I had to pick one favorite Christmas book, A Christmas Dress for Ellen would be it. I can’t make it through the book without crying several times. The story is about a destitute family and service that is given to bring them a Christmas miracle. I love reading this book as an introduction to talking to my kids about the way we give to a family in need.
One year, my husband’s family decided that we didn’t want to exchange gifts and wanted to instead use the money to help a local family in need. After I read the book with the kids, we talk about the specifics of the situation of the family we chose to help and the way they were helping them (in giving up extra gifts they didn’t need to give that money to someone who really needed it). Every year, the kids have wanted to add money from their own piggy banks as well, and my heart loves to see the generosity of children. Once we’ve gathered the money from everyone who wants to participate, we let the kids be “ninja elves” and doorbell ditch it to the family. It’s one of my very favorite traditions.
Wednesday, December 10
Book to Unwrap: The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
Activity: Candy Cane Hunt
The Legend of the Candy Cane is a cute little story that ends with teaching how the candy cane symbolizes Christ. I love the story and the message of the book.
We always do a “candy cane” activity when we read this book. We start with a candy cane hunt–I hide candy canes around the house and then the kids search for them. Then they can eat one of the candy canes while I read the book to them. Sometimes we add in other activities. We’ve done some science experiments, measured candy canes, made paper candy canes, or made butter cookies into the shape of candy canes. This year, I want to be “candy cane bombers”, where we leave a nice note with a candy cane on people’s windshields.
Thursday, December 11
Book to Unwrap: The Gingerbread Doll by Susan Tews
Activity: Make Gingerbread Cookies
The Gingerbread Doll is a darling book we ran across at the library one year. It is set in the great depression, when a little girl’s mom can’t afford the doll she wants, so instead she makes one from gingerbread. It’s a cute little story and perfect for when we make cookies.
We are big gingerbread fans at our house (I actually make it year round in the shape of dog bones as “Scooby snacks”) and nothing says Christmas like the smell of gingerbread cookies. We make and decorate them every year. I use my great-grandmother’s recipe and buy special decorating things like icing bags, Christmas M&M’s for buttons, and sprinkles that look like eyes. We are not professional cookie decorators by any means, but we have fun with it.
Friday, December 12
Book to Unwrap: Christmas from Heaven by Tom Brokaw
Activity: Deliver Cards to Mailman, Policemen, etc.
Christmas from Heaven is a book about a pilot in the US Army Air Corps who notices German children in Berlin and decides to “candy bomb” them. The act grows into something bigger. The book is a beautiful story about service to others and includes real photos from the events described.
Each year, the kids love to make cards for local police officers and fire fighters as well as the mailman. We then deliver the cards and a bag of gingerbread cookies (that we made the day before) to them. I thought this book, talking about public service and workers who give so much to their community, would be appropriate for starting a conversation with the kids about why we do this act of service.
Saturday, December 13
Book to Unwrap: All the Colors of Christmas by Matthew Paul Turner
Activity: The Kids’ Christmas Concert
All the Colors of Christmas explores Christmas through colors and poetry. I love the scope and feel of the book, from the illustrations to the rhythm while reading it to the Christmas themes shared. The feel of the book felt appropriate for this activity.
My kids are involved with a local theater class that has a Christmas concert each year. It’s a big deal in our schedule because there are two dress rehearsals that weekend as well as the performance. Every year, I have planned another activity to do after the performance and every year, it’s a struggle to get to it (or we just give up and don’t get to it). Often, I end up doubling up on an activity later to get it in or simply count the concert as our activity, so this year, I am starting off by counting the concert as the activity. To make it special, we can go get ice cream or some sort of treat as a family afterwards.
Sunday, December 14
Book to Unwrap: The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Activity: Make Sibling Gifts
The Gift of the Magi is such a traditional story and I love it. The one we own has beautiful illustrations and uses the original text, so the old-fashioned language can be a little hard for my kids to follow. I help though, and they always light up when the twist at the end comes. Because of the focus on giving, it feels like the perfect book to pair with making gifts.
Having my kids make gifts, rather than buy them, for each other is a tradition I got from my aunt, and I love it. With four kids (we won’t have the baby involved quite yet), we now have them draw names and make a gift for just one sibling. They love making the gift and get really excited about it, and usually the gifts are the kinds of things that we don’t need to keep forever.
Monday, December 15
Book to Unwrap: How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
Activity: Grinch Day
We read How the Grinch Stole Christmas every year and doing a “Grinch Day” with it has become a tradition over the last few years. We have some themed activities and food, read the book, and watch both the cartoon and the animated Grinch movie (I am not a fan of the live action, so we never watch that one, but we love both the others).
One activity we do is Grow the Grinch’s Heart science. You put a red heart on a green balloon, put baking soda in the balloon, and then put the balloon over a water bottle with vinegar in it; when it reacts, the balloon fills up and the heart “grows”. We also make grinch pancakes for breakfast and write letters to family members telling them something we love about them (and connect it to the heart growing three sizes). We learn how to draw the Grinch and later in the day, we have Grinch Rice Krispie Treats.
Tuesday, December 16
Book to Unwrap: A Birthday Party for Jesus by Susan Jones
Activity: Birthday Party for Jesus
A Birthday Party for Jesus follows a little rabbit who doesn’t know what to give Jesus as a gift while all the animals prepare to celebrate his birthday. Along the way, he learns what is truly important to give.
A birthday party for Jesus is a tradition I’ve brought from my own childhood, and I love the chance to focus on Christ. We always have a treat, like cupcakes or pie, to put a candle in while we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Then we each decide on a gift (something we want to change or a way we want to be better) and write them down. I found a present craft, with Jesus in the middle, that I really like and a poem. We end the night with watching The Christ Child on YouTube.
Wednesday, December 17
Book to Unwrap: Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
Activity: Make Gifts for Extended Family
I remember hearing this story when I was a child and loving it. It’s a sweet story of a boy who learns how to serve and truly show love to his father at Christmas time. I like reading a story about giving and serving on the day that the kids are making gifts for family.
When my oldest was four or five, she wanted to make a gift for a lot of her extended family members. The next year, she and her younger sister wanted to, and it’s become a tradition for all the kids since then. They always have an extensive list of people they want to give to, so I try to make it easy. I help the kids each write a short story, illustrate it, and then photocopy it for everyone on their list. Then I help them wrap and address each present. It’s still a big job, but having one gift they can give everyone really helps make it manageable.
Thursday, December 18
Book to Unwrap: Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
Activity: Snow Day
I love Snowmen at Christmas (and the original, Snowmen at Night). They are such cute stories imagining what snowmen might be doing while their makers are sleeping. The Christmas one has such a fun festive feel to it. I also like to read Harold at the North Pole on our snow day, because of the focus on snow.
Because I can’t control the snow and I like to plan ahead (and some years, it doesn’t snow where I live until Christmas Eve/Day), our snow day involves indoor activities like making paper snowflakes and playing with fake snow. My favorite thing is to make each person’s name into a snowflake. When we’re done with the snowflakes, we hang them on the ceiling of the kids’ rooms. Some years, it lines up and we have real snow to play in as well!
Friday, December 19
Book to Unwrap: A Christmas Carol by Jennifer Adams
Activity: Christmas Movie Party
These Babylit books are some of my favorites! A Christmas Carol is a short and sweet way to introduce the story to young kids. We also have a picture book of the Christmas Carol that tells the story for older kids that we’ll read this day as well.
Having a Christmas Movie Party is a new tradition I’m trying out this year, though we have family movie night on Fridays throughout the whole year. I thought we could make this movie night a special one with special food (we always do breakfast for dinner, so I can make snowman pancakes or some sort of Christmas themed food) and wearing our Christmas pajamas for it. I can pop popcorn after dinner. I picked A Christmas Carol because I want to watch a version of the story for movie night this year.
Saturday, December 20
Book to Unwrap: Chicka Chicka Ho Ho Ho by William Bonoface
Activity: Look at Christmas Lights
We love the Chicka Chicka books at our house (the Halloween one is my favorite!) so when they came out with a Christmas one last year, I got it right away! It’s a cute story about the letters getting to be decorations on the tree.
Driving around looking at Christmas lights is a tradition my kids all look forward to. I try to look up beforehand some neighborhoods that go all out or houses that have dancing lights. We often will pair it with stopping for a treat somewhere. The book and the activity today are only vaguely related because I wasn’t sure what book matched up with this activity really well.
Sunday, December 21
Book to Unwrap: A World of Cookies for Santa by M. E. Furman
Activity: Make Cookies from Somewhere in the World
A World of Cookies is one of my favorite Christmas books. I love the idea of the book, with Santa visiting many different places around the world and tasting their Christmas treats. It’s such a fun way to learn about traditions in different cultures.
In past years, I tried to take a day to set up different traditions from around the world for the kids to experience, but it’s always proved too much for me. What we do instead is choose a recipe from the back of this book and try out some new cookies from around the world. Baking is something I love to do with the kids and it feels much simpler and more manageable. Plus, we all love trying the new cookies!
Monday, December 22
Book to Unwrap: Merry Christmas, Little Pookie by Sandra Boynton
Activity: Caroling
Sandra Boynton is one of my top children’s books authors and we love all the Pookie books (again, the Halloween one is my favorite!). Merry Christmas, Little Pookie follows Pookie as he and his mother invite friends over for Christmas, ending with all of them caroling together.
My kids love to go caroling, so my husband and I rally ourselves to help them experience that. We invite cousins and whatever family the kids can talk into joining us and visit our nearest neighbors (we limit the number of houses to just a few). We pick a couple songs the kids all know, like Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and try to just have fun with it.
Tuesday, December 23
Book to Unwrap: Christmas Cookie Day by Tara Knudson
Activity: Make Sugar Cookies for Santa
Christmas Cookie Day is a cute but simple book about a Mama Bear and her son who make sugar cookies together. We always save this book for when we make sugar cookies.
Every year, we leave sugar cookies for Santa, and I like to make them the day before Christmas Eve so we can spend Christmas Eve morning relaxing. The kids take turns rolling out and using the cookie cutters and then I finish up after every child has had a turn (taking turns helps me keep my sanity while also allowing them to help). Then I let them decorate their own plate of cookies with store frosting and sprinkles and decorate the rest myself.
Wednesday, December 24
Book to Unwrap: The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
Activity: Christmas Eve Traditions
This book is my favorite version of this traditional story. I love the illustrations in it, and it follows the traditional poem. For the rest of our countdown, we open each book in the morning, but we always save this book for right before bed on Christmas Eve.
Our Christmas Eve traditions start in the morning. We play games, especially video games like Mario Kart or Mario Party, after breakfast. We love to have the morning relaxing since our evening is busier.
In the afternoon, we go to our in-laws house for an early dinner. Some years we have done a fancy dinner and other years, we’ll do the fancy dinner the Sunday before Christmas and do something like soup for dinner on Christmas Eve. After dinner, we act out the Nativity scene, one of my very favorite Christmas traditions.
Then it’s usually time to go home. At home, we open one present. Right now, our tradition is to each get a new blanket (we get our Christmas pajamas after Thanksgiving so that we can wear them all season long). After getting on pajamas and snuggling in our blankies, we read The Night Before Christmas. Then we set out cookies for Santa and get the kids in bed.
Our Christmas traditions are something that I love and look forward to every year. This sort of countdown is something that my personality as a mom thrives on. I would love to hear some of the traditions you as a mom thrive on and love! Let me know in the comments below!
November is upon us and that just puts the holiday feeling in the air! I love the holidays and Christmas, but we also love to slow down in November and enjoy focusing on Thanksgiving and gratitude.
One of my favorite traditions that we have in November is our gratitude tree. We started this tradition years ago when we only had two children old enough to really participate and every year, we all love doing it.
The tradition is that every person gets to add a “grateful leaf” to our gratitude tree everyday during the month of November. By the end of the month, our tree is full of all the things we are grateful for!
I start by making a tree. I’ve made it out of brown construction paper before, peicing it together, but I wasn’t very happy with how it would turn out (it did not look very tree-like). What we do now is buy a roll of brown paper from Walmart and my husband draws a tree on it. I cut out the tree and hang it on the wall.
For the leaves, I let every person pick a different color of construction paper. We try to stick with colors that leaves would actually be (green, orange, yellow, etc). One year we had extra people staying in our house, so we got creative with it and added in colors like pink and purple.
I cut the construction paper down to the size of printer paper and then I print leaves onto with this free printable I got off Pinterest. I do the smallest size of the simple leaf (simple leaf because it’s easiest to cut out and I’m already cutting out a million) and print enough for each day of the month for each person. Then I cut out the leaves and stick them in a baggie so they are ready for all the things we are grateful for!
I like to have a key, showing which person has which color. This year I also printed out a page of one size bigger of the simple leaves onto white paper and used colored pencils to write each person’s name on one in their color. I’ve put each person’s name on a leaf of their color before, but it was always confusing to tell which was the key and which was something people were grateful for, since we often will do people as our grateful thing that day.
Each night at bedtime, each person tells me one thing they are grateful for and I write it down on a leaf and tape the leaf to the tree. And all month long, we get to think about all we have to be grateful for and watch our tree fill up!
I love the focus of gratitude in November. What are some ways you and your family focus on gratitude at Thanksgiving time? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
