December 1

This year Chris and I decided to change things up a bit in our countdown to Christmas. Instead of little prizes in each of the days in the advent calendar, we decided to put little notes that had a special activity for the day. Today was the first day, and I have to say Madelyn was super excited about the idea.

December 1

Today she got to pick a Christmas movie to watch while enjoying fresh popcorn and root beer floats! Oh my, was she ever excited! We had already scheduled a sleepover with her cousins, so she couldn't wait to tell them the good news!

I was happy to find the mini cans of root beer at Target because they were perfect for each kiddo. All the kids enjoyed making their root beer floats, but I think they enjoyed drinking them more! :) (We did not end up making popcorn because everyone was stuffed from our Mexican dinner at Valle Luna. Yum.

Madelyn chose Santa Paws 2 for the movie, and we were all excited because we liked the first one so much. We even blew up the air mattress and got all cozy next to the Christmas tree for the event. (Chloe even joined us!)

Santa Paws Reviews:

Madelyn: "I liked Santa Paws 2 because it had all those cute puppies. I loved Jingle because she liked to sing all those Christmas songs." - 2 thumbs up

Kelly: "I thought Santa Paws was awful. The acting was horrible and the singing was corny."- 2 thumbs down. Way down.

Chris: Chris fell asleep in the first 20 minutes, which I think is enough of a review in itself.

 

Madelyn's Turkey Recipe

Click to view larger image.

Mommy's on the Naughty List

A couple summers ago, I found this sign in a sweet little Christmas shop in Boston. It made me laugh out loud so I bought it.

We hung it up last year, but I guess Madelyn didn't really ask what it said. (She's been trying to read everything these days, and I guess that's why she asked this year.) So, I read it to her and started laughing thinking she would follow my lead. But instead, she burst into tears. Real, drain-your-eyes kind of tears. It really caught me off guard, and I asked her what was wrong. She tried to put together some words to explain (although it was difficult to understand her). She finally told told me that if we hang the sign in our house Santa won't come. This made me laugh. Really loud. And when that made her cry more, I felt bad. But I was still laughing. I'm actually still laughing as I type this. Which is the reason I am certain I'm now on the naughty list. (And I've worked so hard this year!)

I told her the sign was a joke, and after several minutes discussing the matter she asked if Santa would know it's a joke, and I assured her he most certainly would because we're a funny family. We like to tell jokes and be silly. Santa likes that.

Except when you laugh at your kids. He doesn't like that.

 

Packer Ornaments

Madelyn loves to do crafts! She's always creating little trinkets for Mommy and Daddy, and proudly displays them on the walls all around the house. So, I decided to enlist her help making some ornaments for our Packer Christmas tree in the guest bedroom. This was a pretty easy craft to make, and didn't require many supplies.

Ribbon

Paint

Ornaments

Well, the ornaments that I thought were "so cute and small" turned out to be place card holders. Oops! But I didn't realize it until we were already home, so we made them work. :)

The process was pretty simple... pour some paint in the "ornament" and shake it all around.

 

Then let it dry upside down overnight.

 
When dry, add a cute ribbon, and then hang on the tree. Easy peasy!

I wish the paint would have been a little more diluted. I'm not sure if I should have added water, or something to help it "swirl" around the ornament more. I guess I didn't watch enough YouTube videos. ;)

 

Meet Lily

I had to share this adorable picture of Madelyn with her little friend, Lily, from COOP. As many of you know, Lily is all we hear about. All day. Every day. :) They get along quite well, and since both her mom and I work in the district, we have recently decided to arrange a play date. I mentioned this to Madelyn last night, and oh boy! She is already making plans and dreaming up all sorts of things they can do!