I know that the month of December can get so hectic; it seems like our month is planned out by late September! We decided that we would take a little bit of time each day in December to do something together as a family. Right now it's not really an issue because the girls are young, but as they get older, we want to keep our family time as a priority. So, Ryan and I intentionally planned our month to have lots of fun activities while still keeping in mind other obligations. Each evening I would stick a little note in the stocking letting the girls know what the day's activity would be. Then in the morning, Lily would come into our room and ask to go get the "tag from the stocking." We would read what we were doing and talk about the day's fun to come. Some days were big events that I have already blogged about, but most days were smaller things that were just fun. So, this blog post is to document everything we did with one picture from each day (except the 24th which warranted a few more). Mia didn't exactly "get" everything we were doing, but I think she will next year. I look forward to many more years of this fun tradition!Day 1: The girls and I decorated the playroom windows with winter gel clings. Lily put up reindeer, snowmen and penguins while Mia put up Christmas trees, ornaments and snowflakes.
Day 2: We made ornaments for their trees. Lily had fun making hers (on the right), but Mia wasn't quite as interested, so I helped her a bit with making hers.
Day 3: Ryan and I took Lily to see Ovo, a Cirque du Soleil production, down at Atlantic Station which we all really enjoyed. Mia had an evening with Bama at our home.
Day 4: We had a playground day where we visited two different playgrounds and stopped for lunch at Moes. We also had to make an unexpected return trip home because soon after taking these pictures (about 15 minutes into our first playground visit), both girls fell into a huge mud pit at the bottom of a slide; they had to ride pants-less back home so we could change them. Don't worry though, we bundled them up in blankets for the ride.
Day 5: While Ryan was in Tampa for the Falcons/Bucs game, the girls and I went to our church for their "Christmas Packages" program. We met up with an old friend of mine and her family, played on the church playground, got faces painted, played a bean bag toss game, watched the hand bell group, made a couple of art projects and enjoyed dinner. As we were leaving, we saw the four reindeer and sat on their big sleigh where this picture was snapped.
Day 6: Ryan and Mia had a Daddy-Daughter date to Chuck E Cheese while Lily and I stayed home and made a gingerbread house. Lily was so excited about this! She especially enjoyed trying all the candies before sticking them onto the house. Not five minutes after finishing the house, she asked if we could eat it. I told her there were lots of people to show it to first, so she excitedly showed it to everyone who came over and then asked if we could eat it. FYI, as of today (Christmas Day) it is still on our kitchen counter though it is now missing the chimney, tree cookie and snowman cookie.
Day 7: We took the morning off from work and took the girls to ride Priscilla the Pink Pig under the big top at Macy's at Lenox Square. Both girls really enjoyed this. After our ride, we went to meet Santa, and both girls did great. After Santa, we ate lunch at Johnny Rockets as a special treat.
Day 8: Both girls received new Christmas books to read before bed time. Books are always a hit at our home.
Day 9: The girls, Bama, Ryan and I went to Callaway Gardens for their "Festival of Lights." It was awesome, and we all had a great time. We also enjoyed walking around beforehand. The girls had their faces painted and played on a fun playground. The best part though was definitely driving through the forest to see everything all lit up; it was amazing!
Day 10: We all went to the Georgia Aquarium where we saw the Weeki Watchi State Park mermaids and Scuba Santa. A visit to the aquarium is always fun, but these extra Christmas visitors made it even better. This day was a lot of fun!
Day 11: Lily and I made Rice Krispy Treats together. Sticky but oh so good!
Day 12: The four of us went out for an ice cream dessert at Haagan Daaz. The girls shared their chocolate sundae with sprinkles and gummy bears on the side.
Day 13: Game Night after Mia went to bed. We surprised Lily with the Princess edition of Chutes and Ladders. She thought it was pretty fun for a few games, but now she prefers playing with the players' figurines more than playing with the game itself.
Day 14: We went to the Childrens Museum which is always interesting and fun. They have a special music exhibit going right now which the girls enjoyed. Of course, they also enjoyed fishing, playing in the tree house, building in the sand, moving the balls through the obstacle course, pushing the trains along the track, shopping in the farmers market, riding on the tractor, milking the cow, driving the buses and fixing a pretend picnic lunch. As the picture below shows, they also had a lot of fun painting on this trip too. After this, we all enjoyed our visit to The Varsity too.
Day 15: This was supposed to be Mommy/Mia date night and Daddy/Lily date night, but an ice storm slightly altered our plans. Ryan and Lily went to Parkway Point to see Tangled, a new Disney movie about Rapunzel. This was the first time Lily has gone to a movie theater, and she loved it. She ate almost an entire bucket of popcorn by herself. At one point, she looked up at Ryan and said "Uh-oh Daddy. It's almost gone. You better get some now if you want any." She has talked about this movie and experience several times so I know she had a great time. After the movie, they were supposed to go to dinner together, but Ryan wisely decided to come home instead. Mia and I went to dinner at Atlanta Bread Company together where we shared some delicious Corn Chowder. I was supposed to head out to my Women's Mentoring Group (a small group Bible study), and Bama was going to finish the evening out with Mia. However, our group got cancelled with the ice, so I got to stay home and play more with Mia.
Day 16: We went to dinner at Jimmy John's (or JJs as Lily calls it). It is next door to Figo Pasta, and Lily has been asking to go for months. So, we decided that would be our outing of the day. Both girls had eaten a lot of sugar during the day, and they were bouncing off the walls; luckily, this is a very casual deli-type place and we were the only patrons at the moment. They make pretty good sandwiches.
Day 17: Bama and the girls made Christmas cards for Granny and my family in Tennessee. After Lily's dance recital this evening, we headed up to TN for a fun weekend where Lily distributed all the cards.
Day 18: Lily and I made this tree while at Granny's house. It was really pretty cute with all its bright blue and pink ornaments. She was so sweet and gave it to Granna to take home.
Day 19: The girls made penguin and reindeer door hangers. They gave one of each to Granny to keep at her house and brought the other two home with us.
Day 20: Lily and I made cherry-flavored snowmen gummies. She and Mia LOVE gummy snacks, so when I saw a kit to make your own gummies, I knew I had to buy it. It was really simple, and they tasted pretty good. They were really sweet though. Anyway, the girls enjoyed them. Just a quick side note, you can see Lily in her pink dress that we brought her from Alaska. She absolutely loves this dress, and asks to wear it all the time. Since it's short sleeve, she doesn't get to much anymore; however, we were just hanging out inside so she was able to.
Day 21: We had "Meme's Christmas Party" with my family at Jodi and Michael's house. This was a wonderful time celebrating with family.
Day 22: Movie night at home! After Mia went to bed, I popped some popcorn, and Lily turned out all the lights. We enjoyed watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas;" a Christmas classic. Movie nights at home are always a fun evening.
Day 23: Lily and I did some cookie baking while Ryan and Mia had fun at Chuck E Cheese and running errands. We made pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate and rolled in sprinkles or crushed Oreos, red jello cookies and peanut butter reindeer cookies. The reindeer were really cute; see the picture below. Actually, you'll see the one in this picture only has one M&M for an eye. Lily wanted to make one Pirate Rudolph, and that's what she wanted her picture with!
Day 24: We made a special Christmas Eve breakfast. Here's a picture of the three girls making Cherry Scones with the mix sent in a basket full of goodies from Great-Grandpa and Lois. We topped the scones with Cherry Pomegranate Jam which was also in the goodies basket. So yummy! As a side note, the basket also has hot chocolate mix, peppermint marshmallows, chocolate chip cookies and a coffee cake. Yum!!!
After breakfast, we took the three tins of cookies (saving a few for ourselves) that we made yesterday to Smyrna Fire Department's Station #2 which is just down the street from us. We wanted to say thank you to the firemen who are working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If you don't know, Ryan's younger brother is a fireman in Fort Payne, AL, and we are so proud of him. Every time the girls see a fire truck or fire station, they mention Uncle Josh, so we thought this would be a good way to teach them appreciation for our public servants and show them what Josh does. One of the young firemen at the station showed us around and let the girls climb into one of the trucks. he also gave them each a plastic fireman's hat which they have had fun with.
After a relaxing afternoon, it was time for bed. The girls had a surprise of cute new Christmas pajamas. Aren't they cute?
Next up was putting carrots and a water bowl out on the deck for the reindeer.
Of course, we can't forget about Santa! Milk and cookies were placed at the bottom of the chimney so he would see them. He received a sampling of each cookie we had made the day before. All that was left was to hang the stockings and put the girls to bed. Mia didn't really understand what was going on, but Lily was so excited! She couldn't wait for Christmas morning to arrive!
After the girls went to bed, all the wrapped presents were brought up from downstairs and Santa made his visit. Finally it's off to bed for Mommy and Daddy to try to get some sleep before morning! Christmas morning will be here soon!
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