We all love our Christmas countdown tradition each year. I added a new little calendar this year from Bonne Maman. Each day I opened one of these cute little doors to reveal a new 2 ounce jam, preserve, or honey. It was so fun! These were the perfect size for English muffin. While these were all pretty tasty, I found a few that were especially delicious and will likely order larger sizes. This was a neat treat!
From our regular countdown...
Day 1 - We bought four foot inflatables for the girls to enjoy during the season. We put them on the back deck, so we could actually enjoy them.
Day 2 - We stuffed, sealed, and stamped our annual Christmas cards to send them out to lots of family and friends around the country.
Day 3 - We picked the girls up from school and headed up to Chattanooga. We enjoyed dinner with Allison and Jason Sepulveda, and then the four of us went to Rock City for their Enchanted Garden Lights. They were so pretty! It was a beautiful evening, not too cool (though we were bundled up for it), and the lights looked so good. This was such a fun evening!
Hot chocolate and apple cider for the win!
This part had lights dancing to music which was super cool to watch. I think this was my favorite of all the areas.
Day 4 - AMC ran a promotion where you could rent out a theater, pick the movie to watch, and have up to 20 people join you. How fun is that?! We selected the movie Elf and then invited the Fox family, Corley family, and Miley family (plus Ethan Johnson since Hudson would have been the only boy otherwise!). This was a really fun evening.
Day 5 - We had a gorgeous day to head to the Battery and meet Blooper Klaus. When we got on to the field, they took our picture by the 2020 pennant. It was really cool to be on the field!
Merry Christmas Blooper Klaus; bring us a Braves' win in the World Series!
Day 6 - Brunch at Canoe after church. Absolute yum!
Day 7 - Granna and Papa treated our family and Wayne's family to dinner at Blue Ridge Grill. It was so nice to have a whole dining area to ourselves. We enjoyed the meal, but the best part was time together. What a wonderful treat!
Day 8 - We decorated a few solo cups to look like cute little snowmen and then went bowling. Ryan won the championship!
Day 9 - We watched The Grinch Muscial on NBC. It was the London cast performing, and they were incredible. This was a great show!
Day 10 - The girls looked through the Samaritan's Purse Christmas catalog and found projects they wanted to support with their own money. Lily chose a program to provide hot meals to kids while Mia split her gift between giving sports equipment to kids and little lambs for kids in emergency situations. This is a good way they can help kids around the world out of the abundance we have.
Day 11 - We drove to Birmingham after drama practice for a weekend with family. On our way in, we stopped at Cookie Dough Magic near downtown. It was delicious! My favorite was the cookie dough mixed with Little Debbie tree cakes.
Day 12 - We enjoyed getting to spend time with family for Bama's Christmas party. We are so thankful for our family!
Kendall made this beautiful piece of art for Ryan and me. She took a picture from our Alaska trainride from 2010 and painted it on canvas. Then she cut it out and put it down on this map. I love that she took care to show Ambler and Kotzebue on the map. She finished it with clouds and a frame. It looks amazing. I can't wait to get this put up in our home!
Day 13 - We enjoyed being at church to see The Light of Christmas program. It was wonderful to be in community hearing songs of praise that celebrate Jesus' birth.
Day 14 - Grandpops and Grandma Jan sent us a package with our Christmas gifts, but it also included a few other fun goodies to enjoy, like a kit to have an indoor snowball fight. We all laughed so hard; it was so much fun!
Day 15 - The girls got to be creative and paint any Christmas picture they wanted. Mia made a cute Claus Among Us player!
Day 16 - We had family game night where we played a couple of rounds of Banagrams and Among Us.
Day 17 - The girls had these snowman mazes to figure out. It was actually pretty difficult. Mia eventually solved it, but I liked that Lily took a different path and made it a little prettier instead.
Day 18 - We had a darts tournament in our basement.
Day 19 - We had our friends, Jamey and Crystal Pullen, over for dinner and to watch The Star. This is such a wonderful Christmas movie!
Day 20 - We enjoyed making campfire mountain pies and s'mores on a beautiful evening.
Day 21 - We read The Crippled Lamb together. This is such a sweet book by Max Lucado.
Day 22 - We did an at home escape room based on the Nativity story. It included lots of puzzles and questions to answer. We escaped with about 4 minutes remaining!
Day 23 - We enjoyed pizza and a Christmas movie night downstairs. We picked Arthur Christmas because it's such a fun one!
Day 24 - We had Granna and Papa's Christmas party at our house on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed our traditional brunch, opening presents, and spending time together. What a great family!
Another great year for the Christmas countdown!
