3 to 1 Days Left

Ok, so here are the last few days of our advent calendar.



3 Days left until Christmas

Rebekah and number 3.

The kids with new ornaments for the trees and Kit Kats.

2 more days!

Lily and the 2nd present.



Everyone got their own tin of cookies and a treat. These are their favorite cookies.

ONE MORE DAY!

Nathan and the last present.

They each got something called PopBalls. They are really fun and pop really high into the air. And each with a Kit Kat.

8 Through 4 Days Until Christmas

Ok, life has gone by faster than expected. :-) So here are some more days of countdown. Starting with 8 days.

Justin at 8 days!

They each got one of those towels that you have to put into water to have it expand into towel form. And then they each got a chocolate bar.

SEVEN DAYS
Bekah and 7 more days!!


They got their own thing of gum and a Wii game. It is called, "101 in 1."



SIX DAYS
Lily excited about 6 more days!


They got Nutter Butter bars and fun eye popping pens. Justin has the monkey, Rebekah the puffer fish, Lil the penguin, and Nathan the shark.

FIVE MORE!!
Nate and #5!


This time they got a finger bowling game and a chocolate. Just got Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Rebekah a Milky Way, Nate a Kit Kat, and Lily has a 100 Grand.


FOUR!!!
Justin's last advent to open.


This one the kids were excited for! They got a big bag of Reese's PB cups to share while they watch, "The Night at the Museum 2."


Days 3 to 1 coming up!

9 Days Until Christmas

*GASP* NINE days left!! NINE!

Nathan pointing to the number 9 present up top.


Today was another all candy day. Yay!! Each kid got a Butterfinger and a Push-Pop with an ornament on them. I don't remember who chose what flavor, but Nathan got to choose first. :-)

10 Days Until Christmas

Wow. I am so not ready for Christmas and there are only 10 days left!!

Lily and present number 10!

The kids were way excited about today's present. They each got a Santa cup, a candy, and two Little Debbie cookies.
Justin has a Kit Kat, Rebekah has a Twix, Lily has a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and Nathan has a Milky Way.

11 Days Until Christmas

Wow, time is flying SOOOOOOO fast!!!

Rebekah and the 11th present.

What is better for kids??? A candy present with MORE candy!! :-) They each got a baby bottle candy and a Kit Kat.

12 Days Until Christmas

12 Days left!

Cutie pie, Justin, showing us #12.

I get a kick out of Nathan's face in this picture.
Today's present was a 3D hangman game. We all had fun playing with it and hanging up the bones when someone got a letter that wasn't in the words.
The treats varied. Nathan has 100 Grand, Rebekah has Twix, Justin has Kit Kat, and Lily has a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

13 Days Until Christmas

When I asked Nathan, like I do to each kid, "How many more days until Christmas?" He responded in a falsetto voice, "Three." I asked him, "Plus....?" And again in his falsetto voice, "Ten!" He is a goof.

Seriously, what is not to love about Nathan's pose here?? He is sort of pointing to present number 13, while his other arm is mysteriously missing! :-)

They each got another snowman ornament for the tree. This time they were blue and white ornaments. Each kid got a small bag with chocolate in it.

14 Days Until Christmas

It is getting colder, the snow is falling, it is definitely getting closer to Christmas!!

Lily and number 14

All the kids are hamming it up except Rebekah who just barely hurt her foot before this picture was taken. Each kid is holding up a huge pixie stick. Lily is holding this day's gift:
"Merry Madagascar" and a huge container of hot cocoa.

15 Days Until Christmas

Only 15 days until Christmas!!!!!

Rebekah showing us #15

So, today's presents were Scratch It stickers. They are those things where you use a wooden stick to scratch off the black color and show the design underneath.
The treats are Butterfingers.

16 Days Until Christmas

Wow, Christmas is creeping up!!!


Justin pretending #16 was a Samurai sword.


Ok, it is hard to see from this tiny picture, but Nathan and Lily are making gross faces because today they got Flarp and are enjoying the farting noises emitting from the noise putty. For a treat that night, they got 100 Grand candy bars... which they devoured before the picture was taken.

17 Days Until Christmas

I am behind! :-)

The kids have been enjoying each day and I just kept forgetting to update the blog.

It was Nathan's turn.

17 Days left!

The kids are holding up little Wii remotes that spit out candy. They also got those rubber bracelets that are Christmas designed.

18 Days Until Christmas

Now it is Lily's turn!

Here is Lily pointing to present #18. She wanted to make sure everyone could see her curly hair. :-)



It is REALLY hard to see what they are holding up, but they are little snowmen ornaments. Each one has a spot for their name to go, so after they chose which one they want, Bill and I wrote their names for them.
For the treat, they each for a fun size Milky Way.

19 Days Until Christmas

Only 19 days left! I better get shopping!!

Rebekah pointing to to the 19th present.


All the kids have a ring pop and Rebekah is holding up a new game for our family:
Crazy Old Fish War. It combines 4 popular games into one!

20 Days Until Christmas

20 Days until Christmas!!

Justin pointing to present #20.

All the kids with today's presents.
All have a pack of gum.
Rebekah has a stuffed kitty. Lily has a stuffed tiger. Justin has a stuffed squirrel. Nathan has a stuffed dog.

21 Days Until Christmas

21 Days until Christmas!!



Nathan pointing to the present marked 21.

Nathan is holding up today's present: the DVD "Unaccompanied Minors" and a huge Reese's bar to share.

Our Christmas Advent Tradition

When Bill and I got married and blended our two families together, I wanted to start a new tradition for Christmas. So I decided to do a fun advent calendar. This is what it looks like this year:

There are 24 wrapped presents that the kids open and count down to Christmas. Each day it is a different kids' turn and there is something inside each present for each of them. Plus there is always a treat, too. If there is something to choose from (like the color of an item) the person who opened that day gets to pick first, then we go in age order. If there is nothing to choose from because it is a DVD, then there are 4 different kind of treats that they get to choose first from. Each day the kids rotate who gets to open and each year we rotate who starts first.

The kids love it!

I forgot to take pictures of their present on the 24 and 23 days til Christmas but I have the kid opening that day in front of the advent calendar.

Here is Justin who started this year's advent. Inside were 4 Christmas hacky sacks and 4 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Here is Rebekah who opened the '23 days left' present. Inside were 4 Squirmies and 4 mini Twix.

Here is today's '22 days left' and it was Lily's turn.

Here are the kids holding their cool new calculators.
And that rectangle box on the floor are thin mint chocolates.

I am going to blog each day for you all to see what the kids unwrap. :-)

St Patrick's Day

This post is WAY overdue. I was going through my posts and realized I never posted this.

Every year we set a trap to catch a Leprechaun. So far, we have not been so lucky. Darn those sneaky tiny green men.

I am trying to remember what the sign said. I think it says, "This way to yummy goodness" with an arrow pointed down. Inside the plastic bin is a gold cauldron filled with Lucky Charms and a spoon. The spoon is tied to that pasta stirrer that is holding up the plastic bin - so when the leprechaun tries to pull the spoon to eat the cereal, the bin will fall down and trap it. The kids used their scriptures to keep the bin in place so it wouldn't be able to get away.

They left a huge mess of gold tinsel.

They tinted the milk green! AH!

Sometimes they leave messages for the kids.

And then this year they drew on the kids' portraits!!

Even though they got away this year, they left each kid a MushaBelly and inside the plastic bin, where the trap was set with Lucky Charms, the gold cauldron was filled with candy!