our christmas eve box

we did things a little differently this year since we would be spending our christmas in denver. we have some christmas eve traditions and i wanted to make sure that we were able to still do them even though we wouldn't be at our house. my crafty solution to my dilemma was to make december 22 our christmas eve and december 23rd our christmas day. this actually worked out perfectly since the harness's chose to celebrate christmas that day as well... the little's got a full day of present opening!

each year the little's always open 1 gift on christmas eve, new pi's. i discovered a fabulous idea while perusing pinterest and added some goodies! the little's had 1 large box to open and within that box there were individually wrapped gifts for each of them: holiday pi's, hot cocoa mugs, hot cocoa packets, popcorn, the Polar Express movie, and the Polar Express book. it was so much fun watching them open  everything.

after opening their christmas eve box they changed into their new pi's and enjoyed hot cocoa, popcorn, a new read, and a new movie. we saved the rest of our christmas eve traditions for december 24th in colorado.

our letter from santa

this was the first year that the little's wrote a letter to santa claus... and guess what, he wrote them a letter back! izzy and jax loved hearing what santa wrote to them and were pumped to hear that he would be visiting them soon.

Christmas Fun!

 Storytime with Mrs. Claus

 Snow Day

Snow Day

Countdown to Christmas Continues

Goodie bags for our friends

isabel and jax had some adorable goodie bags to take to their friends today! wouldn't you know that isabel and i both have a snow day today! of course, today would have been her last day of school... i'm thinking she might have some treat bags for dance class friers tonight.

Christmas presents from Isabel and Jaxon

this year i tried to be more meaningful in the gifts that we chose for our lovely babysitters and isabel's kindergarten teacher. not only did we have mostly home crafted presents but isabel and jaxon each took one present a day... until the dreaded snow day! take a look at some of the charming ideas i "borrowed" from pinterest.

 mason jar snow globes

 homemade cookies

 glitter reindeer

aromathereapy shower gel and a delicious balsam candle

Christmas Cookies!

our 12 days until Christmas activity was baking christmas cookies. the little's are experts at unwrapping the kisses for me... we made mint crinkles and candy cane kiss cookies. absolutely delish.

dress up time

the gals were shut in isabel's room playing very quietly... this is what emerged.

it warms my heart to see my 2 daughters playing dress up together.

gingerbread time

our advent calendar for the evening was "make a gingerbread house." the little's absolutely love making gingerbread house every year. granted, it's not  a masterpiece... but they surely enjoy all of the decorating! this year we even wrote their names in candy, so much fun.

The Adventures of Rosita

our elf, Rosita, is rather tame in comparison to her elf counterparts. in fact, there are some nights that she oversleeps and doesn't even make her nightly trip to the north pole. hopefully, rosita will be better rested next year.