Brace yourselves - this is a tiny fraction of the Christmas-related pictures I took, but it's still a lot!
We've always done an advent calendar, but this one is new to us this year. It's so cute, with its little compartments for each day. Plus, it has a nativity on top! How could I resist?
I filled each compartment with candy, and then every day there was a clue to lead the boys to a different location in the house where a small gift was waiting. This way they got daily candy, a daily treasure hunt, and a daily dose of presents. It's a no-lose situation!
Our ward party this year was fun. Greg was in charge of part of it (thus the picture of him with a microphone). The kids enjoyed seeing Santa, though they instantly recognized him (unlike other years).
Here is a pile of presents. Christmas and moderation are an oxymoron in my book.
In order to help spread out the fun a bit, and reduce the amount of unwrapping on Christmas Day, we let the kids (and ourselves, sometimes) open presents throughout December.
Here is Spencer with a tool set he got. He was ready to fix anything!
Colin and Spencer got this cool Spy Gear communicator thing.
Here are Greg and Colin building a Spy kit.
One present we opened early was from Greg's sister - Nintendo Monopoly. It was a big hit, though Spencer got tired towards the end and was ready for bed. It was the first time the kids had played Monopoly, and they did really well (better than me - I ended up bankrupt!)
On Christmas Eve we gave the kids new pajamas, slippers and robes. They were SO excited for the next day!
Here the boys are decorating cookies to leave out for Santa. Colin's in on the secret this year, but Spencer is still a believer.
Christmas morning. Spencer's favorite gift was the Batcave.
Colin's favorite was Nerf guns.
He also liked his batwings.
This was NOT Greg's favorite, but he's already posted about those. This is a book about Scary Clowns that I put in his stocking as a joke, since he's seriously freaked out by them.
I got a lot of really cool stuff. This is one of my favorites - a Tooned Up statue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Spot liked the wrapping paper.
This is the "fire" we had in the background.
The Monday after Christmas Greg had the idea of everyone displaying their top 5 favorite gifts - sort of a countdown. It was a blast. Spencer showed off his Batcave and all its features, as well as some spy stuff, a Fur Real baby bear, Hyper Dash, and a Horton Hears a Who game.
Colin showed off the lightsabers, his Nerf guns, Spy stuff, his batwings, and his Lego Batman sets.
I showed off my laptop, the Buffy Statue, some Disney music boxes, all the bath and comfy stuff I got, and all the many scrapbooking things I'd received (represented by the cute owl card I made on the Cricut Expression).
Greg showed off his new watch (set to tell time in Binary), his Lego Deathstar, his keyboard, his audio input and microphone, and the bigscreen tv.
It was fun to recap our favorites from Christmas - it will probably become a tradition of ours from now on.
We've always done an advent calendar, but this one is new to us this year. It's so cute, with its little compartments for each day. Plus, it has a nativity on top! How could I resist?
I filled each compartment with candy, and then every day there was a clue to lead the boys to a different location in the house where a small gift was waiting. This way they got daily candy, a daily treasure hunt, and a daily dose of presents. It's a no-lose situation!
Our ward party this year was fun. Greg was in charge of part of it (thus the picture of him with a microphone). The kids enjoyed seeing Santa, though they instantly recognized him (unlike other years).
Here is a pile of presents. Christmas and moderation are an oxymoron in my book.
In order to help spread out the fun a bit, and reduce the amount of unwrapping on Christmas Day, we let the kids (and ourselves, sometimes) open presents throughout December.
Here is Spencer with a tool set he got. He was ready to fix anything!
Colin and Spencer got this cool Spy Gear communicator thing.
Here are Greg and Colin building a Spy kit.
One present we opened early was from Greg's sister - Nintendo Monopoly. It was a big hit, though Spencer got tired towards the end and was ready for bed. It was the first time the kids had played Monopoly, and they did really well (better than me - I ended up bankrupt!)
On Christmas Eve we gave the kids new pajamas, slippers and robes. They were SO excited for the next day!
Here the boys are decorating cookies to leave out for Santa. Colin's in on the secret this year, but Spencer is still a believer.
Christmas morning. Spencer's favorite gift was the Batcave.
Colin's favorite was Nerf guns.
He also liked his batwings.
This was NOT Greg's favorite, but he's already posted about those. This is a book about Scary Clowns that I put in his stocking as a joke, since he's seriously freaked out by them.
I got a lot of really cool stuff. This is one of my favorites - a Tooned Up statue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Spot liked the wrapping paper.
This is the "fire" we had in the background.
The Monday after Christmas Greg had the idea of everyone displaying their top 5 favorite gifts - sort of a countdown. It was a blast. Spencer showed off his Batcave and all its features, as well as some spy stuff, a Fur Real baby bear, Hyper Dash, and a Horton Hears a Who game.
Colin showed off the lightsabers, his Nerf guns, Spy stuff, his batwings, and his Lego Batman sets.
I showed off my laptop, the Buffy Statue, some Disney music boxes, all the bath and comfy stuff I got, and all the many scrapbooking things I'd received (represented by the cute owl card I made on the Cricut Expression).
Greg showed off his new watch (set to tell time in Binary), his Lego Deathstar, his keyboard, his audio input and microphone, and the bigscreen tv.
It was fun to recap our favorites from Christmas - it will probably become a tradition of ours from now on.
Comments
Looks like you guys had tons of fun.
My kids would love that nintendo monopoly, too. They're all crazy about nintendo world stuff.
I favor opening gifts spread out too, it just makes it so much more enjoyable!