Christmas Eve

Caroline, Clayton, and I sang at the Christmas Eve service at church (along with a few other families.)

 Then we came home for an evening of beef bourguignon and molten chocolate cakes, leaving Santa milk and cookies, and a reading of "The Night Before Christmas."

Cookies and Crafts Party

I had Erica and my Goddaughters, and my sister Meredith and her 2 little ones over for a little cookie and crafts party.  We made little felt tree ornaments and decorated gingerbread men and sugar cookies.
SO fun! It was great to finally be able to have my little California niece and nephew over for the festivities!  (and now that they've moved back home, we get to see them all the time. Woo hoo!)

Baking Cookies and decorating Gingerbread houses

As we always do during December, we baked yummy Christmas cookies. All three LOVE to help (and taste, of course).

Instead of a big gingerbread house, we decorated a little gingerbread village. Austin was determined to decorate his all with M&Ms and NO icky fruity candy.

Preschool Christmas Party 2012

I co-hosted the Christmas party for the 3 year olds at preschool this year, (Austin's class).
It was a lot of fun.
We made 3 crafts - a baby--in-the-manger ornament, a pompom candy cane ornament, and a stand-up reindeer (on clothespins).

 

We did a relay race where each child on each team had to run and stick their snowman nose, eye, or scarf onto their team's snowman, and then run back and tag the next team member in line. This is pretty hysterical to watch with 3 year olds! I wish I had a video of th game, or at least a picture of what their final snowman looked like. Let's just say it did not look like the one I had laid out!

 

We sang "Call Rudolph"

Call Rudolph
Eight little reindeer pulling Santa's sled
One fell down and bumped his head.
The elves called Santa and Santa said,
"Can seven little reindeer pull my sled?"
Seven little reindeer...
Six little reindeer...
Five little reindeer...
Four little reindeer...
Three little reindeer...
Two little reindeer...
One little reindeer pulling Santa's sled;
He fell down and bumped his head.
The elves called Santa and Santa said,
"Call Rudolph!"

We played "Santa Says".

How To Play: Played similar to Simon Says. The parent/teacher is "Santa". The teacher will say "Santa says hop on one foot". The children will hop on one foot. Repeat for additional activities such as take one baby step forward, step backwards, turn around, tickle your tummy, tap your head, sit down. Sometimes Santa will say "Santa says" and sometimes he won't. When you don't say "Santa says" first, they're not supposed to do the action.  It'­s a fun game to play with young children.

We read Christmas books.



 

We also decorated and then ate gingerbread house shaped cookies.

 

 

 For a healthier snack, we also had kiwi trees with cheese stars and pretzel trunks.

 

 

Christmas Carols!

I love seeing videos of little kids singing Christmas carols. Mine love to sing, but when the camera comes out, their lips shut tighter than clamshells. So, being the good mother I am, I bribed them with sweets to sing for me while I videoed them.  Yep - bribery with sugar.
And was it worth it? Absolutely!

Clayton singing Oh Tannenbaum in german

(His preschool teacher is german and taught all her students!)

Caroline singing Silent Night

Austin settling on Wish you a Merry Christmas

 



Santa!

Boys' Preschool Christmas Programs

Austin's Preschool Christmas Sing

 

Austin and his teachers, Miss Marie and Miss Gini

 

 

Clayton's Preschool Christmas SIng

 

Clayton and his teachers, Miss Charlotte and Miss Jennifer

 

Daisy Scout Pajama Party

Winter Wonderland at Botanic Gardens

My mom, sister, nephew, and niece met us at the Chicago Botanic Gardens for their WInter Wonderland exhibit. What a beautiful display of Chicago architecture, all made from natural materials. The lights, the decorations, and the motorized trains were a huge hit!

 The "Wood" cousins

 The picture that would have been really cute....if only it had been in focus!