Advent Calendar Re-Do

Every year we hang our "Advent Calendar" in the family room. Really, it's just a countdown to Christmas calendar, because there isn't anything "Advent" about it. But I digress...

In year's past, I've just stuffed every pocket of the calendar with a piece of candy. Every morning, Payton runs to the calendar to do "the unthinkable"... eat candy first thing in the morning!!! But, with Parker's insane crack-like addiction strong affinity for sugar, I felt that it probably wasn't a good idea to have 24 days worth of candy hanging within arm's reach of this little maniac sweetheart. (I can only imagine the stack of books, pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, boxes, chairs, etc. that he would stack to get his little paws into those pockets).

So, this year, I told Payton that I would be stuffing each pocket with a piece of paper that would lead him to a clue, or that day's treat. He said, "Oh, like a scavenger hunt?!?" I said, "Sure!" I was thrilled that he wasn't disappointed that I was changing the "rules of the calendar" after all these years.

So, I created 24 little notes, cut them up and placed them inside each pocked on the calendar.

Most of them tell him to look somewhere around the house for a treat.

But now that he's getting a little older, I thought we could add a few that weren't centered around candy.

For example:

I'm hoping this will be something along the lines of "I want to make brownies for my friend Avery" and not, "Let's make cake pops for my entire class and bring them in for lunch!" But, we'll see.

Here are a few other "adventures" instead of treats:

• It's Mother-Son date day! Where would you like to go? We have $5 to spend on whatever you'd like!
• Daddy-Payton movie day!!! Rise of the Guardians! (a movie he's been dying to see)
• Let's give a treat to Mrs. Freeman today! (his teacher)
• Instead of candy...let's go to the zoo today!

Of course, we have to start the whole "sha-bang" off with some candy! So, tomorrow, they both get a Santa-shaped Hershey bar with a note that says, "Happy 1st Day of December! Enjoy these yummy treats 1st thing in the morning. It's Christmas time!!!"

And since it's the 1st day of December tomorrow... guess who I just spotted getting into some mischief tonight...

 Looks like Percy the Elf is back! 

And he found some dry erase markers. That naughty little elf... :)

Rain Gutter Regatta & Random Christmas Happiness

Payton had his Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta last night. It's not quite as serious as the Pinewood Derby, but it still has a lot of rules and regulations. And even though he didn't win a trophy this time, he did have fun designing his boat and cheering on his friends at the race.

He decided to decorate his boat like the "Green Ninja" from the LEGO show, Ninjago.

He and his friends had fun checking out each others creations.

Then they place their boats in a rain gutter that is filled with water, and blow them down the gutter with a straw.

 

I think Brian may have been most proud of him by the way he handled not winning, and continued rooting for his friends instead of pouting. He's growing up and learning what's important.

On another note, we made our first batch of Christmas cookies today. They turned out really yummy! I decided to make our own icing, even though I have not had a lot of success with that in the past.

Fortunately, this time, it turned out perfect and the boys loved it. Here's the recipe if you're interested. (The only thing I omitted was the food coloring. No need for that Red Dye if you can avoid it.)

They especially liked licking the beaters after the icing was done.

Parker paid close attention while Payton decorated the cookies with sprinkles and red hots.

And then of course, they had to taste them out to make sure we did a good job. :)

"Cheers!"

 Happy boys!

 

 Aside from homemade vanilla icing, here are some other things that are making me happy this Christmas season...

Pandora Christmas Channel on my phone. Listen to it all day long. Seriously. All. Day. Long.

I

 ...Being able to open up the house and let the breeze float through. It's been so gorgeous lately!

This is how our back french doors look most of the time...

And since we don't have a screen on our front door, I improvise with a baby gate. Hey...use whatcha got, right?

 ...Excited for this little elf to get into some funny & naughty activity next week...

...Displaying this beautiful plate that my sis-in-law, Kara, got me years ago. It's such a great reminder of what's important:

...Being able to turn on our "fireplace" every night. Something about cooler weather makes it a little less cheesy to have a fake fireplace...right??

 ...Going on long morning walks around the neighborhood with my little guy in his Christmas PJ's watching him meticulously pick out just the right acorns to put into his tiny bucket.

...And how he insisted on wearing these reindeer slippers all day yesterday. Even when we left the house. It was pretty cute, I must admit.

What are you enjoying these first few days of the Christmas season?

Whatever it is, relish it because before you know it, it will be January and we'll have 365 more days until we get to enjoy all of this holiday cheer again. :)

It's On Baby!

Christmas is in FULL swing around here.

I'm talking fully decorated house, Christmas music playing 24-7 (I'm addicted to the Pandora Christmas Channel), daily candy canes, peppermint mocha creamer in the coffee, kids in Christmas PJ's, candles burning all day long (cinnamon, peppermint, balsam - you name it), gingerbread house, and every kind of Christmas kids book displayed in a huge basket by the fireplace.

It's on baby!

We decorated the tree the night we got back from Thanksgiving.

 As usual, Payton was so excited. He loves going through each ornament and talking about who it's from, what's its significance, and which ones are "his."

 

We also got out all of our Christmas decorations for the house. There are so many fun ones that we've collected and been given over the years. 

Brian's parents gave us this large ball ornament a few years ago. It has a Christmas scene inside of it with a rotating train. Plus, it plays music.

Parker is in love with it this year! 

(Thank God it's plastic and not glass).

I also set up a little card table tent with Christmas lights inside. The boys have played in here every single day. They read in here, color in here, play hide-n-seek... just about everything!

 They even play with their friends inside the fort. :)

I'll be posting lots more pictures in the next few days. I've been super busy this week getting settled into my new job. Yep, you read that right! I am working part-time with my church again. This time I'm doing preschool staffing for the weekend services. I feel really blessed that the staff asked me to come back to work again. I know that God will continue to guide my steps as I learn to schedule my time and incorporate this new work into my daily life.

That's it for now! It's off to bed for this tired mama!

Thanksgiving

I'll spare you the long story, but after a cancelled Clements family reunion trip this summer, we were fortunate enough to reschedule and all get together over Thanksgiving. Here are some highlights from our wonderful trip...

The cousins had so much fun playing together!

 

 

And lots of snuggling was on the agenda!

 

We went to the most amazing park that had a life-sized "town" that the kids could run through.

And a cool raised path that went through the duck pond.

 

 

 We drank lots of coffee, watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and even had a puzzle-building competition (no need to mention who won):

And Thanksgiving dinner was amazing! My sis-in-law is such a great cook!

(Adult Table)

 (Kid Table)

We ended the trip with everyone in their Christmas PJ's. Worn out and full of turkey!

Speaking of worn out. This kid slept the entire 2 1/2 hour flight home. Thank God.

Thank you to my brother & sister-in-law, Amanda for hosting our reunion. We had an incredible time and are so thankful for ALL of our family!