The week of December 24-31 is going to be bonkers for us with very little down time! All great, fun things, and praying for continued good health for everyone so our bonkers plans can all go through!
The last couple weeks have been busy too, but a bit more... normal kind of busy!
I left off my last post with Emilia having a high fever and feeling unwell, and me being up much of the night with the stomach flu. So that day Emilia did a lot of resting, Dave and I got take out Pho for dinner, and then it was a movie night!
December 9 Advent Activity: Candy Cane Hunt & Paper Airplane Contest
I let the kids write some ideas for advent this year, and Dom really wanted to do a paper airplane contest. It was very cute and he made a score chart and everything :)
December 10 Advent Activity: Snowman pancakes!
On the 10th I visited a new church with my parents. It was an absolute whirlwind of emotions. I cried. I never cry (in public). Relief, grief, warmth, intimacy, relaxation, and much processing. Dave and the kids stayed home and I'm grateful for that so I could fully immerse myself and let myself feel the feelings I needed to. We are planning to attend here on Christmas Eve as well. It will be a different kind of service for us... Christmas Eve in a barn!
December 11 Advent Activity: Celebrate Mom's birthday! Me & Ed's and Williams Park Lights!
The kids are getting to a super fun stage where they want to be more involved with gift giving, making cards, and celebrating. They decorated a gift bag for me, and each wrote me a nice card for my birthday. They were very proud to gift me a GINORMOUS 4-wick candle. It smells like vacation and I'm excited to light it up after the Christmas candles are done :)
We kept Emilia home from school on Monday since she wasn't 24 hours clear of her fever. Her and I had a really nice time doing arts and crafts, and then I went out during nap time to do some shopping and get my birthday Starbucks!
We went to Me & Ed's for dinner with Mom & Dad, and then we all piled in the van for the Williams Park Christmas light drive thru. Last year we went to Lafarge Lake, so this set up didn't really compare, but the kids thought it was cool so that's the important thing haha.
The giant dog she is cuddling was a gift to me from my cousin Rachel for my birthday in Grade 6 (I think?). I named it Cash after Joel from Good Charlotte's dog, Cashdogg. Random pre-teen Renee fact for you :)
December 12 Advent Activity: Rice Krispie Squares.
I forgot to take a picture of us making them as it was a bit of a scramble to get it done between school and horseback riding, but we did it!
Mom & Dad came to see Emilia's horseback riding that night. It was Dad's first time ever, and Mom's first time seeing her out of parent & tot classes. She is always so proud to show off for people! She told me yesterday that she is going to be a volunteer there some day and maybe even a coach. She's in it for the long haul apparently...
"Love Mama. Everyone wants to love you, Mama. Kiss Mama. Love you.
This sentence was wrote by Emilia... The author"
December 13 Advent Activity: Giant Christmas Coloring Sheet
In the evening on the 13th, Jeff came over so we could plan out games for our Gerber Christmas Charity Games Night on Saturday!
December 14 Christmas Activity: Decorating Cookies with Gramma!
Gramma and Grandpa came over and made cookies with Eva during the day. After school the kids all got to decorate a bunch of them! I couldn't get to a gingerbread house this year, so this was a highlight for them :)
On the 14th Dom's class went to Science World, and since Gramma and Grandpa were coming over, I got to join! Dom and I were both totally exhausted by the end of the day, and it was lots of fun (except the traffic getting out there!).
December 15 Advent Activity: Glow Stick Dance Party.
No pictures of this because it was dark and chaotic, but I assure you it was fun :)
I got new boots!
December 16 Advent Activity: Gerber Christmas!
This day was awesome and crazy. We all arrived at Mom & Dad's between 230 and 330, and got all the kids opening their gifts. There was SO much food, yummy drinks, many gifts for the littles, and Dave was shooting video for much of the afternoon to put together a little Lifestyle Video!
(Sorry if this is a spoiler to any of my cousins who haven't received a gift yet! :S)
After all the toddlers went to bed, Dom & Emilia got to stay up for the first game of our charity games night! Everyone puts in an amount of their choice, and we all play games. Whoever wins the tournament gets to take all the money and donate to a charity of their choice. Jeff and I did lots of planning and organizing, and all the games were a hit!
Game 1: Do You Snow the Muffin Pan? We had 48 muffin cups and 48 solo cups. We took turns bouncing ping pong balls and whatever cup it lands in has a number in it. You get the corresponding solo cup which contains a prize of sorts or points (or negative points) to go towards your total! The prizes ranged from scratch and wins, to FRIENDS socks, to mini liquor bottles, to a horrible pig nose!
Game 2: Rolling in a Plinko Wonderland. We taped solo cups to the end of the coffee table and each cup had a certain amount of points (or negative points) in it, which the roller was not aware of. We then had to roll Oreos down the table and tally up our points after we've sunk 4 Oreos!
Game 3: Cheer Pong. Basically a simplified version of Beer Pong. We had 12 cups with points (or negative points) on each one. We had someone randomly arrange them on both sides of the island and then you got your cup/points when you sunk it in. Each team had the option to swap one of their cups with the other team's cup. If you had the 20 point sitting on your side, you'd want to swap it for one of the other ones so you could possibly get it! You won't know what point value you're swapping with though, so it's a risk. Once one team gets all their cups, the game is over and both teams tally up their points. You and your teammate both get the same amount towards your points total.
Game 4: Gamble all the Way. This was Roulette. Each person was given 10 poker chips to gamble with. If you hit, you got points and got that chip back. Once everyone ran out, we all got 10 chips again. We did three full rounds of 10 chips for each of us (I think), and kept score throughout. There were actually a couple hits which was exciting! The farther behind you were in the scoreboard, the more risky you were likely to gamble!
In the end, Mom was the winner and got to make her donation to Doctors Without Borders!
December 17 Advent Activity: Mickey Mouse Christmas
Most of the 17th was spent playing with new toys! Love the day after gift-opening :)
December 18 Advent Activity: Emilia's (and Dom's) "Wine" Tasting.
At the cabin Emilia set up a "wine" tasting for all the ladies and she felt so special, so she wanted to do it again as an advent activity! She and Dom picked out some drinks, we drank out of fancy glasses, and I made some charcuterie boards and called it dinner! <3 <3
December 19 Advent Activity: Kindness Charts
Emilia's class does these "put up charts" where they write the special helper's name in the middle and everyone takes turns saying kind things about that person and the teacher writes them down. She has hers from a couple weeks ago and loves to read it, so they asked if we could do them for the family!
Their final tallies. Dom on the right, Emilia on the left. Clearly Dom was more concerned with accuracy of counting. She was more concerned with enjoying the journey.
Even if I wasn't doing the advent activities, we'd be eating dinner every day, going for walks, coloring, having family Christmases, etc. This is just what I like to do to create magic and anticipation for the season! We never really did the Santa thing (not intentionally, it just never really happened), we don't do Elf on the Shelf, we don't do Sinterklaas, or many other common traditions!
Also, I've been doing this for 3 or 4 years now, so it's a pretty well-oiled machine haha.
