Zoo Lights 2011

Christmas for Theo

Theo, our dog,  was the focus of the Christmas activity tonight. After dinner we went to neighborhood grocery store, and we picked out a few gifts for him. Tori was concerned about Theo's ability to unwrap his gifts, but was excited to hear that she would get to do the honors for him.  I think Macy will have more fun squeaking the squeaky toy she picked out for Theo than he will.  Then to top it off we had coco for a little bed time treat.

Christmas Oranges

Shoot dang, I didn't take pictures of our activity tonight, but one from  the web will do. It is nice to have something to look at.

Anywho, we listened to the story of the Christmas Orange, talked about how life is better when we serve other people, and then had a tasty citrus treat.

Merry Birthday

 Tonight we went to a Merry Birthday Party for Tori friend Charlie, and Macy's Friend Owen. It was a fun little get together with friends. Macy and Tori loved loved that Santa came to visit. Santa Clause sang a couple Christmas songs with all the kids, and gave them goodie bags.

Christmas Movie Night

Santa Clause 2

Neighbor Gifts

The plan for tonight was to make neighbor gifts. We were going to hand them out tonight as well, but we got a latter start than we planned. Oh well. Now we are hoping we don't freeze to badly when we go pass them out tomorrow.

The Shoes were Filled

and Tori and Macy were delighted

Christmas Around the World

 For the 17th of December we learned about Christmas celebrations from around the world for our activity.  We used an advent calender from the December 2009 issue of the Friend. Then we tried out a couple of the celebrations we learned about.

First we put candles up in our windows like people do in Ireland to show we would welcome Joseph and Mary in our home. Then we got balloons to and let them go in the night sky as an Argentine would do with a globos on Christmas Eve. We also had the girls put there shoes outside the door to be filled my St Nicholas like the children of Germany do on St. Nicholas Day.
I am most likely going to continue a Christmas activity like this every year because I love my girls learning about different cultures. If you would like to try this activity out then you can find what I used here.

fr

Not a PJ Party

Christmas parties are great. Not only are they fun, but it also makes our Christmas activity for the day a no brainier. I also like them because I feel a bit cooler and liked when I am invited to one. Tonight our family was invited to a party. So I felt cool, no pressure to plan something for an activity, and was ready to have fun. However I read the invite wrong.  Ugh. The invite mentioned wearing your pajamas so we did. Of course it was a joke; I see that now after my whole family showed up to a party dressed in night wear. Oh my goodness I felt so ridiculous, but with the red neck tendencies I was able to pull it off. LOL! 

My girls had a lot of fun with all the other children, and enjoyed eating treats. Jake and I had a great time chit chatting, and laughing with friends. Thanks for making me feel cool, Batemans, even in my PJs

Oh Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree has scoliosis. 

Also pictured is the newest ornament, Tori's Blankie. Now our tree is complete.

Red Neck

Oops, I meant to start writing this post before 12:00am so it would be archived for the 15th. I got wrapped in reading your recent posts, and time escaped me.  Oh well.

Anywho, Today for our Christmas activity I had planned to go read Christmas books at the Library. However Jake was delayed at work, and we needed to eat dinner and go to Sam's Club before I headed to a girls night, so time was tight. I did some quick thinking, and we combined our Christmas Activity with our errands at Sam's. Instead of going to the library we picked out a few books at Sam's, took them over to the couches on display, and read them Christmas books there. HAHAHA. I am shameless. Jake was so embarrassed that he wouldn't sit down with the girls and I. I guess it is border line red neck to do that, but I am from Louisiana so some of the red neck tendencies are just natural.

Cards

                           For today's activity(14th) we made cards to pass out at a retirement home.

decorating gingerbread men

Working on Cards

Guess what. We are sending out Christmas cards this year. I am so proud of myself. I hope to send them out as soon as tomorrow, so if you would like one give me your address. If you don't want to leave it publicly for the world to see call, text, email, or facebook it to me. In return I will send you my address so you can send me your Christmas card you are so proud of getting done this year. I will be honest, I really want your Christmas card. I  envy those people who have a wall full of Christmas cards displayed in their home of all their friends and family. It is my Christmas wish to have a wall full of cards to display. So send me your Christmas cards! Please and Thank you.

Christmas Fun: Letters to Santa

In an attempt to make me a less boring person Sylvia has planned out a billion things for us to do this holiday season. I am not sure if this sort of systematic desensitization therapy will work on me, however I did make an attempt to appease my wife by taking the lead on today's festive activity.

The activity... letters to Santa.

I acted as the scribe for Tori as she dictated her letter to me and signed it herself.

Sylvia wrote Macy's letter. Otherwise it would have only read "milk, bottle, BOTTLE! thank you".(Macy can be demanding but surprising very polite at the same time.)

I discovered a few more things that Sylvia wanted.

Last but not least...

Temple Square

Pics with Santa

Okay, I know it is a rip off to pay the prices to have my children say cheese with the Santa in the mall, but for some sticking reason I am hooked to going to the mall every year. Every year I feel I must take the girls to the mall for their picture with Santa Clause, because all the other Santa’s we come across just are not good enough in my twisted mind.  So today we went to the mall and bought over priced pictures to get my mall Santa fix and to fulfill December tenths Christmas Activity. We almost postponed tonight’s scheduled trip to the mall, but I just couldn’t shake the need to go.

This year Tori and Macy gave their best smiles yet for the man in red.

Finger Paints

Today to create a little Christmas cheer we finger painted holly wreaths. I don't get out paint very often because I have a hard enough time keeping my home clean and tidy as it is, so this was an extra fun night for Tori and Macy.  Anyway, after we were finished we hung our beautiful wreaths right where they should go, the front door.

Toys for Tots

Tonight we for our Christmas Activity we took the girls to the toy store, and had them pick out a toy for the Toys for Tots drive. We were going to drop them off tonight, but we didn't make it there before I turned around and found them sound asleep. We will drop off the gifts in morning.

Snowflakes

The 7th Christmas Activity 

Gingerbread Village

 For the sixth day of December we made gingerbread houses with friends Jeff and Shasta and my sister Angela and brother in law Loyd for our Christmas activity. This is our 3rd year to do houses together, and I can't wait till next year.

 

 working

 and working

 Macy and Jake are cranky about having their picture taken.

 

 This is my first ever pretty gingerbread house. Seriously all my other gingerbread houses I have made have been real bad.

 Angela's house.

Tori's house. I love the snow girl on the side of her house.

 Shasta's

 

Jeff's house was built in about 5 minutes. I think it very impressive considering the amount of time he did it in.

Shoot dang Loyd's house broke.

 Best part of the whole night was getting all the houses together to make our gingerbread village