December 1-7

I thought I'd share some pictures from my 25 Days of Christmas activities, so far. 

Day 1 - Make Christmas chain link countdowns (each child made their own)

Day 2 - Ice Cream Cone Christmas Tree craft

(Ryan's play date friend got to participate in the fun, too!)

Day 3 - Attend "Cookies and Milk with Santa" event

Day 4 - Visit Santa (the pictures turned out grainy b/c my camera was on the wrong setting!!!)

(the kids loved the "snow fall" after it got dark)

(this picture will always remind me that Ryan's heart was pounding out of his chest while we were in line to see Santa...it brought tears to my eyes)

(Ryan was selected by Mrs. Claus to be her helper during storytime.  He was SO proud.)

Day 5 - Take the kids shopping for Christmas gifts for each other

Day 6 - Pick 2 angels from the tree at the mall (each child's age) and have the kids shop for them.

Day 7 - Load the kids into the car in PJs with warm cocoa and drive around town looking at Christmas lights.

(At the last Griswald-like Christmas house, we ran into SANTA!!!  Quite the surprise, considering we found out he normally only stops by on the weekends.  The kids were so tongue-tied!)

To answer Cybil's question, "Did you do everything you've planned last year or did you make some changes?" YES, I switch the days around sometimes to better suit our schedule.  I switched day 5 and 6 this year because I found "$5 off a $5 purchase" coupons for Hallmark that expired Sunday and wanted Kaylin to use one to buy Ryan his Christmas gift.

(And THANK YOU to Darcy who let me know that my date for McCormick Train park was earlier than their Christmas lights are displayed.  I did a little rearranging to accommodate that and decided to check some websites to verify other activities as well.  Thanks again for the comment!)

More pictures in a few days...