I guess I'm overly enthusiastic about Christmas. Well, really it's the Christmas season. The actual day of Christmas I don't find to be quite as enjoyable. But I do like building up to it. Paul says I go overboard. But the kids certainly aren't complaining, and I try my best to contain how crazy it can make me. It's all about creating memories for them, folks. So, this year, at the kids' request, I made the same Advent Christmas trees that I made last year- little paper trees, each containing an activity for each day in December. Usually the activities were simple, but there were a few big ones thrown in too. The boys looked forward, each morning, to taking their turn to either open the tree or read the slip of paper. There were only a FEW fights. And they only complained about the lameness of a FEW activities.
December 2- Ice cream after school
December 3- Fountain Inn Christmas parade. We went with Robin, Max, and Tessa. The dads didn't make it this year. Thankfully it wasn't as cold as last year and the parade actually seemed much shorter. I love watching Nathanael watch a parade. He is so happy and waves his sweet little hand at everyone passing by.
December 4- We sang Christmas carols and drank apple cider before bed
December 5- Paul and I had his company party to attend downtown, so the kids' special treat was a late night up with Aunt Lisa. They watched movies and ate popcorn and were in heaven.December 6- Charlie Brown Christmas play at a small local theater
December 7- Simpsonville Christmas parade. Dads attended and it was cold. We left before the parade ended. It seemed much longer than last year.
December 8- The assigned activity was to make and deliver treats, but at this point I can neither confirm that we actually make any nor that they were delivered.
December 9- Paper snowflakes.
December 10- Carriage ride to look at Christmas lights
December 11- Christmas stories before bed
December 12- Christmas lights walk in the neighborhood with hot cocoa. Certain individuals were party poopers and insisted it was too cold, so they abandoned the walk around a couple streets and returned via van while Sam and I continued on our walk.
December 13- The scheduled activity was supposed to be to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and have Grinch floats, but I could not find a way to watch it on tv anywhere on that particular night, so I had to persuade them that we would definitely do it another night. In fact, I never did find it available on any other suitable night, but they had actually already watched it on their night with Lisa, so I just tried to convince Nathanael that was good enough.
December 14- Attended Nathanael's Christmas program at school. He actually had two programs. For this one, the preschool was invited to sing at the church's real Christmas program. I was touched as I watched that sweet little boy sing and perform the sign language he had learned. He is definitely talented in performances like that.
December 15- Watched The Nativity
December 16- Attended a Christmas orchestra performance at the local theater. It started late, the boys were tired. They did well for the first bit and seemed decently interested. But we left at intermission.
December 17- Family gathering at friends' house
December 18- Dinner visit with our friends, the Simpsons. Nathanael spent the hours before their arrival planning activities for himself and Reagan, mainly a puppet show. It was such a delight to see them.
December 19- Christmas at Heritage Park. Claire fell asleep on the way, so I stood in line with the boys to ride the little park train in the dark to see their Christmas lights while Paul stayed with her in the van. There were also appearances by Frosty and Rudolph.
...After that it kinda fell apart. I had planned for a few bigger activities those few days the kids were out of school before Christmas, but others just wanted to stay home and I have no idea what simpler activities I ended up subbing in. I do know that one day we did finally have our Grinch floats, possibly while watching some other Christmas special.
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