Christmas is a
very special time at our house
- how can it not be when you have three very
excited girls counting down the days!!!
We have quite a
few traditions that
MUST be followed in our house as I'm
sure
most families do - some of which I'd like
to share with our web travellers.....
The - it is very important
to get out the Advent Calendar
and let it hang to get the wrinkles out, at least 1 week before
December 1st.
This is something that I made about five years ago because I
couldn't handle the horrible
chocolate in the ones you buy (after the 1st week I'd find them
uneaten somewhere!)
The calendar is about 4 feet tall and has 25 pockets complete
with velcro fasteners.
It is a christmas cat design with cats in different sizes of
presents and the presents
I made into pockets.
The first year was very exciting! I
went out and bought small little surprises to put in each day.
(which ended up
being very expensive). At our house - everything is done in
'birth order' - so the oldest goes first the first year and then
you need to keep track of who starts the next year. There's
usually a bit of squabbling as to who's turn it is
- so Daddy suggested marking it on next year's calendar - say
about 30th November??!!!
Now why didn't I think of that!
The next year I decided to put in a
few purchased surprises (little toys) and the rest of the
days I would put in small candy canes, wrapped candies or money.
(A little less expensive). I figure you have to
make it interesting! The following year, I decided that I would
make a puzzle - something to do with Christmas.
(The puzzle idea actually came to me when I realized I hadn't
bought anything for the calendar and it was a
couple of days before December 1st!!) Each day in the Advent
Calendar there would be a letter (and a candy)
which would correspond to a space on the puzzle sheet. I think
the puzzle was "Jack Frost nipping at your nose".
The hard part was finding a puzzle with 25 letters! Anyway as
soon as the puzzle was solved - they would each
receive a wrapped present - usually a beanie baby or I think one
year there was a small Anne Geddes doll.
(much easier to shop for one present instead of 25 small ones -
and I think the girls liked the idea of
solving a puzzle at the same time)
This year I again tried something
new because I found that once the puzzle was solved - the
excitement
for checking the calendar in the morning was gone. I kept with
the same puzzle idea - but gave them each
their own puzzle - 'wheel of fortune style' - with Shaelyn of
course getting the easiest puzzle and Brittany and
Shelby's a little harder - hey no fair! Whoever's turn it is,
gets to choose a letter and I write all letters on the puzzle.
So far so good. Also, I put another puzzle in the Advent pockets
- which are cut up pictures of Disney Characters
and a candy - that way they will still have incentive to keep the
calendar going even after they have solved the Wheel
of Fortune puzzle. They will each receive a small present when
they guess each puzzle.
- In our house,
Christmas presents are always put under the tree as soon as they
are wrapped. It is something that we always did and by the time
Christmas Eve rolls around, there's quite a few
under the tree!! We ran into a few problems as the kids got older
and began shaking and comparing, until I read
in a magazine about this great idea of putting code names on the
gifts. You choose a group of names such as
Disney Characters, Reindeer Names, Seven Dwarfs, etc. (this year
we are using Toy Story II Characters).
You assign 2 names to each child and start wrapping.......Make
sure you remember who is who. It really
does cut down on the shaking and comparing who gets the biggest
presents, etc. The fun is now focussed
on trying to guess which character you are. The answer as to who
you are, is in the 25th pocket of the
Advent Calendar on Christmas morning - only opened after
breakfast and after Santa's presents and
stockings are opened. The kids have really enjoyed this part of
Christmas.
They have also made the
act of opening presents last longer. Each present is opened and
everyone must ooh
and aah before another is handed out and opened. Some Christmas
mornings have gone for 3 hours before the last
present is opened!
- The two musts
for Christmas are shortbread and peanut butter balls. Shortbread
can be eated at anytime in our house - we all love it! Sometimes
we just cut out circles and dip one end in white
or milk chocolate. Sometimes when we have lots of time we dye one
half red and twist rolled out 'snakes' to make
candy canes, which grandma from Daddy's side of the family used
to make. The peanut butter balls are a tradition
from my side of the family. My grandmother used to make them for
my siblings and myself whenever we came to visit.
They are so yummy! We usually make a few batches and share them
with friends and family as gifts.
Peanut Butter Balls
½ cup and 2 tbsp. butter
2 cup chunky peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cup powdered sugar
3 cup Rice Krispies
18 oz. Chocolate chips
¼ bar paraffin
Directions:
Blend butter and peanut butter together. Mix in sugar and
vanilla. Stir in Rice Krispies, using your
hands, and form the mixture into balls. Melt the chocolate and
paraffin in a double boiler. Dip the balls in the
chocolate-paraffin mixture. Place them on a cookie sheet, which
has been covered with waxed paper.
Pop into freezer for 5 minutes to set. Note: If mixture is too
dry, add a little water, 1 teaspoon at a time.
If mixture is too wet, put in refrigerator before forming into
balls. (Instead of using chocolate with paraffin
which my grandma used - I use chocolate wafers which are
available in most grocery stores and have paraffin in them).
- I began collecting nutcrackers after my good friend
Les gave
me this wonderful Santa nutcracker one Christmas. I now have them
all over the house at
Christmas - the biggest one being about three feet tall (made of
paper mache). I now have
friends and family coming to me and telling me where they've seen
'the neatest' nutcracker.
I bought some beautiful ones for the tree this year. They're
about 5 inches tall, wood and
they actually have a movable arm in back. I must say I drew the
line this Christmas while
shopping at Costco - they had a nutcracker there which was about
six feet high and
about C$400.00. It really was something!
The - I must admit that we are one of 'those' people that love our artificial tree. I know, I know - there's no smell....... But if you want the smell of drying, dieing, cedar, spruce or pine, you can always bring in some extra boughs and lay them by the heat registers!!! I think instead of calling them artificial trees they should market them as 'stress relievers'! You can take it out of the box whenever you feel like it and you can take it down when you're ready - not when the tree has become a fire hazard................. Anyway, in our house the tree usually comes out of its box while I'm away at work on a Saturday, sometime in December. I'm greeted at the door when I come home with "Mommy the tree's up - can we decorate it now?" Usually when I come home, it's the last thing I want to start doing, because I know it will take about 2 hours to get it ready for them to decorate. Why is it that putting on the lights has become a 'mom-thing'? It's really hard not to get caught up in their excitement though....... So I grab something quick to eat and head out in search of the hundreds of lights. The red string of lights MUST go in the centre around the trunk of the tree
and the white string MUST stay lit and the coloured string IS ALLOWED to blink!!! I also have the pleasure of putting on the red string of beads - it must be 40 feet long! By the time I'm finished preparing the tree it's usually time for the kids to go to bed. No fair! I lay out all the decorations on the coffee table ready to decorate tomorrow........It just so happens that tomorrow we have back-to-back soccer games and a referee game for Brittany thrown in.... so this year we waited until Sunday after supper to decorate.. I must say, it looks BEAUTIFUL.......Oh and of course, we have the 'birth-order' thing happening with the Angel too. This year it was Brittany's turn. (that of course gets marked on the calendar too!)
The picture above is Shaelyn's turn last year.**Ever wonder what to do about those 'first baby shoes'.....here's an idea - lace them up with fancy ribbon and hang them on your tree! It's a great keepsake that you bring out once a year. I have one pair of shoes that all 3 girls wore, which I hang front and centre!
- The wait for Santa to come to our house
is very magical. First the girls
start making their lists - some conservative and some endless!!
This year Brittany and Shelby
added up the cost of the items on Shaelyn's wishlist to Santa and
it came to $850.00!!!! - I must say
that at the bottom of the list, in smaller letters was the phrase
"you don't have to get me everything
on this list". That should make Santa breathe a
sigh of relief!! Of course there's always the reading of
"The Night Before Christmas" and leaving the Shortbread
and Peanut Butter Balls and egg nog in
the HO HO cup for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.
Daddy also helps the
girls set up the Santa Trap every year. This
consists of a string of many, many bells,
which are strung across the fireplace in hopes of
"catching" Santa. My question has always been -
"What will you do with him when you catch him???" There
have been many a Christmases
where I must say I have heard those bells jingle!!!
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from Brittany's, Shelby's and Shaelyn's mom........
Music Playing:
The Twelve Days of Christmas
