December was a great month! We tried to keep things as less busy as possible and keep our focus on the Savior and family. We didn't do any traveling, which has been fun in the past, but it was great to do our own traditions and have fun with each other. One of the traditions we started was an advent calendar of activities to do together. It was so much more fun than using $1 store items. Some of the things we did include, a carriage ride, homemade gingerbread houses, cocoa by the fire, making snowflakes, Christmas movies, lots of crafting, cookie making, seeing Santa, sleeping under the tree. We also did secret elves (we all picked a name each week and did nice things for that person). The girls loved it and had fun doing things anonymously. Here are some pictures from the month.
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| Our own snowman. I just gave them the idea and they did the rest! |
COOKIES!!
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| We got creative with waffles and Mark made the nativity. |
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| Snowman waffle |
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| She loves putting all the jewelry on at the same time. |
The gingerbread houses! Mark did this growing up and we are continuing it. My first time making them without Grandma Tanner's help.
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| Finished! |
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| Visiting Daddy at work for lunch |
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| Elena "decorated" our counter. She also put some on Christine's crib. |
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| Sleeping under the tree |
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| Acting out the nativity. Adriana didn't feel well, but made a great narrator. |
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| Leaving cookies and carrots for Santa and the Reindeer. |
CHRISTMAS!!!
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| New PJs from Grandma Hansen |
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| A book Adriana made for Abigail & Elena |
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| Elena & Abigail picked out my favorite candy. |
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| They also got 2 boxes for Christmas - a big hit! A good reminder to us that simple can be best. |
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| Adriana and her new legos |
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| We gave rice bags to friends this year instead of cookies. |
One of the other gifts we gave the girls was a coupon book. They LOVED this! Some of them were, staying up late, getting an extra story, making something of their choice with us (a picture, food, or building something), get out of a job, special date... It was so fun!
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| Our Read-a-thon over the break |
New Year's Eve! I've heard about the idea of making a new year tree before, but never done it. We did it and had so much fun with it! The girls each got to pick something from the Dollar Store to decorate the tree with. Then that night we used the decorations for our celebration. Definitely a new tradition.
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| Bringing in the new year with sparkling cider (most of the girls preferred regular apple juice) and toast. A few years ago when we did our toast, they asked, "But where's the toast?" So now it's tradition to actually eat toast with our toast. |
Happy New Year!
