Polar Express Night

I have been sooo excited about this.  It's POLAR EXPRESS night!
It looks like lots of presents, but one is the book and one is candy for Jed. :) I wrap everything this time of year!!
 

Here we go...
 

 

The girls opened a package with new PJs, junior mints and a bell necklace. 

Ta-Da... side not, I can't stand buying pajamas.  I mean I know they need them and they look cute in them, but no one really sees them and they are expensive!!
This is the one time of year I think it's worth it.  We take pj's to a lot of our Christmas Celebrations, and Claire's preschool program is performed in pj's. 
None the less, I waited until they were 50% off at Carters!
 

We read our story, The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, and then watched the Polar Express movie in the basement on the mattress.  Good times!  Except I don't like the movie nearly as much as the book.
 

Finally, it was off to look at Christmas lights with our Junior Mints and Hot Hot Chocolate!! Yay!
 

Snow Books & Activities

Yesterday, we had two presents to open...
 

Livie started and got trays?? and then...
 

Shaving Cream!
 

 

This was Claire's face when she put everything together! :)
 

Claire opened the book Dream Snow by Eric Carle, and after reading about snow,
we played and played in our Shaving Cream Snow!
It's also a great way to practice spelling or sight words!!  :)
 

Happy Fake Snow Days!!

Reindeer Snacks

It's that time, time for really healthy Reindeer Snacks!! :)
It actually worked perfect... Livie had snack day on Monday, and Claire on Tuesday. 
We used chocolate doughnuts, red hots, pretzels, and white icing eyes.

 

For a picture of the finished product and more explanation see our last year
Reindeer Snacks!

Happy Snacking

Gingerbread Village

Each year, we make a Gingerbread House.  Don't be too impressed, we buy a kit from Walmart!  However, I don't think it diminishes the fun one little bit!!  This year,

the girls got to open 2 presents this time:
1. The Gingerbread Baby a book by Jan Brett
(My favorite Gingerbread Story, it has a special ending!)
We always read this story before making our Gingerbread House.
It's a TRADITION! ;)
 

And 2. These gingerbread people Jed and I found at Target for $1.99.  They were/are a HUGE hit.  There are babies, adults, kids, a dog and cat gingerbread group.  In fact, I wish I would have bought more to keep for future years!!  A few have had to check into the Gingerbread Hospital, but icing is a perfect healing agent for them! :) 

It was very serious business, and extremely fun.
 

 

Yep, this happened!  Are you really surprised?
 

After our naps, we got back after it.  In the evening we made trees for our village.  I'm sure you've seen the waffle cone "Christmas" trees.  This was super fun too! 

 

Our completed village rests on the dining room table.  They play with it like a doll house.
 

 

And for fun, you can look back at our past Gingerbread House Creations...

Gingerbread House 2012

Gingerbread House 2011

Have fun making your own Gingerbread House or Village...

Traditions

You know how much I LOVE traditions!  So have you started yours?  Ours are in full force!  We are marking off and counting down the days until Christmas, the time we celebrate the
Birth of Our Savior!!

  

 

Did you wrap 25 or so books?!  Isn't it FUN?!  Every night we are opening up our new book.  The girls take turns, one colors in the ornament, and the other opens their book present!
 

Also, our friend, Ollie the Elf, is back.  The girls enjoy waking up and finding Ollie each morning.