The Third Day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas, we did a little shopping. 

Eva had taken the initiative to buy presents for everyone during the Santa's Workshop at school.  She took her own money, picked out her own gifts and really showcased her giving nature. 

Last night, while Eva was a basketball practice, I took Alex and Layla to a few stores to pick out gifts for each other.  While we were hugely unsuccessful at the first two stores, Alex did manage to get his gifts and I only have two gifts left to purchase...even if we had to make a third attempt. 

Layla behaved as if she had never been in a store in her life!  The idea of picking out things for others was lost on her.  She did thoroughly enjoy running through the stores shouting how much she wanted EVERYTHING.  She proceeded to point out everything in the stores that she didn't have exclaiming she "needed" it.  If it wasn't so annoying it would have been cute.

Finally, I gave up and took Eva and Layla home.  Alex and I then actually shopped. 

Oh, Alex!  That kid melts my heart.  While I was busy adding items to my cart and checking things off my list, Alex picked out a present for me, went and purchased it by himself and took it out to the car to keep it hidden from me.  He is such a sweetheart.

So, we are down to the final, final list.  I still need to pick up some gifts from Layla as well as Goddaughter's and Godfather's.  Then I am FINISHED (and CANNOT shop NO MORE)!

Grace still needs to get presents.  Hopefully she has saved enough of her own money.  Although that is highly doubtful considering how much money she spends on fast food.

I'm hopeful that the fourth and fifth days of Christmas will be quiet and uneventful. Especially considering the kids (except Grace who is "studying" for finals) are with their dad.  I'm making another attempt this evening to get my last two gifts, picking up Jaxson from the groomers and going home to climb in bed.  Ha ha ha ha!  Who am I kidding?!?  I'll be lucky to be in bed by midnight. 

Tis the season!

Second Day of Christmas

Outdoor decorations and Cookies!

I have put up our outdoor decorations three times this Christmas season.  The first go around, the used LED lights on the porch.  But I realized that they give off a white, almost blueish, glow.  My candles, however, put out a soft yellow light.  The combo of the two was hideous.  So, I unplugged them and tried again.

I purchased new lights and the next weekend I finally got around to stringing them up.  As I was wrapping the lights around the railings, I realized that they were multi-colored lights.  I meant to buy clear lights, but somehow purchased several boxes of colored lights.  I went ahead and put them up thinking whatever, I tried.  I then noticed that none of my candles were working.  When I purchased new candles for all of my windows, I thought I had bought the ones with automatic timers.  That was not the case, though.  All of the batteries had died since originally install them since they never turned off.

I was very disappointed with the way the outside looked.  But the inside looked amazing, so I thought again, whatever.  I couldn't spend the time and money one more time to try to get it right.

But, me being me, I also couldn't just let it look ugly.

So, yesterday, I purchased five more boxes of clear lights.  I had Alex and Eva with me so I had each of them double check I was buying the right ones.  Then I bought more candles and again had the kids double check that they were the automatic timer ones.  

In the drizzle yesterday after school, I hung our outdoor decorations for the last time. 

The third time really is a charm!

For our second day of Christmas activity, we baked some cookies!  I totally cheated and bought cookie mixes instead of going from scratch.  But I do not care. It was much quicker and less messy this way.  And the kids really did do the majority of the work!  We have several more batches to make, but several more days worth of activities.

First Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, we celebrated with a family dinner and some Christmas lights. 

There are so many Christmas activities to indulge and participate, but only one day for Christmas.  In the past, I’ve tried to cram all the festivities into just a day or two.  But as the kids get older and my time with them becomes limited due to the parenting schedule, I decided to spread the Christmas activities over the 12 days prior to Christmas.

Sunday at mass, we celebrated the third Sunday in Advent.  This “Pink” Sunday represents the Joy of the Savior’s birth.  It was also the perfect day for our family to begin our celebration with our Holiday dinner.

May the Joy of the season be upon us.

Jingle Fest 2015

This year, I was fortunate enough to get 6 tickets for Jingle Fest.  So, we decided to invite Aunt Laura and my Goddaughter, Monica.  Plus it was Eva's first concert.

We all had so much fun!  It was a late night and a rough next morning, but it was worth it.  Especially the smiles on these faces.