This was a full week. In addition to our normal activities like dance, girl scouts, school, worship team rehearsal, and work, we had a few activities we wanted to get done. Honestly, we had to bump a few things along the way too. this year has been harder for us than the past. This is due to a few things. The first is that we now have to work around a full week (and full day) of school schedule for Kenzie. The other is that Steven has been working some long hours lately. He isn't traveling much right now but that doesn't mean he isn't working a lot so we sometimes have to move things to accommodate all of that. Then, we are just tired this year. I think we are sort of still getting back to normal after a difficult virus that went through the house but hit Steven and Will the hardest. Plus, the weather has been up and down lately which makes Kenzie's and my allergies act up but causes a lot of sinus pressure. Oh well. It is what it is. The kids (and adults) are enjoying all our activities this year and we are making a lot of new family memories so we are good with that.
So... onto the week.
To start, the kids are still picking wrapped Christmas books on specific days to unwrap and read. And they are still loving it. We alternate who picks each day and even though these are all already books that we owned, it's like they are seeing them for the first time. It's been fun doing this and next year we hope that we have enough books to do every day. We could have made the investment for this year to gather the final 5 or so books, but we decided that we would just set what days the kids open then. This is good because we are often busy at night and there are some nights that we know we would likely forget anyway. So this is working out. Also, as I type this I just thought of another book that we own that never got wrapped... I will need to hunt that one down because it is one less that we are short next year. Haha!
On Day 5, Kenny decided that he needed a band-aid. Or 2. Or 7. The kids took forever to find him. They were not prepared for him to be anywhere but the living room or kitchen and had to be prodded to start checking other rooms. When they found him, they were super excited. They thought he was hilarious. It appears that some of the simpler antics he participates in are funnier when you are 3 or 5. Thank goodness because as you will see later on through this week, Kenny was a bit tired later in the week and he seemed to be lacking a bit in the crazy antics department.
Our activity of the day was to pick out toys for Toys for Tots. This is something we have done every year since we started doing our advent activities. We want to make sure that the kids understand that Christmas is more about giving than getting. Toys for Tots is just one way we try to do that. Steven wasn't able to make it home on time to join us at the store so I was on my own. I admit, I was nervous about getting this one done this year with the kids at the ages they are currently. This is a hard concept for young children. They love to look at toys and often ask if they can get specific ones or ask to put specific ones on their own Christmas lists. Although we luck out and while our kids may ask for toys when they see them in stores, they are okay with us telling them "no" so I knew that we wouldn't have any meltdowns or anything but I wasn't sure how they would handle buying without a specific person in mind and letting them pick what they liked as if it was something for them. This year though, Kenzie once again showed us how much she has matured in the last year. Just as she did with the ornaments, she walked up and down the aisle slowly before she made a choice of which toy was best. I also told her what her price limit was and because of all she has learned, she didn't need me to help her understand if she was over her budget. She also knew if she spent less than what I gave her, if she could get something else, as well. It was pretty impressive. She ended up choosing this doll head thing that you can style her hair. She told me that "Another little girl is going to LOVE this. She can do her hair. Look! These are some of the hairstyles you can do." (while showing me the back with hair style ideas.) She was so sweet. Will had a more typical 3-year-old reaction but even he did well. He told me that he wanted to pick out a boy toy because he is a boy. He tried to pick a few things over his budget before settling on a motorcycle that made noise. He was pretty happy with it. He never asked for anything for himself though he did try to open the motorcycle while we were sitting in Kenzie's dance class. Part of that though was because he was bored. We were pretty proud of both kids. Usually after we pick out a toy, we would find a Toys for Tots drop off location and take them there but this year we are holding on to them for a week or two until the Reindeer Run as there will be a drop off location there. Side note: If you are reading his Nana (and I know you are), you could always bring a toy, too. ;)
On Day 6, the race was on! Kenny set up a bit of a race and it seems he was winning when it must have ended because we woke up. I would like to point out that it is a good thing Will can sleep through anything because I have a sneaking suspicion that when Kenny went into his room to borrow a few cars for the race, he likely set off a fire truck in his car bin two or maybe even three times that had quite a loud siren. I also imagine that when he returned the cars the next night, it happened again. At least twice. I'm just guessing though...
The activity for the day was to (finally) put up our inside decorations. Steven and I think this may be the latest we have ever gone into December without having the outside lights and indoor decor put up. We love Christmas around here and usually we are super gung ho to get everything together but we have just been so busy. Also, I think that Thanksgiving being earlier than normal sort of threw us. Sometimes it is hard to remember that it is only the first full week in December because Thanksgiving was so long ago. Doing indoor decor takes a while so I actually ended up starting it earlier in the day by myself while both kids were in school. I made sure to hold things such as the nativity scene and the kids' personal trees for their rooms. I went ahead and set up things like the little town alone though because I always do it alone. Their favorite part was probably decorating their own trees. Kenzie did hers that day but Will didn't yet have any ornaments as we decided to not get him any last year because we were worried he would just mess with them. Instead, I took him to the store the next day and let him pick some out. He loved putting them on the next day. Overall, their favorite part of the trees was putting on their stars. They love having them in their rooms this year. I think they also enjoyed helping me set up the nativity. We talked about each piece and who each person was. (Anytime Will sees a pictures or figuring of Jesus this year he yells "Jesus!" really loudly. It's been pretty funny. He is super excited about knowing that Christmas is Jesus's birthday. Anyway, then they hung their stockings with minimal arguing about whose went where or how they should hang. They helped with quite a bit of other things too. Kenzie seems to have taken on the job of changing the Christmas countdown on our snowman this year. She does it every morning when she gets up. She called me out the other day though when I forgot to change the plate countdown we have. (Something I made last year or the year before. I plan to have a post after the holiday season about some of the things we have made over the years that we use as decor each year.) I told her I would do it after dinner and she told me in this exasperated voice to just go ahead and knock off another day so it would be right for the next day since I would probably forget again. She wasn't wrong... Haha! The kids are becoming more and more helpful each year (and more opinionated and sassy). If we had more time, I would have let them do even more but with Kenzie being in school full time now, we are limited on time quite often. We were left with a couple more things like putting up the artificial tree in the playroom window (which still hasn't been done...) but we just ran out of time before needing to get ready to go to Girl Scouts so that had to wait. Eventually it all get done though.
On Day 7 Kenny phoned it in, I think. He was found hanging in Jack's stocking. The kids took a while to find him but once they did, they thought it was hilarious. They decided he must have wanted to watch TV with them so that was why he was in the stocking nearby.
Our original plan for the day was to go get our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, Steven had a major issue come up at work and we had to delay that plan. He didn't make it home until late. It was almost 10pm before he rolled into the house and the poor guy had not even had dinner yet. The kids didn't mind though and we told them that we would go the next day.
On Day 8 Kenny decided to play a bit of hide and seek. The kids favorite part of Kenny is not so much what he is doing that day, but more so about finding him. So, he decided to go into stealth ninja elf mode and hide in a candle holder that is not currently housing a candle. It actually didn't take them too long to find him. I think it was actually Will that found him first. This was probably the first time he found him first all season. It isn't for lack of trying though. Again, the easy elf antic was a hit.
That day we finally made it over to Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree. We lucked out that they had gotten a new shipment in earlier in the day. So we had our pick of the litter. Bonus that all the trees in the shipment were super fat and full. They told us it was likely to be their last shipment of the season so we were happy with our luck. We opened one tree and it was super fat but not too tall. We decided to try another one and it was awesome. Super fat and pretty tall. The guys helped us pack it up and we took it home and when we got it out of the truck, we took it to the front porch so we could leave it there overnight until we could get it into the house the next day and we realized it was so heavy! We had to ask the neighbor over the next day to help us get it in. When we did and we opened it... holy fat tree Batman! We actually had some serious concerns that it would not fit in the corner we usually put it in. Not complaining. I'm loving this tree. Steven and I put the lights on it once we had it in the house while the kids were sleeping. The next day we lit it for them and they were enamored. So much so that when we got home later that night, they immediately asked us to "light the tree". It's funny though because looking at it, the tree appears sort of short. It isn't any shorter than our normal trees, but it is so fat, that it's like an optical illusion.
On Day 9 Kenny decided to hang out in our mini tree. The kids found him easily but again, this was a hit. So weird.
That day we mailed our Christmas cards. That was fun. Will fell asleep in the car so I had to hold him and one handed apply stamps. Kenzie tried to help but she kept putting them on crooked. It was okay until she tried to remove one and re-stick it. Um. Not how that works. Will woke up just in time to put the cards in the mailbox though. The kids love that part. That night we went over to Kenzie's school for the Snow Much Fun event. It was an event that had "snow" for the kids to play in along with music and hot chocolate. It was hot outside so the hot chocolate was not necessarily needed, but it was a super fun time. Will refused to try out the snow. It wasn't the normal foam but rather some sort of fluff type stuff. Kenzie thought it was awesome though. We had a great time.
On Day 10 Kenny read a book to a few of the kids' stuffed animals (note the book is about trucks and each stuffed animal has their own truck) with Santa helping. The kids thought this was hilarious for some reason.
Our activity for the day was to go to Hollywood Studios. We had to reassess our plans some though when the weather took a fairly drastic change (which we knew was coming a bit in advance, of course but it's never fun to change 30-40 degrees in less than 24 hours). We still went to Hollywood Studios but we changed our FP to later in the day and decided that we wouldn't stay for Jingle Bell Jingle Bam. We made it down to the park and went over to see the Beauty and the Beast show. We have only seen this with the kids once and both were excited to see it again. I think they both really enjoyed it. Kenzie loved the end when Belle came out in her big dress and when we left Will said, "I liked that, Mommy!" so it was a winner. Then we headed over to Indiana Jones. Kenzie was iffy about going in because she doesn't like how hot the fire is during the show but we assured her that with it being so cold, she wouldn't mind. Will LOVED the show this time. I don't think he remembered much of it from when we saw it with them before. Kenzie was even okay with the fire. Will exclaimed about how "cool" the show was through the entire thing. It was time to eat after that and we brought our dinner as usual. The only issue was that in the cold, everyone was sitting inside to eat. It was hard to find a seat but we finally found one and everyone scarfed down their food. After that it was dark so we walked over the street that leads to Tower of Terror because there was a special "show" in which they used their projection magic to turn the tower into 4 different scenes. We watched each one twice and the kids really enjoyed it. I admit, Steven and I did too. The projection always amazes me. We decided to head out after that because we were tired and honestly, we just didn't want to deal with fighting everyone to get on the tram when Jingle Bell Jingle Bam ended and we have seen it before so we called it a night. We were able to catch some fireworks from the car on our way out so the kids were good with that. They both made it home awake somehow but went to bed super easily once we got home.
On Day 10 Kenny "drew" on our family portrait. (Secret: It was black paper taped to the canvas... there was no way we were letting Kenny actually draw on a canvas portrait.) The only issue was that he fell on the canvas sometime in the night. We convinced the kids that we must have startled him when he woke up and he fell. I used tongs to pick him up and put him on the counter so he would not accidentally get touched laying on the floor (or become a dog chew toy). The kids were fine with that. They thought the mustaches were hilarious.
Initially we had plans to go to Light Up UCF but we decided to skip that because of the cold. We figured why do that to ourselves rather than just wait it out a bit and go when it was a bit warmer. It's Florida. Give it a week. It may not go back to 80 degrees for a while (though it wouldn't surprise us if it did), but it won't stay 30 at night for long either. Plus, we had not yet decorated the tree and we had church in the morning so we decided to decorate the tree after church so that it would be done. The kids were way more excited with the tree than anything else anyway. We also had to finish the lights outside as we had just a bit left to do AND Steven and Will went out alone on Saturday morning and came home with a new blow up penguin. So that had to be put out. Those two are trouble. We got the lights done after lunch and then set to decorating the tree. That monster tree is so big that we used every ornament we had on the front and were thankful that it sits in a corner (which is barely fits in this year) because it has no ornaments on the back. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone. Steven and I still have to tinsel it which we may do after the kids go to bed tonight, but other than that and the train, it is done. =)
So that is another fun week in the books. Bring on Week 3!!
So... onto the week.
To start, the kids are still picking wrapped Christmas books on specific days to unwrap and read. And they are still loving it. We alternate who picks each day and even though these are all already books that we owned, it's like they are seeing them for the first time. It's been fun doing this and next year we hope that we have enough books to do every day. We could have made the investment for this year to gather the final 5 or so books, but we decided that we would just set what days the kids open then. This is good because we are often busy at night and there are some nights that we know we would likely forget anyway. So this is working out. Also, as I type this I just thought of another book that we own that never got wrapped... I will need to hunt that one down because it is one less that we are short next year. Haha!
On Day 5, Kenny decided that he needed a band-aid. Or 2. Or 7. The kids took forever to find him. They were not prepared for him to be anywhere but the living room or kitchen and had to be prodded to start checking other rooms. When they found him, they were super excited. They thought he was hilarious. It appears that some of the simpler antics he participates in are funnier when you are 3 or 5. Thank goodness because as you will see later on through this week, Kenny was a bit tired later in the week and he seemed to be lacking a bit in the crazy antics department.
Our activity of the day was to pick out toys for Toys for Tots. This is something we have done every year since we started doing our advent activities. We want to make sure that the kids understand that Christmas is more about giving than getting. Toys for Tots is just one way we try to do that. Steven wasn't able to make it home on time to join us at the store so I was on my own. I admit, I was nervous about getting this one done this year with the kids at the ages they are currently. This is a hard concept for young children. They love to look at toys and often ask if they can get specific ones or ask to put specific ones on their own Christmas lists. Although we luck out and while our kids may ask for toys when they see them in stores, they are okay with us telling them "no" so I knew that we wouldn't have any meltdowns or anything but I wasn't sure how they would handle buying without a specific person in mind and letting them pick what they liked as if it was something for them. This year though, Kenzie once again showed us how much she has matured in the last year. Just as she did with the ornaments, she walked up and down the aisle slowly before she made a choice of which toy was best. I also told her what her price limit was and because of all she has learned, she didn't need me to help her understand if she was over her budget. She also knew if she spent less than what I gave her, if she could get something else, as well. It was pretty impressive. She ended up choosing this doll head thing that you can style her hair. She told me that "Another little girl is going to LOVE this. She can do her hair. Look! These are some of the hairstyles you can do." (while showing me the back with hair style ideas.) She was so sweet. Will had a more typical 3-year-old reaction but even he did well. He told me that he wanted to pick out a boy toy because he is a boy. He tried to pick a few things over his budget before settling on a motorcycle that made noise. He was pretty happy with it. He never asked for anything for himself though he did try to open the motorcycle while we were sitting in Kenzie's dance class. Part of that though was because he was bored. We were pretty proud of both kids. Usually after we pick out a toy, we would find a Toys for Tots drop off location and take them there but this year we are holding on to them for a week or two until the Reindeer Run as there will be a drop off location there. Side note: If you are reading his Nana (and I know you are), you could always bring a toy, too. ;)
On Day 6, the race was on! Kenny set up a bit of a race and it seems he was winning when it must have ended because we woke up. I would like to point out that it is a good thing Will can sleep through anything because I have a sneaking suspicion that when Kenny went into his room to borrow a few cars for the race, he likely set off a fire truck in his car bin two or maybe even three times that had quite a loud siren. I also imagine that when he returned the cars the next night, it happened again. At least twice. I'm just guessing though...
The activity for the day was to (finally) put up our inside decorations. Steven and I think this may be the latest we have ever gone into December without having the outside lights and indoor decor put up. We love Christmas around here and usually we are super gung ho to get everything together but we have just been so busy. Also, I think that Thanksgiving being earlier than normal sort of threw us. Sometimes it is hard to remember that it is only the first full week in December because Thanksgiving was so long ago. Doing indoor decor takes a while so I actually ended up starting it earlier in the day by myself while both kids were in school. I made sure to hold things such as the nativity scene and the kids' personal trees for their rooms. I went ahead and set up things like the little town alone though because I always do it alone. Their favorite part was probably decorating their own trees. Kenzie did hers that day but Will didn't yet have any ornaments as we decided to not get him any last year because we were worried he would just mess with them. Instead, I took him to the store the next day and let him pick some out. He loved putting them on the next day. Overall, their favorite part of the trees was putting on their stars. They love having them in their rooms this year. I think they also enjoyed helping me set up the nativity. We talked about each piece and who each person was. (Anytime Will sees a pictures or figuring of Jesus this year he yells "Jesus!" really loudly. It's been pretty funny. He is super excited about knowing that Christmas is Jesus's birthday. Anyway, then they hung their stockings with minimal arguing about whose went where or how they should hang. They helped with quite a bit of other things too. Kenzie seems to have taken on the job of changing the Christmas countdown on our snowman this year. She does it every morning when she gets up. She called me out the other day though when I forgot to change the plate countdown we have. (Something I made last year or the year before. I plan to have a post after the holiday season about some of the things we have made over the years that we use as decor each year.) I told her I would do it after dinner and she told me in this exasperated voice to just go ahead and knock off another day so it would be right for the next day since I would probably forget again. She wasn't wrong... Haha! The kids are becoming more and more helpful each year (and more opinionated and sassy). If we had more time, I would have let them do even more but with Kenzie being in school full time now, we are limited on time quite often. We were left with a couple more things like putting up the artificial tree in the playroom window (which still hasn't been done...) but we just ran out of time before needing to get ready to go to Girl Scouts so that had to wait. Eventually it all get done though.
On Day 7 Kenny phoned it in, I think. He was found hanging in Jack's stocking. The kids took a while to find him but once they did, they thought it was hilarious. They decided he must have wanted to watch TV with them so that was why he was in the stocking nearby.
Our original plan for the day was to go get our Christmas tree. Unfortunately, Steven had a major issue come up at work and we had to delay that plan. He didn't make it home until late. It was almost 10pm before he rolled into the house and the poor guy had not even had dinner yet. The kids didn't mind though and we told them that we would go the next day.
On Day 8 Kenny decided to play a bit of hide and seek. The kids favorite part of Kenny is not so much what he is doing that day, but more so about finding him. So, he decided to go into stealth ninja elf mode and hide in a candle holder that is not currently housing a candle. It actually didn't take them too long to find him. I think it was actually Will that found him first. This was probably the first time he found him first all season. It isn't for lack of trying though. Again, the easy elf antic was a hit.
That day we finally made it over to Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree. We lucked out that they had gotten a new shipment in earlier in the day. So we had our pick of the litter. Bonus that all the trees in the shipment were super fat and full. They told us it was likely to be their last shipment of the season so we were happy with our luck. We opened one tree and it was super fat but not too tall. We decided to try another one and it was awesome. Super fat and pretty tall. The guys helped us pack it up and we took it home and when we got it out of the truck, we took it to the front porch so we could leave it there overnight until we could get it into the house the next day and we realized it was so heavy! We had to ask the neighbor over the next day to help us get it in. When we did and we opened it... holy fat tree Batman! We actually had some serious concerns that it would not fit in the corner we usually put it in. Not complaining. I'm loving this tree. Steven and I put the lights on it once we had it in the house while the kids were sleeping. The next day we lit it for them and they were enamored. So much so that when we got home later that night, they immediately asked us to "light the tree". It's funny though because looking at it, the tree appears sort of short. It isn't any shorter than our normal trees, but it is so fat, that it's like an optical illusion.
On Day 9 Kenny decided to hang out in our mini tree. The kids found him easily but again, this was a hit. So weird.
That day we mailed our Christmas cards. That was fun. Will fell asleep in the car so I had to hold him and one handed apply stamps. Kenzie tried to help but she kept putting them on crooked. It was okay until she tried to remove one and re-stick it. Um. Not how that works. Will woke up just in time to put the cards in the mailbox though. The kids love that part. That night we went over to Kenzie's school for the Snow Much Fun event. It was an event that had "snow" for the kids to play in along with music and hot chocolate. It was hot outside so the hot chocolate was not necessarily needed, but it was a super fun time. Will refused to try out the snow. It wasn't the normal foam but rather some sort of fluff type stuff. Kenzie thought it was awesome though. We had a great time.
On Day 10 Kenny read a book to a few of the kids' stuffed animals (note the book is about trucks and each stuffed animal has their own truck) with Santa helping. The kids thought this was hilarious for some reason.
Our activity for the day was to go to Hollywood Studios. We had to reassess our plans some though when the weather took a fairly drastic change (which we knew was coming a bit in advance, of course but it's never fun to change 30-40 degrees in less than 24 hours). We still went to Hollywood Studios but we changed our FP to later in the day and decided that we wouldn't stay for Jingle Bell Jingle Bam. We made it down to the park and went over to see the Beauty and the Beast show. We have only seen this with the kids once and both were excited to see it again. I think they both really enjoyed it. Kenzie loved the end when Belle came out in her big dress and when we left Will said, "I liked that, Mommy!" so it was a winner. Then we headed over to Indiana Jones. Kenzie was iffy about going in because she doesn't like how hot the fire is during the show but we assured her that with it being so cold, she wouldn't mind. Will LOVED the show this time. I don't think he remembered much of it from when we saw it with them before. Kenzie was even okay with the fire. Will exclaimed about how "cool" the show was through the entire thing. It was time to eat after that and we brought our dinner as usual. The only issue was that in the cold, everyone was sitting inside to eat. It was hard to find a seat but we finally found one and everyone scarfed down their food. After that it was dark so we walked over the street that leads to Tower of Terror because there was a special "show" in which they used their projection magic to turn the tower into 4 different scenes. We watched each one twice and the kids really enjoyed it. I admit, Steven and I did too. The projection always amazes me. We decided to head out after that because we were tired and honestly, we just didn't want to deal with fighting everyone to get on the tram when Jingle Bell Jingle Bam ended and we have seen it before so we called it a night. We were able to catch some fireworks from the car on our way out so the kids were good with that. They both made it home awake somehow but went to bed super easily once we got home.
On Day 10 Kenny "drew" on our family portrait. (Secret: It was black paper taped to the canvas... there was no way we were letting Kenny actually draw on a canvas portrait.) The only issue was that he fell on the canvas sometime in the night. We convinced the kids that we must have startled him when he woke up and he fell. I used tongs to pick him up and put him on the counter so he would not accidentally get touched laying on the floor (or become a dog chew toy). The kids were fine with that. They thought the mustaches were hilarious.
Initially we had plans to go to Light Up UCF but we decided to skip that because of the cold. We figured why do that to ourselves rather than just wait it out a bit and go when it was a bit warmer. It's Florida. Give it a week. It may not go back to 80 degrees for a while (though it wouldn't surprise us if it did), but it won't stay 30 at night for long either. Plus, we had not yet decorated the tree and we had church in the morning so we decided to decorate the tree after church so that it would be done. The kids were way more excited with the tree than anything else anyway. We also had to finish the lights outside as we had just a bit left to do AND Steven and Will went out alone on Saturday morning and came home with a new blow up penguin. So that had to be put out. Those two are trouble. We got the lights done after lunch and then set to decorating the tree. That monster tree is so big that we used every ornament we had on the front and were thankful that it sits in a corner (which is barely fits in this year) because it has no ornaments on the back. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone. Steven and I still have to tinsel it which we may do after the kids go to bed tonight, but other than that and the train, it is done. =)
So that is another fun week in the books. Bring on Week 3!!
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