Christmas Advent-How Did We Do?

 I have a tendency to make theses grand plans to do with the girls. but unfortunately things don't always get done.  I thought it would be fun to look back at our Christmas advent list and see what we actually did...

Dec 1 Make Christmas play dough with glitter
We made this here.

Dec 2 Christmas Mad Lib
Devon wrote a Mad Lib with the girls names in it.  It was pretty cute.



Dec 3 Write a letter to Santa and deliver it to Macy's
We did write letters to Santa, but I never delivered them to Macy's.  (Macy's donates a dollar to Make a Wish for every letter they receive.  I plan to just make a donation to Make a Wish since I never made it to Macy's)

Dec 4 Record family Christmas song
This year we recorded Bruce Springsteen's version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Day 5 Do a Christmas craft to decorate the house
One of the girls checked out a paper crafts book from the library, so they picked out a craft to try.

Dec 6 Make hot chocolate with all the fixings and play games. 
 We had a fun night of game playing and hot chocolate. 

Dec 7 Make cards to send to American Red Cross- Mail for Heroes
Each of the girls made a couple of cards and Devon and I made some too.

Dec 8 Make ornaments
We made crystal ornaments.

Dec 9 Make snowflakes to decorate/ make tortilla snowflakes to eat
These are so yummy!

Dec 10 Buy tree/ decorate for Christmas
We did this.

Dec 11 Go look at Christmas lights and listen to Deliah
We love us some Deliah!


Dec 12 Make Christmas cards/gifts to mail out 
We made salt dough ornaments, but were able to deliver them in person.


Dec 13 Go through toys/coats to donate to charity
We did go through the toys, but we never actually donated them.


Dec 14 Read Christmas books with a flashlights under the Christmas tree 
This was fun. 
 

Dec 15 Bake cookies to take to the clinic/hospital
We baked cookies for the kiddos at the clinic and we took some to the nurses on 6A.  We hadn't seen most of them in a year, so it was good to go back and visit.


Dec 16 Make online snowman http://www.castlearcana.com/christmas/snowman/index.html
 The girls did this one a few times.

Dec 17 Make bird feeders
We never did this one.  Maybe next year.


Dec 18 Watch Christmas movie with popcorn and candy
We watched a few Christmas movies this year.


Dec 19 Bake Christmas cookies
We waited and baked our Christmas cookies with Grammy.  Lexi, Logan, Leah and Faith joined us.


Dec 20 Picnic under the Christmas tree
We did this, it was fun!


Dec 21 Make snow globes
We did this craft in Texas with Uncle Trent and Katie.  They were fun to make but the water evaporated over time, so I wouldn't make them again.


Dec 22 Go to a drive through lights place
 We never made it to one of these this year.

Dec 23 Go to Brass Pro Shop and see Santa
I put this on the list because my parents were supposed to be in town and I knew my dad would enjoy it.  


Dec 24 Watch past Christmas/family videos with popcorn and hot chocolate
We didn't get to do this one.  Devon didn't have time to make us a DVD:-(

Overall, I was very pleased with the how many activities we actually completed:-)

Driving to Texas- The Travel Log

I decided to keep a travel log on our drive to Texas.  I'm not real sure why.  I had a notebook and just started writing down the events of the trip.  It started out with when we were stopping and how much the gas cost, but I also included stuff that was happening with the kids.  Here are the parts I found amusing:-)
Enjoy!

8:23 pm Left the gas station.  We had just stopped for fast food- ate in the car.  Everyone was watching a movie and happy.

8:57 Cadence asked, "Are we in Texas yet?"

9:20 All girls asleep

9:55 Stopped for coffee for Devon (he surprised me with hot chocolate)  Lyric, Marlie and I went potty (yes, I know it was a less than two hours into the trip, but we had to go)

11:10 Stopped to get Marlie water and let her pee.  Cadence and Story sleeping, Lyric watching a movie

11:53 Crossed the Mississippi River

1:02 Still in Arkansas.  It feels like we are going to bounce off the road- so rough!  The girls and Marlie are still sleeping.

1:13 Cadence woke up crying and wanted her shoe.  I guess it fell off while she was sleeping, but I'm not sure what she needed it for:-)

1:20 32 miles from Little Rock.  Stopped for gas and the girls woke up.  We tried to feed Marlie, but she wouldn't eat.  Lyric, Cadence and Mama went potty.  Devon got more coffee, I got hot chocolate and the girls got chocolate covered donuts.  Lyric asked if we were still in Ohio (note to self: study Geography when we get home!)

3:14 Marlie  woke up went pee.  Story woke up.

3:19 Back on road Marlie is riding in Story's lap, Cadence is sleeping and Lyric is watching a movie.

4:24 Made it to Texas, only about 6 more hours:-)  Devon and Marlie went potty.  Story is awake.

4:41 Back on road.

4:45 Story had chocolate donut

5:30 Heard our first Tejano radio station- we knew we were back in Texas!

5:43 Madonna- Get in the Groove is on the radio.  From the backseat: Cadence-Mama, this is my new favorite station with this song on it.

7:00  Stopped for gas.  Everyone awake and hungry!

7:32 We decided on Whataburger for breakfast.  The girls were all excited because we don't have Whataburger in TN.  BTW-it was nasty-very disappointing!

8:45 Lyric is looking out the window, Story is trying to figure out her knitting doll and Cadence is using the calculator on the laptop-calculating stuff.

9:36 Story and I are bored and ready to be there.  We played Hangman.

10:00 I'm losing it!  Marlie wants to play with me and we all need out of the car!  Story wants to play Hangman, but she can't really spell, so it's not the best game to play with her:-)

I didn't write down the time, but at some point we stopped at the nicest rest stop in the country (or at least on our route).  I can't remember the town, but it is between Waco and Round Rock.

12:00 We arrived at Mimi J's in Lakeway.

This was the best drive to or from Texas that we have had.  Traveling all night is the way to go for us!

Christmas 2011

Since I am actually writing this post at the end of February I have one goal--to finish it.  The easiest way for me to do that is to post the pictures with captions, so, enjoy!

Christmas in Austin

I got some Tennessee moonshine from the people I work for.  I thought Trent and Brandon would get a kick out of it.  Turns out, I like moonshine:-)

Lyric took her new Monopoly game for us to play.

She LOVED playing with all of the adults!

We met Katie for the first time--LOVE her!  Uncle Brandon, she's a keeper;-)

The Oasis

Hot chocolate at the Oasis-YUM!

Licking the chocolate off- yum!

The Oasis

The Oasis

Uncle Trent working on his snow globe.

Story Bell patiently waiting for help with her snow globe.

Santa and a Glass Slipper for the snow globes.

Katie helped Cadence with her egg shell "snow".

Belle

The girls talked Katie into a dance party.

The stockings were hung...

Uncle Brandon's tree

The girls opening their computer from Mimi J

They weren't real sure what it was!

Uncle Brandon and Katie

Ninny

Mimi J and the girls opening gifts.  LOVE those Diego socks Cadence is rockin' with her "Christmas" dress.

More presents

Uncle Trent, always plays Santa Claus

Everybody checking out their goodies

Katie showing off her ornament one of the girls made her.

Cadence showing off her glasses from Uncle Trent.

Ice Skating at the Oasis the girls first time.

Ice Skating at the Oasis the girls were so excited!

Ice Skating at the Oasis

Ice Skating at the Oasis

Story had been asking to go ice skating for months!  She loved it!

Ice Skating at the Oasis

Ice Skating at the Oasis

My crazy husband was trying to act like he knew what he what he was doing!

He never fell, so maybe he kind of did or maybe he just got lucky:-)

Story checking out Daddy's moves.

Uncle Brandon

Whoa, Story!

I hope Katie didn't want to actually skate:-)  She had a child by the hand the whole time.

My feet oh my feet, my legs oh my legs!

Daddy, "What's wrong with you?"

Katie was finally able to ditch all my girls, but she didn't show us her moves:-(

Good times!

Unfortunately, he did show us his moves;-)

Cadence loved her some Katie!

Fire!

Uncle Trent

Cadence getting some Marlie love.

Ninny listening to Dev sing.

Smores!

Some more Smores!

Yes, she is saving that chocolate for later.

Aren't we glad she swallowed first:-)

Christmas in Bryan

Grammy's tree

Bob

Grammy

All three girls posing together--that's a rare occasion!

Presents!

A camel Wenkinz- what more could a girl need?

Cadence and her new Barbie and a Fairy Secret outfit

A puppy Webkinz

Grammy opening her vase from Story.  She used her birthday money to buy everyone a Christmas present.

Bob opening his coffee mug from Story.

A visit to Grammy's would not be complete without some time on the playscape!

Playing in their jammies, of course:-)

Fortunately, Story didn't have any mishaps on the playscape this time:-)

Story Bell showing off her new ballet outfit.

Faith Meadow came over for a tea party.

Faith and Lyric at the park.

Story, Faith and Lyric

She told me not to tell her mama she was in the baby swing.  I wonder if posting it on my blog counts as telling?

Sweet Cadence

Story Bell giving a push

Story Bell having a swing.

More swinging.

Grammy attempted to get all five grand-kids and Faith.

Kenzie and Wesley had the most paitence for it.

They didn't mind posing.

Grammy did get all five of the grand-kids in front of the fireplace.  She bribed them with candy.  I heard her;-)

Not a very good picture of Cadence or Story, but I love the the way Leah is looking at Cadence-so sweet.

I was shocked Grammy had enough aprons for all of these rugrats:-)

Love this one!  That is a lot of kiddos!

Grammy is so patient.  She let everyone help in making the dough.

Logan working hard using his cookie cutter.

Miss Lyric was in a picture taking mood!

Story Bell reluctantly posing for me.

Roll that dough, Logan.

I think I might have scared her when I asked her to pose.

Yummy icing, Faith?

Lyric wanted to pose with every cookie she decorated!

There were lots!  I'm only posting two:-)

Story decided she wanted to go bowling for her birthday gift from Grammy and Bob.  Lyric is the only one of the girls who has bowled before, but she was too young to remember it.  So bowling was a pretty big adventure!  Grammy and Bob didn't bowl, so it wasn't as fun as it could have been.

Devon almost fell every time he bowled, so it was pretty entertaining.

Cadence's ball had to be retrieved a couple of times for not making it down the lane.

Story picking my 'molee' while she waited her turn.  Picking my moles has always been a comfort for her.

The last day of our trip we met Caba and KK at Uncle Trent's to spend the day.

Caba grilled everyone sandwiches.

Zayden had a good time with Lyric's duck.

Story bought Zayden some Spiderman bath wash.  I think he liked it!

We had a good time playing at the park!

I wanted to get a picture of all the cousins before we left,  They actually cooperated...

and cooperated...

and cooperated!

Lyric and Z watching Cars 2

She looks like she is licking his face, but she is actually just being a goofball.

 

 

Everyone was pretty tired when we left.

We had a wonderful time in Texas and were so thankful to be able to make the trip!