Advent Calendar: Day 6

"Watch A Christmas Movie"

Another day of just me and Payton. What a great weekend we had together!

For his advent movie, we watched a show instead. He chose The Food Network Challenge: Giant Gingerbread Houses. This child is obsessed with gingerbread building. Every show that comes on this time of year about gingerbread he wants to watch.

Next week, we'll build our own gingerbread house! He'll be so detailed and thoughtful about what he does with that too.

Advent Calendar: Day 5

"Bake Christmas Treats"

Just Payton & I today. The very first thing he did was look in the stocking to see what it says. This one was, I'll be honest, less for him and more for me. Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!!

We made 12 loaves of pumpkin bread and two LARGE batches of spiced nuts. I have all the ingredients to make almond tassies...but I'm not sure I'm feeling up to it tomorrow. The ingredients may go back to Kroger and we may opt for something else. We'll see.

Either way, Payton and I did have a great time just the two of us today. We went to Arts & Scraps with the art teacher to prep for an event we have this week and he picked up lots of his own arts & scraps.

We had dinner at IHOP; his choice. Then came home and watched Toy Story since he'd never seen it. It was a great day of momma-son time! Love that lil' guy.

Advent Calendar: Day 4

"Have Dinner with Santa Claus"

Around Halloween, when my parents and I took the boys to Wolcott Learning Farm, I heard about their "Dinner with Santa". We have a farmer friend who works at the farm and when she told me she'd be there, I knew the boys would love it. So I signed us all up.

Friday morning, Payton pulled the paper out of the stocking and when he read it he was very confused. He's not sure Santa is real anyway, so this really threw him for a loop. (I think he thinks all the Santas are working together for one big "real" Santa). He told people at school that we were having dinner with Santa, but sounded skeptical.

On the way to the event, Payton had no idea where we were going. Maxwell was really excited, but I knew that would change once he saw the big guy. They were very excited when we arrived at "The Farm". As promised, Farmer Carol was there and the boys were excited to see her.

We started our night with a picture with Nadine the Christmas Cow. So cute! Max (of course) acted brave until it was time to sit down for the photo. Then, as you can see, he wasn't so happy.


We then went into the farm house where we had dinner. Santa arrived and the boys reactions couldn't have been more different. Payton ran to him right away and gave him a hug. Maxwell wanted nothing to do with him up close, but would wave and say hello when he was far away. Farmer Carol tried to get him to warm up to Santa by giving Santa a hug, but he wanted nothing to do with it.


Each of the boys did a fun craft while we waited for our turn to see Santa. When our time finally came, their reactions were the same as before. Payton ran ahead and literally jumped into Santa's lap. Maxwell had to be carried in and wouldn't leave Daddy's side.

As with everything else in this event, their requests from Santa couldn't be more different, but yet were within our "Present Rules"; they each only asked for one thing. Payton asked for "Marble Saga - It's a Wii Game". Maxwell, in true Max Fashion, asked for "A Sucker". They've both been really good this year, so I'm sure Santa will bring them the item they each asked for.







The event was great and the boys had a fabulous, magical time. I think we'll make it part of our holiday tradition.

Advent Calendar: Day 3

"Have Hot Cocoa After School"

One of Payton's favorite winter time treats. Maxwell wasn't so fond of it and opted for chocolate milk in the end. But he did eat the candy cane and marshmallows, so it wasn't all bad for him.

My favorite part? Sitting by the tree listening to Christmas Music while we did it. :)

Advent Calendar: Day 2

"Decorate the Christmas Tree with Candy Canes"

Both boys really loved doing this, but Maxwell was overly excited by it. He put all "his" candy canes on the same branch and I wouldn't dare dream of moving them...until he's in bed anyway.

I see many candy cane requests in my near future.

Advent Calendars

A few years ago, by pure luck, I found a great advent count down "calendar" on ebay. It's 25 stockings hung on clothesline with pins. Each stocking was hand knit by a grandmother in England somewhere. I paid big bucks to have these shipped overseas and I'm so glad I did. I know it will be something the boys remember every year.

This year, we have several of the chocolate type advent calendars, so I didn't want to fill our stockings with more treats. I looked around online and read a few articles and found a great idea in Family Fun magazine.

I wrote out little events or ideas for the boys to read each day. Some are things like "Make Hot Cocoa". Friday, we'll be taking the boys to a special event, so that is listed on their paper in the stocking.

I hope it will provide something for these things will give them something to look forward to, but I also put in some ideas that are important in the giving part of Christmas. "Pass out treats to our neighbors" and "Think of someone who needs something you can give". I hope that this will become part of our tradition as well and these ideas will help to encourage the less commercial side of Christmas.