Christmas Holiday 2013

This year I was determined to start some meaningful and memorable Chambers family Christmas traditions! Holidays were always so fun for me growing up and I want it to be that way for my children as well. Some traditions just happen! But others are made on purpose, so I came up with at least two "things" to do on purpose this season that hopefully would invite the spirit of Christmas, give us something to look forward to, and be a whole lot of fun!!

First, I created a "Christ book". 

I found this through Pinterest (in the words of my husband, "Finally 1 great thing out of 1,000 pins). You assemble the book in a binder and each day read a part of the Christmas story. It is complete with pictures and songs and scriptures with explanations.

On the website, sewdangcutecrafts.com, she explains which order to put the pictures and songs and such. I did have to buy my own pictures but easily printed out the rest of it and assembled. If you are looking for a fun way to help tell the Christmas story- this is great! I love when someone else does (most) the work for me!

Creighton really liked the Christ book for the most part. There are 17 sections so you can read at least 1 story a day before Christmas, and maybe go through it twice if you do more than 1 a night. We were still reading it after Christmas. Some nights our tradition fell by the wayside.. but that's okay. The scripture reading part was boring for him, but he loves to look at the pictures. I am pretty sure he has the story of Samuel the Lamanite almost memorized.

Another tradition I tried to start was an advent calendar. I created one using different ideas I had seen on Pinterest.

This over the door shoe hanger was perfect for our calendar because it had 24 pockets! Each day had a candy in the pocket and a note with something fun to do to celebrate Christmas. Well, it was worth a try... we only completed a few days. Creighton wasn't as excited for this one as I had hoped, but maybe next year! 

It was difficult to be consistent with our "new traditions" because evenings can be difficult to get us all together unfortunately. Two nights a week Cason has class, I have to work until 8:00 pm 1 night a week and then I have mutual... 

Despite the business of schedules one thing we always make time for is family!!

Creighton and Macey Jo have so much fun together. It is so sweet to see them play together! He has been a big help in teaching Macey Jo to walk. He grabs onto both of her hands facing her, walks backwards and says, "You can do it baby sister. Good job!" When referring to Macey Jo he tells people, "This is my baby." She just adores him and wants to be where he is all the time. She loves to play with cars and makes vroom-ing noises she has learned from him. He gets down on his hands and knees and chases her around and she just giggles and giggles. She has a special laugh for when she is having a good time with her brother.

Daddy has also been making more time for Macey Jo... meaning he has been the one to stay up or get up with her at night. He is such a good daddy. (Miss Macey has decided she doesn't want to sleep. Ever.)

I am sure not a day goes by that we don't read at least 1 book. But over the Christmas holidays we get out the Christmas books and have to read each one several times a day to get our fill for the next 11 months. Of course Creighton's favorite is "Mater Saves Christmas" and Macey Jo liked to pull off the pop-up Sesame Street characters in the Sesame Street Christmas books.

After reading each book 4x in a morning, mommy calls it quits and then Creighton "reads" them to himself!

We spent some time with cousin Kyle and Macey Jo decided he would be her new boyfriend. She wouldn't leave him alone and was hugging him and kissing him the whole time. He was a good sport and just sat there. Reminds me of when she played with another cousin, Tyler, several months ago...

Poor guy.

We are grateful that so much of our family lives close. Mommy didn't have to work for over 2 weeks due to the holidays falling on days I work. I had planned on giving Grandpa a break from watching the kids. However... they just love him so much!! We did spend plenty of time at my mom's eating good food, watching movies, and playing. Playing with Aunt Sidnie is so much fun!! Creighton had a hard time not going to Grandpa's house on a regular schedule. He would say every morning, "What Sunday (day) is it? Church day or Grandpa's day?"

I had a good time decorating the tree this year (with my new favorite crafting supply- deco mesh). Pictures of the kids with it were a must!!

He is so handsome. I can't believe he is almost 4 years old!!

No shortage of giggles with these two. Creighton has turned into quite the comedian. Last Sunday morning I said, "Creighton, let's get dressed for church." (He was in only his underwear.) He said, "Why do I have to get dressed?" I replied, "Because we are going to church." Then he said, "No! It's so my teachers (nursery teachers) don't see me in my panties!!" And then we both laughed for a long time.

This year I knew would be the first year Creighton really understood the idea of gifts and Santa Clause. One of his first Christmas gifts was some money from Big Daddy and Inonna so he could pick out his own Christmas present!

I decided to let him go to the store and just pick out whatever he wanted. And all he wanted were these two little Tonka trucks. It would have been humorous to anyone watching and listening as we went back and forth... 

Me: How about this? Do you want this?

Him: No. I like my trucks.

Me: You can have your trucks and this.

Him: No

Me: Well how about this?

Him: No

And so on... I told myself to be grateful I didn't have a greedy monster on my hands so we helped Macey Jo pick out a Snow White baby doll and left the store. Creighton does love movies and we had really wanted to see Frozen so we took him and Macey a few days later to see Frozen and let Creighton get a popcorn. He loves popcorn!! Then we went to eat for "chicken nuggets, french fries, chocolate milk, and fry sauce." 

We had fun with the money from Big Daddy and Inonna. I went later and finished using the money and bought more gifts and books for the kids to have wrapped under the tree.

A few weeks later Grandma and Papa sent Creighton and Macey Jo some gift cards and THEN he decided he wanted EVERYTHING he saw in Walmart. But finally settled on Disney Planes Legos.

This year Creighton had a secret Santa. Someone from Cason's work secretly left this on his desk for Creighton. Christmas Eve he was in heaven with this remote control Jeep.

Christmas morning I finally woke Creighton up at 7:30 am. Macey had been up for an hour and I was so excited to see them with their gifts. It didn't take much cohersion to get him out of bed...

Santa always brings the best gifts! By far the hit of the morning was the Kitchen-set. Macey Jo and Creighton wouldn't leave it alone and wanted to make Cason and me food. Cookie Monster, Abby, and Elmo voices have filled our home for days...

Macey Jo was so glad to have Creighton there to open all of her presents for her. He is so willing to tear open any package!

What a wonderful Christmas morning we had! So many new toys to play with, I had two little kiddos who were on sensory overload. I am grateful I decided  forgot to buy AAA batteries so half of the toys couldn't make any noise.

Of course the kids have had so much fun playing with everything new the past week. Creighton helped me prepare for the toy overload and the day before Christmas we packed away a lot of his older toys downstairs to the playroom. I was happy to have the extra space upstairs.

Now Macey Jo's room has become the fun room to play in. It use to be Creighton's room. But he can drive his remote control car(s) in there and play with her neat new toys like the Ariel car and the Kitchen-set.

We new it would be a Beautiful New Year, and it really has been. The start of a new year means our tiny babe will be 1 in just a few days! We can't wait to celebrate!!