Our day started by making some cookies for Santa. This year both Madeleine and Harrison were very into the cookie making, which made it even better! Here they are in the aprons I made them....next year, I'll have to add another one!
They did most of the cookies by themselves, all I did was roll out the dough and monitor the amount of dough they ate. :) By the time they were finished there was flour all over the kitchen!!
To help pass the time while the cookies baked and cooled, Matt pulled up NORAD on the computer and we tracked where Santa was.....this was such fun, especially for Madeleine since they've been learning about Christmas around the world at school. She spent a lot of time checking out the pictures/videos of different countries.
Then it was time to put the icing on the cookies. I made up the icing, set out the sprinkles and just let them go for it! They both tried to make the "perfect" cookie for Santa! After awhile, Harrison gave up and decided to sprinkle everything in sight! Oh, that boy!!!
It's always amazing the difference a year makes. Last year Madeleine made a HUGE mess decorating her cookies, but this year she took more time and was much more particular about how her cookies looked.
The rest of our day was spent playing games and getting ready for Christmas (i.e. Mommy baking, baking, and baking!). As we got ready for bed, we peaked outside and saw that it was snowing!!! What a magical Christmas present for all of us!
We took a moment to say goodbye to Hermie, our Elf. Both kids were soooo sad to see him go back to the North Pole. It has be the MOST fun this year trying to find Hermie each morning!! He's had some tough hiding spots where he could get a good view of our playing areas. :)
Then we headed outside to sprinkle our Magic Reindeer Food so Santa could see the path to our house. This is the third year we've done this and it's always a big hit!
On Christmas Eve we let the kids open one gift, which I get to pick out. It's always something useful for bedtime and this year they both got toothbrushes with matching cups and holders -- Madeleine got a tinkerbelle one and Harrison got a cars one.
Then it was time to put out our milk and cookies for Santa. Madeleine had drawn him a picture earlier in the day and written him a note as well. She was super excited to leave them for him and even more excited when she noticed that the next morning he'd taken them with him.
Here's an upclose picture of her work....the note says "I no that I have been good every day." She wrote it all by herself without any help from us.....very good. I love watching her write and seeing what she has to say.
Finally we read the Night Before Christmas before heading off to bed. I bought this book for Madeleine the year she was born and we've read it every year on Christmas Eve -- that's 6 years. She has parts of it memorized and quoted it along with Matt. Even Harrison knew parts of it and "read" along. I just love Harrison's smile in this picture!
We tucked the kids in bed and Matt and I curled up to watch It's a Wonderful Life while waiting for them to go to sleep -- one of our Christmas traditions. Amazingly, it didn't take them long and when we went to check on them, this is what we found.....
I'm sure they were dreaming of Santa and all the goodies he would bring them. 
No comments:
Post a Comment