This has been the best Christmas I have experienced, and will probably be one that I look back to for a long time. This was the first year Brian and I have spent the Christmas holiday away from family and friends, and it was fun to decide on which traditions we would like to keep and add to our holiday celebrations.
In preparation for Christmas, we used an advent calendar to help count down the days until Christmas. In my family growing up, we would put a small figurine in an old wooden coke crate each day. There are 24 slots, so it counts down until Christmas eve. A few years ago, my mom gave one to us that she found, and we've finally gotten around to decorating it and putting it up. but we didn't have enough figurines accumulated yet. We used candy instead, and Calvin got to take one out each day. I took this as an opportunity to teach Calvin how to count (he had to count the empty spaces every day). This is good, because now he can count all the way to 15 by himself! I have a video, but he gets stage fright whenever we pull the camera out.
We really like music in our house. We decided that we would make sure to go to at least one Christmas concert each year, and make sure to sing Christmas hymns (and play them someday when we have a piano). A few weeks ago, we went to a neat concert in our stake center. Calvin's favorite part was the handbell choir. We also went to a christmas light boat parade in Newport beach. There were some cool boats, but we went early to get parking and a seat, so by the time it started, Calvin wasn't interested in sitting around anymore.
For Christmas Eve, we made pizza and (ginger)breadstick-men. After dinner, we enjoyed watching and helping Calvin act out the nativity using our nativity figurines. I thought this would keep his attention better than just reading Luke 2. We sang some Christmas hymns too, but since I've had a wicked cold for 6 weeks, my throat got tired pretty fast. Calvin opened a present (an "I Spy" book from my mom and dad). After Calvin went to bed, Brian and I couldn't put the book down. It brought back a lot of childhood memories for both of us. The most exciting part was Getting Calvin's stocking and "big" gift ready for him to see in the morning.
We had bought some fake food and pots and pans to give to Calvin for Christmas, and we had an old table thing sitting on our patio for the last 3 months. I almost threw it away 3 different times, but I couldn't help but think there would be some cool thing I could do with it. On the 23rd, Brian and I decided to turn it into a play kitchen for Calvin to use with his food and kitchen set. I borrowed some white paint from a friend, and I had all of the other paint on hand from previous craft projects. We bought a few things (the wooden J for the faucet, the wooden knobs are toy wheels from the craft store, and we bought the curtain rod and the cream colored felt for the "cupboard". The table costed just about $5.00 to make after using coupons!
This is Calvin's pillowcase from Grandma Mower. He thinks it is the coolest place to play with his trucks and cars!
After all of the fun presents, he just wanted to play in that box. :)
Calvin wasn't the only one to get some cool gifts! Brian bought a prenatal massage for me, which made me very happy, because this pregnancy has been more uncomfortable than I anticipated. He told me that he didn't get me any games this year (we usually get a game for each Christmas and birthday) but he actually got me two. I also told him that I didn't get a game, but I did.
Needless to say, this was a very fun Christmas that we were able to spend together as a family. It's been nice to have Brian home for a few weeks as a last hurrah before the baby comes. Having a whole month off from school is awesome. We miss being near family, but we have grown much closer and learned to depend more on each other as we've been by ourselves. We've also had some nice visits from family, and are looking forward to seeing both grandmas in February!
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