The kids get their Christmas pajamas on Dec 1 so they can wear them all month long. Of course, I don't always end up getting them Christmas themed pajamas, in fact I try to avoid them. I love Christmas in December but don't love it any other time. And I don't see the point of pajamas you can only wear at Christmas. Anyway, I started doing this some years ago and now the kids expect it. I will sometimes give them a book as well. Kaden has so many pajamas that I decided to just give him a shirt instead.
Gingerbread houses. A tradition that I don't love but that we HAVE to do every year. It's better these days now that Kaden is the only one I have to help. I told the kids their houses had to stay together or they weren't allowed to eat them, haha. No piling as much candy as possible on a graham cracker just so you can eat it.
I told the kids I would have Jingles (our elf) choose his favorite house, and that would be the winner. He ended up by both Sadie and Kaden's houses so we called it a tie.
We had the time free this year to go see Santa in his tent. It's our favorite Santa. They have reindeer (who were running late this year which meant we got to go to the front of the line because we didn't care about waiting for the reindeer) and they give out hot chocolate and scones and stuff. They ask for toy donations or food donations. It works out well.
Kaden had the Grinch come to his preschool party too.
We always look for ways to serve others at Christmastime. But I've been burned out of it all, and a little skeptical too. I hate that I feel this way, but I feel like a lot of those angel tree families are taking advantage of other's generosity. I know it's probably not the majority of them, but still. So I had put it off this year and finally felt moved to look for a family to "sponsor". I reached out to a friend who had posted about similar things. And she connected me with the Facebook group that shows all these families with needs. I looked through the names and came across one family that I wanted to help. But they had a lot of needs. I talked to Ryan and we decided to go for it. They needed a bed for the parents (we bought them a king mattress and someone in my neighborhood had a frame they were willing to donate). Another neighbor donated a toddler bed. They needed bedding, towels, gifts for four kids, etc. I got my kids involved and took them shopping. Then we wrapped all the gifts. It was a lot of time and a lot of money. But I felt like it was going to someone who really needed it. We filled our car and truck and drove it over on Christmas Eve to deliver it to them. It was a good experience for the kids too.
We had all the cousins over for Christmas Eve dinner and gift exchange.
Then Christmas night finally came.
I was really excited about the kids gifts! Sadie literally said, "surprise me" because she could not think of anything that she wanted. It's hard having a birthday a month before Christmas. And she just doesn't have a lot of wants. Kylee on the other hand, had a list a mile long. Every thing she saw in the store she wanted. She did not get everything. But she got a lot.
The family got a fuseball table!!
My favorite gift that I got for me and Kylee: Hamilton tickets!! I was so excited about these and I had to keep them a secret for a long time! I had to get up early on a Saturday and get in a line online along with my mom in order to snag these tickets. We got really lucky to have this show coming to Florida the same week we were going. So we had a few options of days we could go.
I also got an apple music subscription for the family (mostly Kylee and I) and I gave Kylee my old ipod to use which running. Dylan got a snowboard, Sadie got skis. And I am excited to take them all skiing this winter!!
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