24 Days to Christmas Countdown

This year we did our 24 days to Christmas countdown again.  It was a lot of fun and I am glad that I put in the effort to do it even though I stressed over it more than I usually do.  This year we decided to add nights where we talked about Jesus.  It went really well and I was impressed with the questions the boys asked.

Just so I can remember what we did for future reference, here are the events of the countdown for December 2010.

1. Decorate Christmas tree
2. Christmas books (start reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever)
3. Christmas movies (cartoons)
4. Make sugar cookies and gingersnaps
5. Paper snowflakes
6. Open a nativity set and talk about Jesus (we talked about how to decide if something you hear is true or not and how to defend what you believe)
7. Game night
8. Activity books
9. Temple Square Go out to eat.  We just weren't feeling up to having a busy night.
10. Christmas books
11. Make chocolate covered pretzels (finish reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever)
12. Movie night (Charlie Brown Christmas)
13. Dinner with Ed and Madeleine Giles and make ornaments
14. Open another Nativity set and talk about Jesus (we talked about how the nativity sets show the Wise Men at the stable with the baby Jesus, but they didn't get there until Jesus was older and a little bit about the lifestyle of people when Jesus was born)
15. See the play of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever in South Jordan.  My sister Kim watched Jane.
16. Game night (We played Left Center Right)
17. Kim's younger boys ate dinner with us and we played "Don't Eat Pete"
18. Willes Family party and candy canes to hang on the tree
19. Watch Mr. Kruger's Christmas
20. Christmas books
21. Thanksgiving Point Lights
22. Drink eggnog and eat popcorn (Dale and Thomas popcorn from Daniel's co-worker, Andy- it is delicious!) in front of the fire while talking about Jesus (we discussed what crucifixion is and the political background of Jerusalem).
23. Sing Christmas songs.  I play the piano and we all sing.
24. Open the gifts that we bought for each other and the boys have a sleep-over in the family room.  They decided to watch The King Returns (the cartoon version of The Lord of the Rings)