We are doing our 24 days of December Countdown again this year and I am so glad that we are doing it. This year getting ready for the countdown was a bit different for me because the boys were off-track in November, so I had to get everything ready while they were home. It was a little bit tricky because I want everything to be a surprise, so I had to prepare in my bedroom instead of in the living room where I normally wrap everything. There was a moment of panic on November 29th when I realized that I needed to get everything done and ready by the next night and I was going to be gone almost all day on the 30th. Last year I was really stressed out preparing the countdown and I didn't want to repeat that, so I put my calm on and did what needed to be done!
This year I decided to put everything in brown paper bags (tied up with string!) I like the look of it. My goal is to use up all of the wrapping paper that we have over the next year or so and then just use brown packing paper for all of my wrapping paper. I don't have to store a bunch of papers and I can decorate the packages with stickers, bows, ribbons, etc. It is just a way to simplify things.
I spent November 30th at the Festival of Trees with my friend, Madeleine. She has a friend who works for the Festival of Trees, so we went and volunteered in the accounts/billing department. We had a great time. It was amazing to me to see how much goes on behind the scenes at the Festival of Trees. I helped organize a book with all of the orders- it was hundreds of pages that had to be hole punched and put in numerical order. There is a lot that happens in the four days of the festival. It is great to see how many people are willing to donate their time and money to make it be the success that it is. I'd love to help again next year!
Here is what our countdown has looked like so far this year:
December 1- Decorate the Christmas tree.
December 2- Make paper snowflakes
December 3- Christmas books
December 4- Talk about Christ. Daniel talked about the history of Jerusalem and who King David was.
December 5- Christmas Party with Madeleine and Ed Giles with a talent show.
December 6- Christmas socks for everyone
December 7- Christmas books (we were going to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point, but we had a sick mom and sick kids)
December 8- Hot chocolate mugs that we use only in December
December 9- Make gingerbread cookies.
The boys aren't as excited about opening the presents as they use to be, but I believe that they still enjoy doing the countdown. This year we have a busier schedule, so our Tuesday and Thursday evening activities are really simple and quick. What I really like about this countdown is that I can customize it to work with what our needs are as a family each year. I don't know what I'll do when the kids are out of the house. I just might put Daniel in charge of 12 days and me be in charge of 12 days and we will do activities together. This might be bad, but I am already dreading having the kids move out of the house. I am trying to figure out how to have excitement in my house when they are gone. It is a 'few' years away, but it is something that I think about now and again and I want to have a plan for that time in my life!
A few things that I have learned so far this month;
- I have thought that I was anxious for the kids to grow up so that I could decorate my own tree and make it look 'perfect'. On the 1st while the kids (Jane helped!) were decorating the tree, I decided that I already have my perfect tree. I love the relaxed style the kids take- they don't care if it is balanced or that everything coordinates, why do I care so much? Kid-decorated trees are awesome and I love our tree. I decided that I love all of the handmade ornaments with their school pictures on them. What good is a tree full of ornaments that you can buy from the store? I'm not looking forward to having the kids be grown up nearly as much as I have in years past.
- Playing the guitar is hard. We decided to do a talent show with Madeleine and Ed. I got serious and learned how to play the guitar. I'm not great, but I'm learning. I'm just plugging through a book that we had and trying my best to be patient with myself. I can read the music, but I can't figure out where to put my fingers all of the time. I played Silent Night and then I made up words to a song that used chords that I know how to play.
- Talent shows are awesome! We had a relaxed atmosphere and everyone did a great job. Paul did some card tricks, Seth played a few songs on the piano (he learned to play the piano specifically for this talent show!) Daniel recited a nonsense poem and did a magic trick, I played the guitar, Madeleine played the guitar and sang with Ed, Ed played a recorder and Madeleine accompanied him on the piano, and then Mark recited a poem. (Jane's talent was to be incredibly good despite being up past her bedtime!)
- Mark's poem was "Paul Bunyan" by Shel Silverstein. The poem has a lot of grammatically incorrect phrases and it was really tough for Mark to say them right. No, it's not "came Paul" it is "come Paul"! We worked on the poem everyday for a week or so until he had in memorized and then he would practice reciting it to me everyday until the talent show. We had a lot of fun working on the poem together. I basically have it memorized, too!
- Madeleine and Ed are amazing people! They are very talented! I feel so lucky to have them as friends! What a wonderful way to begin our Christmas season!
