Pre-Christmas Activities

Dec. 19th was Noah's Christmas Activity at his preschool.  It was very simple and short compared to what Wonder World usually does.  They sang about 5 or 6 songs.  Noah of course didn't sing at all, just stood there.  It was cute though.  His class is so small--about 12 in there, I think that they combined with the other preschool class to sing their songs.  But even then, they were still really hard to hear on some of the songs.  

 Noah and his buddies next to him--Ethan and Cooper.  

After the singing, they had donuts for the kids to eat, but Noah didn't want one, so we just hung out until they had the craft ready.  Each family got to make a Santa Claus Craft to take home.  

 Gluing the eyes on

 Showing me the red nose

 all done!

 Noah's pretty good at sitting still for a picture, but the other 2 were pretty funny and kept moving around.  These were the best pictures I got.  

Noah loves his preschool and was kind of sad that there wasn't any school over Christmas break.  He was so excited when it started again!

That night, there was a Relief Society Christmas activity that I went to.  It was fun--there was a White Elephant Gift Exchange, Cookie Exchange, Toy/Clothing swap, ideas for stocking stuffers and hot chocolate.  

Dec. 20th

Last year, I found an idea on Pinterest to have a "Grinch Night".  I wanted to do it last year, but never got around to it.  So this year, I was determined to go through with it.  I told my kids earlier in the week that we were going to have a Grinch night and watch the animated show and have dinner.  They kept thinking it was a Grinch party with games and stuff.  I didn't want them to be disappointed when there were no games--so I kept emphasizing the "dinner and a show" part.  Anyways, I planned it for the last day of school before Christmas Break.  So, I spent all day cooking the food.  My kids love it when I print off coloring pictures for them off the internet.  We've done Halloween pictures, Thanksgiving Pictures, Christmas pictures, etc.  So, I had printed off some Grinch pictures for them to color after they came home from school.  I also found these cute props for taking pictures, so I printed them off and let the kids take pictures while I was finishing things up.  

 Lydia

 Bella

 This one of her cracks me up.

 Noah  :)

 Paige

 She is such a goof ball--such an actress

Anyways...we had way too much fun with these.  I had a Grinch craft for them to do, but we took too long with the props, so didn't get around to it.

Maggie wasn't home because she chose to go to the movies with some friends instead.  It really kind of made me sad realizing that my kids are getting older and pretty soon none of them are going to want to participate in my silly parties anymore.  It was a hard moment for me.  I'm fine and I know that I have little ones still that will want to participate for awhile, but still hard knowing that my daughter would rather hang out with friends.  I have to keep reminding myself that she is almost 14, so this is completely normal!!  :)

Anyways, enough boo-hooing and back to the dinner...

I wanted to have "roast beast" for dinner and have it actually look like a 'beast'.  I was thinking about cooking a ham, but we were going to have ham on Christmas, so then I thought about having a whole chicken.  We had this a lot growing up, but I have never cooked one in my adult life because I'm afraid of cleaning out a chicken.  Well, Garrett wasn't going to be home when I had to get it in the oven, so I had to do it myself.  Let me tell you, it was not a pleasant experience.  I had Lydia trying to help me get all the inside parts out and all the little kids were watching and being grossed out.  Maggie was snapping pictures on her ipad from across the room.  

We got it done and in the oven.  It wasn't as good as I remembered...I should've had a little gravy with it.  Anyways, here's the food on the menu:

 Roast beast

 Who Hash (Potato, cheese and sausage casserole)  Good!

 Who Punch (Lime sherbet and sprite)

 Who Pudding (Rice pudding--actually from the Dr. Suess website--and really good)

We also had Grinch Green beans, but didn't get a picture.

 Grinch Cookies (Mint Sugar cookies)

 Getting ready to eat

Loving the Who Punch!

After dinner, we watched the show and then I had some Trivia Questions to ask them about the movie when it was over.  It was fun to do something different and the kids liked it.  

Dec. 21

The next day, Paige and I went to one of her friends/classmates (Bryden's) baptism at 2 pm.  Afterwards, were meeting up with Jim and Georgia at 5 Guys Burgers for an early dinner and then we were off to the Zoo to see the Zoo Lights.  It was cold, but not too bad.  The lights were beautiful!  The train wasn't working that night, so we were all a little sad about that.  

 Lydia took most of the pictures of the lights.  

 The train was lit up, but not running, so we took our picture by it. 

 Watching the new baby elephant, Lily

 Riding the Lions

Afterwards, we went to Burgerville for Peppermint shakes and french fries.  

Fun night!