Christmas Checklist

Crazy how crazy people get during the holidays.... That's just it... it's the "HOLIDAYS" people get crazy about.... BUT if we celebrated "CHRISTMAS" a bit more instead of the "HOLIDAYS" i think everyone would slow down. I heard a brief sermon on my XM and the pastor was explaining that the holidays focus mainly on gifts and decorating and parties and such. Christmas focuses on celebrating the birth of Christ. Two different celebrations.

i really wanted to focus on Christmas, but i feel that all the activities hold some sort of magic for the kids (and myself). i like magic. I wanted to connect the magic with the celebration of Christ. i don't know how well we made that connection, but then again how much do i expect from a 5 1/2 year old, a 4 year old, and a 16 month old? There are 40 year olds that still don't get "it."

This blog was intended to keep all my memories and thoughts and inspirations in one place. So here is what Christmas looked like in the Donovan house this year.

We sent our first box for The Box Project to Rosie and the kids.

We wrote letters to Santa. He wrote back :)

We set up our Christmas Village.

Kyle started my collection in 2000. Each year he buys me a new piece :)
It's Department 56 The North pole Series. Love it!

Kienan is making it snow in the village.

I read somewhere about "Christmas Camping." So we decorated our tree and afterwards the kids drank hot cocoa, read some Christmas books and camped under the lit Christmas Tree :)

Another tradition i hope my kids remember and look forward to each year is rediscovering the ornaments. All of our ornaments have a story. My mom used to give us a new ornament each year. i started that tradition with kienan and have continued ever since. i even give kyle a new Harley-Davidson ornament each year. So the tree is filled with our family stories and i love sharing those stories each year.

We made ornaments out of clay. Something i've always wanted to do (thanks Rachel!)
Mackenzie is so artsy and probably spent 20 hours doing the clay thing.

We decorated our gingerbread houses. Kienan and Mackenzie put a lot of effort into them this year. In the previous years the temptation of having all that candy at their fingertips was a bit distracting and overwhelming which resulted in a short gingerbread house activity.
(pictures coming)

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents' house. WOW! They decorated like i have never experienced before. I have spent some where in the vicinity of 30 Christmases at that house. Crazy! This was the best decorating yet!!!!
Santa stopped by as he always does. Even when my brothers and i were little he would knock on the door right after dinner. Uncle Don and Peggy were always such an important part of our family Christmas celebrations. Peggy passed away many years ago, but Don passed away right before Thanksgiving this past year. I thank my Uncle Bill for taking over the Big Black Boots.

Christmas morning was pretty magical like i had hoped. i remember always wishing my parents would skip the "bathroom routine", "coffee fix", and "camera set-up" on Christmas Morning and just get straight to the presents. It seemed to take my dad FOREVER!!!!! and you could always see the goodies hanging of the stockings, but couldn't touch just yet.
Now.... that's just funny to me! This Christmas Morning I HAD to do the "bathroom routine" to assess the baggage under my eyes. When kyle and i first started our "wrapping Christmas presents together on Christmas eve" tradition there weren't really a whole lot of presents to wrap. Fun for us to spend the time together, ya know. Now it is a little out of control. We climbed into bed at 3am.... wait.... crawled... ya we crawled into bed. I think at one point we got the giggles 'cuz we could envision ourselves when the kids woke us up at 6:00am (luckily they woke up at 7:30).

Back to Christmas Morning: i now get the whole reason why my parents took sooooo long in the bathroom... they were sleeping in there! I know i was trying to catch a few more seconds of precious sleep while pretending to pee. I threw some water at my face and brushed the lingering six starbucks frappuccinos off my teeth and headed down stairs to experience the magic.
Now the "coffee fix" is obvious. Without the caffeine i'm sure kyle and i would have been nodding off in between the tearing open of presents. I'm not even sure if i was talking in complete sentences until i had a few sips of the java.

And of course this magical frenzy needed to be documented with photos!!!! Gotta make sure the video camera is charged and has enough tape left. Then check the camera for an empty memory card and fresh batteries. I mean, we stayed up most of the night getting this all ready... we BETTER get it on FILM! During all the adult preparation my kids were drooling all over the packages levitating above the carpet because they were SO amped!!!

But don't the 4 of them look so Christmas Morningneeee?

Picture perfect i say. It was all worth it! (the 3 lil' ones have matching pajama shirts on)We celebrated Christmas Day with a feast at our house. This is our garage. Yep. The garage. We hung canvases on the sides to cover the garage looking items, wallpapered the big door, added Christmas scents & Christmas tunes with some heat and voila...A CHRISTMAS DINING ROOM!

Grandma read us the Christmas Story from the Bible. :)

Some other traditions we also did was to take my grandpa & grandma to see the festive Christmas Lights at Candy Cane Lane. Every year it still brings out the "ooohs" and "ahhhs" in all of us. (I'm sure some of the homeowners say the same thing when they open their December electric bills!)

i really wanted to bake cookies for friends and neighbors. But, the cookies never made it past the kitchen :) Next year i will try again.

We sucked on candy canes and danced to Christmas songs. I cranked up the tunes in the car and in the house! :) My kids would beg for a change in music genre, but i insisted in listening to ONLY Christmas music. Poor kids.

We watched the Christmas classics while eating popcorn. Elf is voted #1 in our house!

We missed the Live Navity Scene at the church which we so much enjoyed last year, but not to the lack of attempt. We had the entire evening planned. The kids were stocked with a McDonald's dinner in the back seat. We figured sitting in traffic to see it would go by a whole lot quicker if there was some quiet eating time. After an hour and still a mile away we decided to try again another night. That "another night" slipped away. :(

Overall, i must say Our Christmas was full of spirit. That is what matters most. i love the anticipation of decorating, all the activities, and just the warm fuzzies that Christmastime gives me. Strangely enough, i get antsy when it's all done. i can't wait to get my decorations put away and the tree outta my front room.

But i'm already thinking about things for next Christmas! :)