On the 6th Day of Christmas...

....we were going to hang Christmas lights outside, but it decided to rain all. day. long. So instead we rented a movie and the boys made rocket-ships out of some extra boxes we had lying around.

On the 5th Day of Christmas...

...we read a Christmas Story! We also have watched "the Grinch" movie about a hundred times per Carter's request.

 "Maybe Christmas," he thought, " doesn't come from a store. 

Maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a bit more!"

The Grinch

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

...we wrote letters to Santa Clause!

Twas the 2nd and 3rd Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas we decorated the house. The boys were excited until they realized that they had to pick up their toys before getting out the decorations. Even with lots of tantrums they were super excited once the halls were decked. And their favorite decoration? The Precious Moments toy nativity. They arrange and rearrange the figures all day long...so love it!

On the Third day of Christmas we picked out a Christmas tree. This is our first tree in 3 years! We got a great tip from one of Braden and Carter's preschool teachers about a tree farm in Shelocta, PA. We took the scenic route through the back woods of PA to get there and it was worth it. It was a great drive and we had a great time once we got to the farm. We got to take a hay ride up to the top of the hill where we wandered around looking and searching until we found just the perfect tree.

Once we found our perfect tree we chopped it down and then headed down the hill to wait for our tree to be wrapped and prepared for us to take home. While waiting we went in the barn where the boys got to see Santa Clause. Carter was so excited to see him. His eyes just lit up!

We then paid for our tree and headed out to watch the tree get wrapped up and then we tied it to the car to head home.

We must have waited longer than I thought cause this little stink fell asleep on the way home.

When we got home we were going to just put the tree up and wait to decorate it but the boys were much to anxious and excited. So we decorated it...and it is so pretty. This is the first "fresh tree" we have had and I love it in our house. The lights are magical and it really feels like Christmas is coming.

25 days of Christmas

This year we are not celebrating Christmas with our extended family. So far...totally bummed about it! I'm also pretty sure I won't ever be okay with it but you gotta do what you gotta do. So this year to create more excitement we are doing a special 25 days of Christmas. Each day from now until Christmas we will be opening boxes with something new to do together each day.

To begin our celebration we got a special visitor (thanks to "Glamma") who will get to spend every Christmas from here on out with us. His name is Charles, or as we like to call him, Charlie!

For day 1 of our 25 days of Christmas Charlie brought a very special surprise! The boys got to play "Hot & Cold" with Mom and Dad leading them to their stockings where Charlie left them new Christmas Jammie's! 

The boys were super excited and now cannot wait to see what each day will bring...