Our Grown-Up Christmas List

So as I mentioned in my Christmas re-cap post, on Christmas Eve afternoon I made a list of Fun Things To Do and Things To Get Done during the five and a half days of family break we had together. In no particular order, here are some of the things we've accomplished these past two days.

1) Clean out playroom. We boxed up some toys to give away and another two bins of toys to be rotated back into the toy rotation in a couple of months. We also hung a second bulletin board because Rachel and Sam's schoolwork no longer fit nicely on one. Now each kid has their own. We also removed a rug and banished all the big stuffed animals to the basement.

 Playroom before

 Playroom after.

Now I do realize that the "before" picture is after a day or two of playing without being cleaned up and the "after" picture is after things were cleaned but you will notice that the volume of stuff is a whole lot less!

2) This wasn't officially on the list but ever since I saw this post of Allison's I have been wanting some holiday potpourri. We even stopped at Wal-Mart, on impulse, at 8pm on Christmas Eve to procure the ingredients we were missing but they were closed. So on Thursday I bought the things I needed and this has been spicing up our house ever since. Mmmmmm....

3) Hang pictures. Sadly, we have had most of our pictures sitting on the floor of our closet since we moved. This was something Dave really wanted to put some energy into during this time. And I must admit, I'd rather have pictures hanging on the walls than sitting on our closet floor. We only have about three or four more to hang which is a vast improvement. Yay!

Before/After

 

4) Again, this wasn't officially on the list but we acquired a toddler bed for Rachel about a month ago. I decided this would be a good time to transition her out of the crib. Last night was her first night in her bed and, if you don't hear from me for the next week, it's because this transition has been completely exhausting. Ha!

 Last time sleeping in her crib. Nap on Friday afternoon.

First time sleeping in her bed. Bedtime on Friday night.

5) Wear pajamas, drink hot chocolate, and drive around looking at lights. We did this last year and the kids got a huge kick out of it, fell asleep on the way home, and, for the next month, Sam asked when we were going on another "light adventure." This year the kids got super hyper and stayed awake the whole time!

Before we left, stuffed animals, blankets, slippers, and hot chocolate in tow.

 

Bad iPad photos while in the car.

6) Take Sam to see "Frozen," his first ever movie in a theatre. I asked Tim and Janice if they wanted to join us and they did. Sam had grand plans of sitting between Tessa and Willem eating popcorn, but the reality was that the whole movie theatre experience was loud and intense for him and he ended up sitting in my lap. Every once in a while I would toss our popcorn in Tessa's lap so I could cover both of Sam's ears! Thanks Tessa for being our official popcorn catcher! Ha ha ha!

The picture of Sam in his seat was during the pre-movie show, which was the only time he sat there. Overall I would say it was worth it but I don't think we'll be heading to the movies again anytime soon.

And that's all we've done thus far. I mean, we've also done seven or eight loads of laundry, a whole lot of shoveling, and Dave has cleaned almost the entire house but those things weren't on our list. This weekend, however, we have some more fun planned, so tune in on Monday to see what other adventures we have in store.