2011 ADVENTures: Days 23 & 24

For our 23rd ADVENTure, we watched White Christmas! If you know me, you know this is my favorite movie of all time. It's almost hard for me to explain how special this movie is to me. I have so many memories tied up in it, and it makes my heart happy when I watch it! It was a tradition as I was growing up to watch White Christmas every year on Christmas Eve. I remember cuddling up on the couch to watch with my family, eating Tollhouse cookies, trying my hardest to stay awake to make it to the end, watching in awe all of the dancing, singing, and beautiful dresses, and being shooed into bed as soon as it was over so Santa could come. My husband has been wonderful enough to let this become one of our family traditions as well, so I now also have sweet memories of watching each year with Camryn ... and, hopefully Ella will be old enough to watch next year, too.

For our 24th and last ADVENTure, Christmas Eve, we plan to hang out as a family all day in our pajamas, eat sugar cookies, and watch all of the Christmas specials we've DVRed - the Grinch, Frosty, Rudolph, and the Backyardigans and Wonder Pets Christmas specials.

We've enjoyed sharing all of our ADVENTures with you this year! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 22

We made Christmas cookies for today's ADVENTure!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 21

For our ADVENTure today, we made a hand and footprint reindeer!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 20

Hot chocolate for the ride: Check!

Girls in their pajamas: Check!

Snuggled in the car with blankets: Check!

And we're ready for our ADVENTure ride around town to look at Christmas lights!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 19

No pictures today. For our 19th ADVENTure, we piled into Camryn's bed tonight at bedtime and read the Christmas story from the Bible. As we gear up for all of the fun and activities that come along with the week before Christmas, we wanted the big people and little people alike in our house to be reminded of the real reason we are celebrating. We wanted to start our week focused on the fact that Jesus Christ was born into the world to be our Savior ... and that is Christmas.

2011 ADVENTures: Day 18

"He puzzled and puzzled til his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. Maybe Christmas, he thought ... doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps ... means a little bit more!"

For ADVENTure Day 18, we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 17

ADVENTures Day 17 - Christmas at Grammy's!!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 16

For today's ADVENTure, we decorated a Christmas tree!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 15

For our ADVENTure today, we started with some gift tag/ornaments

Added some markers and glitter pens
Put them in the hands of a 5 year old artist

And ended up with some oh-so-cute keepsakes!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 14

Wednesdays are pretty hectic nights for us. There's instrumental ensemble practice, praise team practice, choir practice, AWANA ... so, today's ADVENTure was something simple. Camryn painted a Christmas picture with watercolors. She was just as happy doing this as she has been doing any of the other activities. She loves anything artistic!

2011 ADVENTures: Day 13

For Day 13, we made a Christmas hand wreath. It turned out so cute and was really fun to make!