On the 1st day of Christmas

We are on the countdown to Christmas and trying to pack in lots of fun things. Last night we all jumped in the car, went and got some treats at Sonic and then went to watch the light show at Senske. I had never been to see it but had heard from lots of people that it was a fun thing to do. At first when we pulled up, we were like this is it? But then after tuning into the Christmas radio station it was synchronized with and parking across the street to watch it, we all agreed it was pretty amazing. Our kids loved watching the lights pulse and change with the music. Cooper and Kale were almost absolutely silent the whole time, except for a few excited exchanges about the pretty lights. As usual our fun time was cut short because someone had to go the bathroom........sigh..........but, it was still a very fun way to spend a Tuesday night and we got home right at bedtime.

We also had a little surprise yesterday. While driving home after picking up Kendle from piano lessons, my mom called me. She asked where we were and said she was at our house. She had brought us a Christmas surprise. A whole box of presents - one to be opened each day until Christmas. To say my kids were jazzed up would be an understatement. They were so excited to wake up this morning and open the present for the 1st day of Christmas! My mom labeled them all so we know which one to open each day. She is doing it for our WHOLE family. So all of my siblings are opening their gifts on the same days. It is so fun! I think it is an awesome idea. Our gift today was a box of delicious homemade fudge and candy and a Manheim Steamroller Christmas CD. The kids were stoked! They begged me to give them each a little bit of grandma's fudge before school and I even let Kendle take some in her lunch. She said all the kids in her class would be so jealous. Our family loves Manheim Steamroller as well and I know we will all enjoy listening to the music. (Riley calls it his type of Christmas music)

We are also looking forward to opening our service advent each day and doing good and thoughtful things for others this time of year. Kendle has a project at school to try and do as many random acts of kindness that they can and then they give a little speech about it in class before Christmas break. I think that is one of the most excellent things to do with grade school age children. She had lots of good ideas of things she wanted to do. We are feeling the Christmas spirit!