Ah I can't believe it's already the week before Christmas! Where has the time gone? We've been so busy over here with fun activities just filling our day up with craziness sometimes that I haven't really had time to share it all. Even better, half the time I don't even have a chance to take photos of all the fun!
So here's a recap of our second week of Christmas, days 8-14
Day 8: make a popcorn treat & watch The Polar Express
Grey liked this! He hadn't seen it before and was super into it! He held onto one of his color flash cards, which almost looks like a ticket from the movie, the whole time! The popcorn was delicious! Just regular butter popcorn with some melted white chocolate and Christmas colored sprinkles! Yum!
Day 9: Special gift - Build a Santa window cling & decorate the door
This was tricky at first but he realized they were like stickers and had a blast. Now he just rips them off the windows any chance he gets!
Day 10: make gingerbread-scented playdough
This was a fun activity for both of us. Grey is getting more interested in helping me do baking & crafting things. I let him help pour things junto the bowl and mix it when he's able to, depending on the consistency. And what's better than something you get to play with in the end?! He's actually gotten into playing with the playdough instead of just trying to eat it!
Day 11: hot cocoa treat
Greyson loves not cocoa and after some outside freezing fun, it's a good treat for him! He gets so excited and loves that he gets to use the little mug. And of course picks all of his marshmallows out to eat first!
Day 12: Christmas coloring!
When we were in the states, my mom pulled out a few old coloring books for Greyson to play with & we ended up bringing a Christmas one back with us. I got him to sit & color with me for a little bit! Though no coloring session is complete without his favorite Movhael Buble Christmas music!
Day 13: mail our Christmas package. No pictures because there wasn't really anything to take pictures of!
Day 14: Bake Christmas cookies
This was a fun endeavor! He wasn't interested in helping make the dough, but he was all out cutting out the dough with the cookie cutters! I even got him to help roll out some dough with the rolling pin!
So much fun and so busy all at the same time! We're already nearing the end of the next week with plenty more Christmas excitement to share soon!
So of you're like me, you're a sucker for gift guides! I have a hard time coming up with gifts sometimes, but Greyson's gifts this year just came so easily to me!
I had a vision of what we wanted to go for and was able to get it all to make for a fun little Christmas for him this year. Here's what Grey will have waiting under the tree this year from Mom, Dad & Santa!
Toddler Table - I've seen tons of bloggers with this & all have great reviews. I completely understand! It's such a cute little table & sturdy! Plus you can't beat the price! We plan to stain it some and have it put together all ready for Christmas morning
Alphabet Puzzle - This puzzle is seriously adorable! I love how chunky the pieces are and easy for little hands to manipulate while learning how to do puzzles! Plus, learning the alphabet is always fun & good! Grey knows about half of the alphabet so I'm sure this will be a fun way for him to play & learn the rest
Stackable Finger Crayons - how fun, right? Perfect for little fingers and budding artists. Not to mention the stacking ability can help with fine motor skills! Grey is starting to get into scribbling & such so I'm sure these will get used a bunch
Wooden Toy Camera - I cannot say how much I love this little camera! It's lens turns as does the knob on top and the shutter button is spring loaded, providing tons of pretend picture taking! Grey lives to copy us & has a huge fascination with my camera so I can't wait until he has his own to play with. Plus, the mom who makes it is super nice & a fellow USAF wife! Can't help but love helping those WAHM that work so hard
Red Converse - these were my husbands idea! He saw them & got crazy excited because he loves red shoes, so naturally Grey needed some! We got them in a size bigger than his biggest shoes so he has them for when he grows out of the others. We've even picked up a few outfits here and there that we've seen on sale. He's going to be stylin'
Ikea Kid's Chair - toddler furniture is the cutest! Grey is obsessed with tiny furniture & likes to sit on anything & everything. So when we stumbled upon this chair while searching for the table amongst the Ikea awesomeness, we couldn't pass it up! I like that it's neutral so it can go with any decor & is big enough that it should last him awhile still. Plus, the wood is the same unfinished wood as the table so we can stain them to match!
I cannot wait to play Santa this year with my husband. I'm sure Grey will be too curious to leave gifts under the tree & I really think Christmas morning will be magical if he wakes up to a tree loaded with gifts. So we aren't putting anything under our tree until the big night, even those sent from family! I just hope his face lights up with amazement like I can imagine in my head!
He has tons of toys that sing songs & such, so we steered clear of those this year. He still plays with the ones he got last Christmas & for his birthday. So pretend play toys & things to spark his imagination were our goal items!
What is on your toddler's Christmas wishlists this year? Any cool finds?!
Yay for Christmas season being in full swing over here at our house! The halls are decked. Christmas movies have been watched several hundred times!
I thought this year would be fun to start the advent calendar with Greyson. I wasn't able to find one I loved this year so it's more of a Christmas countdown with gifts or activities for every day this month leading right up to Christmas! None of it is crazy or too complicated as Greyson still doesn't entirely understand what's going on, but he knows when we're having fun! Just little things to add some festiveness into our days!
Here's a look at our first week of our countdown to Christmas!
Day 1. Special gift: New plate & Santa cup
Day 2. Paint craft for grandparents - no pictures for this since we have to keep them a surprise still!
Day 3. Decorate wrapping paper & wrap presents
Day 4. Special gift: New Christmas socks
Day 5. Help mommy decorate the outside of the house - I really wanted to put lights outside but since this is our last year here, we decided to not spend the money on Christmas lights we can only use once. So some ornaments to spruce up our mini outside tree had to be good enough
Day 6. See Christmas lights in the dark - again, not as many people put lights up here like in the states. I had planned on driving around to look at them, but we happened to be at a Christmas market after it got dark so it counts in my book! It was beautiful!
Day 7. Special gift & activity: make a reindeer door hanger sign
Our December is off to a pretty good start! Loving all the holiday fun & keep coming up with new ideas for a little more than what I have planned!
What have you done so far to get into the holiday spirit?! I'd love to hear!
Link up:
Christmas is in full swing here at our house! We wasted no time decking the halls as soon as Thanksgiving had come & gone. Christmas is probably my favorite time of the year so it gets harder every year to hold off on decorating and all the fun. I tried saying it is "almost Christmas" in June and my husband said no & I can't say it until at least November now! Ha it's always almost Christmas in my mind!
We got a little help from Greyson with the lights and bulbs this year, and of course the star, though he really just wanted to inspect them more than actually put them on the tree. He was pretty mesmorized at first which was crazy cute!
Kid loves him some candy canes so he keeps stealing the ones within his reach on the tree and he brings them to me to eat. Nice try! Oh and we found out the hard way that toddlers & non-shatterproof bulbs don't mix! Grey has managed to only break 3 by being "helpful" and taking them off the tree to bring to us & naturally dropping a few in the process!
I love adding little bits of Christmas or general winter decorations everywhere in my house! I feel like anywhere you look, you can see something festive!
Even the coffee bar has a little festiveness to it with red cups & Christmas mugs (some were being used elsewhere for delicious coffee during this picture).
Santa is everywhere! He can see you doing anything in my house right now! Better not cry!
And the tree! I've already had to re-decorate it since we had a strand of lights die and naturally decided to move the ornaments out of Grey's reach so we don't have any more fatalities!
I may have even dressed up a few of Grey's stuffed animals in his little baby clothes from last year for a little extra fun!
If any tell you how funny this was! He had no idea I was taking a picture! It just added to the fun of this outdoor decorations photo!
I hope you've enjoyed seeing my little house! Decorating for holidays is one of my favorite things to do ever! It just puts me in an awesome mood & just fills me with holiday spirit!
Now off to finish daily errands & post office run to try to get our families' gifts there on time!
Link up:
Happy December 1st! I cannot believe it's already December! Thanksgiving came and went in what seems like the blink of an eye!
We hosted our first Thanksgiving at our house this year. Usually we go to friends' houses or even tag along to people who we don't know's houses. But I've always wanted to have people over so finally went for it this year! We had some friends & the one family's kids over for dinner & fun!
Our tiny German oven doesn't allow much to be baked at once. So I decided to make some dessert the night before. Mini salted caramel chocolate chip cheesecakes. Yes! They're even more delicious than they sound! They were super easy to make and honestly would've been even easier had I remembered cupcake liners to bake them in.
Mr. Greyson got upset at one point & wanted me to hold him, right smack in the middle of filling the pan. So he got to sit on the counter with me & "help!" He watched me for a bit then grabbed the spatula when I'd set it down for a second & started copying me, trying to get the cheesecake mix into the pan. It was adorable!
Along with our first time hosting came our first time making the turkey! I was super excited and even more nervous since it's the star of Thanksgiving dinner. I did lots of reading of recipes and techniques & consulted my mom. We ended up going simple with just some butter with salt, pepper, basil & oregano. We thought it turned out well & happily, so did the guests! It was a smaller turkey since there weren't many of us, but we still ended up with plenty of leftovers! Yum!
I mentioned a holiday sangria I'd been wanting to try, so I went for it! Apples, cranberries & clementines in sparking apple cider & moscato. It was delicious! I will definitely make it again!
Growing up we had a tradition of watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation after Thanksgiving dinner. Sort of our way of kicking off Christmas season! So I've continued it every year, despite being super far from family. It's definitely a Christmas favorite of mine!
And wasting no time, we pulled out the tree on Friday to get the house into the spirit of Christmas! We skipped the normal Black Friday since honestly, the BX isn't exciting like the stateside stores & the deals aren't really awesome. Instead, we went to Ikea for our first time since moving here (I know, I know, we're way behind) to try to finish up our last bit of shopping for Grey. The table we want was out but found a cure little chair we know he'll love!
Sorry for being so quiet! Our internet had been downright crazy but should be better now! Have tons of a Christmas stuff to get up so soon!
Hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving & your December is off to the great start!
