Christmas Activities Week Two

Sunday was a great start to our week. We had a family game night! When this idea came to me, I was thrilled to find super-cute printables readily available on pinterest. We played a Christmas matching game, Christmas Go-Fish, Jack Frost's Not Lost and Holiday BINGO. I'm guessing this will become a usual as well.

I cannot tell you how glad I am the kids are both old enough to do these games now. :) Getting close to being able to have game night once a week...if only Brad and I had the stamina to play Candyland that often... ;)

I tend to include a "special treat" with some of these evenings. We spotted Candy Cane Oreo's in the store after accidentally going down the aisle one should never go to! So, I stashed them away for this type of thing. It was a hit for everybody but Makin, who still thinks the candy cane flavor is "too spicy." :)

Game Fun

The next few days of our week involved crafts and some kindness (making treats for people and giving them) so the real "super-special" stuff didn't start until Friday.

I loved the idea of a Polar Express movie night. We had a great time watching it last year, but I was excited to add a few more special touches to our night.

Friday we got them into bath early so they were in jammies for our movie. Their Christmas surprise that day was just, "you will have a surprise at bedtime tonight" so they had been waiting all day. While Brad did bath I got hot chocolate and fixins ready and put the tickets on their pillows.  They were surprised to find the tickets on their pillows but also a little confused. They didn't remember the movie much from last year, so it didn't "click" that these were like the ones on the movie. After we explained it, they headed downstairs and were elated about the hot chocolate bar. :) Brad added anything they wanted to their cups, which was everything minus Makin not wanting the stuff that included peppermint.  I had him fix mine too because he did such a good job on theirs! :)  When they settled into bean bags to start the movie, Makin did not want to put his ticket down. :) I'm not sure kids are ever as silent and in awe as they seem at the beginning of this movie. :) They both sat so well for it and loved it. Great way to spend our Friday night. :)

When I was asking around to find out what Christmas festivities there are in the area (after finding pretty much zilch online) Miss Susan (one of our favorite librarians) suggested Lauritzen Gardens which has a special poinsettia and train display for Christmas. This seemed like a perfect fit.

I have to admit to being pretty disappointed. I try not to compare too much to Texas (I don't need to be a complainer!) but they definitely have the train thing down to an art at several places there. We have been spoiled the last two Christmases being able to see their amazing displays, so this one seemed pretty tiny and was a bit of a let down. Makin still loved watching them, so I think we may have lasted there about an hour, going back around the area several times and just letting him watch the trains. Since it went more quickly than expected we tried to enjoy the fact we were in Omaha and eat out and do a little shopping. I think they still enjoyed their day. :)

There was a balloon lady at Spaghetti Works. Lorelei got Rudolf and Makin got a snowman, which he named Banana.