Monday, December 23, 2019

Weekend Before Christmas


Only two days until Christmas - I can hardly believe it. I'm trying to get all of the things done today. Over the weekend we kicked things off on Friday celebrating my birthday - a very low key day then before dinner that night we saw there was no line for the Santa in town so we took Tatum in to see him.


We met my family for dinner but first popped into a pop up Christmas bar quickly.  After a delicious meal we stopped by a live nativity at a local church and Tatum loved the animals.


Saturday morning we made a visit to Sesame Place.  We had a great time doing that but it was cold! so we didn't stay too long but felt like we had enough time to enjoy - I'll share more about that after the holidays.


Saturday night we did a Christmas House Crawl with our neighbors and stopped at each house for an hour for an appetizer, cocktail and item for the kids.   At our house we served our Christmas Cheer drink, crockpot glazed kielbasa and brie cheese bites from Trader Joes.


Santa also came around on the firetruck this night and since we were moving around houses we were able to see him twice!


Yesterday was our day to kind of catch up and do anything that we hadn't finished up yet.  After a morning of miscellaneous chores and errands we stopped by the Christmas bar again for lunch.


I spent most of the afternoon/early evening wrapping and getting organized while the boys watched the Cowboys game.


After dinner it was finally time to start baking.  I got two batches done and hope to finish the rest today.  Tatum's elf also brought pancake mix for today which we ended up being too busy to use but hopefully will over break!

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

December Things

I can't believe how fast this month is flying by!  Decorating and starting to do some celebrating early helped to spread things out but I still wish we had another few weeks left.  We've spent a ton of time on the couch watching movies - Tatum's favorites are The Grinch and Mickey's Christmas.  


We made our family's Christmas drink, Christmas Cheer and have already begun sampling and enjoying it.  Tatum loved "helping."


Tatum's really enjoyed some crafting activities this year and I've had the best time doing them with him.  I've tried to space them out throughout the month so he doesn't get overwhelmed or bored. Making ornaments was probably his favorite so far.


Last Monday we had our fifth annual family Christmas dinner.  We all met up at the mall before for a little bit of final shopping then went to our usual Christmas dinner spot, Maggiano's for a great night.


Our living room is one of my favorite rooms and my absolute favorite this time of the year.  I've really enjoyed reading Christmas books by the tree in there this year.  Sometimes Tatum interrupts/joins me also.


He always wants to be just like Daddy and also loves helping...

Monday, December 16, 2019

Weekend Scenes

Happy Monday!  We had a pretty lazy weekend as rain cancelled a lot of our plans but it was nice to take a little break.  We started things off Thursday - Tatum and I met my family and family friends that were visiting at Longwood Gardens to look at the Christmas display and lights then Derek met us all for dinner.


Friday we finished up some Christmas shopping and went out for pizza night.  I've been trying to get in ALL of the Christmas movies.  We did a couple more crafts that I got early on in the season and Tatum was pretty proud of himself.


Saturday we got rained out of going to Sesame Place as well as a holiday hayride that night so it was and at home day!  We crossed making Tatum's crafts for Christmas gifts off the to do list and enjoyed chili for dinner which was nice since the weather was so bad.


Yesterday we planned to take Stella and Tatum to see Santa together since it was pets day but the line was way too long so we opted to take a photo of them outside of the popup Christmas bar and head home instead.


Everyone took naps, watched Christmas movies and relaxed after lunch - it was such a nice break and even though not what we planned but nice down time.


Last night we had a Gingerbread Wonderland event at our country club - the houses and supplies are all out for the kids to make their gingerbread houses which is great because we broke the one we planned on doing on Saturday!  Tatum had fun putting the candy on the roof then just wanted to run around with his friends so Mommy finished it.


When we got home Tatum watched the grinch (probably for the 100th time) and I got started on a new Christmas book before watching a Hallmark movie with Derek to finish off the weekend.