The McDonald Family: December 2014

This year, I decided to involve Eli a little more in different activities during Advent leading up to Christmas. Since he is a little older and better able to understand what is really going on now, I created an Advent calendar out of cupcake pans covering each one with the number of days left until Christmas and underneath containing a slip of paper with an activity for the day and a couple pieces of candy. Some of the ideas for the different days came from other blogs I read and of course, Pinterest.

Here is a look back at our activities for this year:

Introducing Elf on the Shelf: Eli decided to affectionately name his elf AJ (after his buddy/Ian's friend AJ). Instead of following all the various creative ideas of posing the elf each day that can be found on Pinterest, I simply hid him in a different place for Eli to find in the morning. He seemed to find him a little quicker as the days progressed.

Decorating the house for Christmas: Eli truly seemed to enjoy pushing the containers back and forth way more than the actual decorating process itself.

He decided to line up the ornaments and count them, always the organizer.

It is a little hard to tell in the picture, but when he found this sparkly gold high-heeled shoe, he immediately pretended to try it on. Ian's grandma had previously given us this pair of shoes ornament along with a matching purse ornament, which always find a spot on our tree still.

Writing a letter to Santa: Leading up to Christmas, whenever Eli was asked what he wanted Santa to bring him this year, he would reply, "Nothing." We finally figured out as he is still fearful of Santa, he didn't want him coming to our house to bring anything. Finally, he gave some kind of response so we could finish this letter template complete with his own drawing for Santa.

Watching the Holiday Train: We went to Bellevue this year to see the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train. I had seen it in pictures before going, but it was really kind of a magical experience seeing it in person. Once it stopped, one of the boxcars transformed into a stage, and a band performed Christmas songs. It was really a lot of fun for kids and adults alike! This train travels across North America from coast to coast during the holiday season. Its mission is to raise money and collect food for local food banks at its many stops.

Visiting Reflections in the Park: On our way home from Finn's birthday party in Dubuque, we toured all the light displays at Murphy Park. Eli really enjoyed all the animated light displays. Tuning in to a local radio station playing Christmas music while driving through added a nice touch.

Creating a gingerbread house: I always thought these looked fun to make and finally decided to get one this year now that Eli is old enough to participate. Even after carefully reading and following the instructions, I am convinced the picture on the box is designed with either different materials than those actually enclosed or it is built by a master cake decorator. While ours did not turn out quite like the picture, we still had fun in the process.

Donating a gift to the Star Program: Our local banks sponsor the Star Program, which involves choosing a star from their Christmas tree labeled with the age, gender, and gift preference of kids in need. We chose an 8-year-old girl who wanted jeans and art supplies.

Eli's attempt at wrapping by himself...

Reading Christmas books: Since Eli was born, he has been given many Christmas-themed books as gifts each year. Books are always among my favorite gifts he receives! I love to see his own book collection keep growing. He has always LOVED books even from a very early age. I hope his love for reading continues as he gets older.

Checking out Christmas books from the library: Our children's librarian sets aside holiday and seasonal books in a special section to make them easier to find throughout the year. Going to the library is a special treat for Eli!

Baking Christmas treats: Along with baking treats for our family gatherings, we were busy putting together treat plates for other people who help us throughout the year, too. Eli enjoyed making the deliveries but reminded me at each stop, "YOU say Merry Christmas," as he was too shy to say it himself. This year, the recipients of the treat plates were our parish priest, mailman, hair stylist, neighbor Dave and his 95-year-old! mom, Eli's daycare provider, and the children's librarian.

Performing random acts of kindness: While shopping in Walmart, we handed out 2 McDonald's gift cards, one to a well-behaved kid and another to a cashier. At first, I realized parents with kids usually had more than just one kid with them, so we had to be on the lookout for a parent with just one kid since we had just the one gift card to hand out. We found a nice little girl with her mom, so I had given the card to Eli to hand to her and say, "Merry Christmas." He was not too interested in saying anything, but he did hand it to her. Once our shopping list was completed, off we headed to the checkout. I had in mind one cashier that I really wanted to give the other gift card to, but of course the one day we are looking for her, she isn't working. I ended up handing it to another cashier instead, and she politely declined stating she doesn't celebrate Christmas. Later on, we went to McDonald's for a mid-afternoon ice cream treat. I wanted to pass along a Walmart gift card to one of the workers there, which we did, and we also ended up giving the previously declined gift card to another customer who came in to eat there that day.

Last weekend when we went out to eat, we also left a wrapped box of chocolates for our waitress along with the tip at the end of the meal.

Reading the Christmas story: Eli is learning more about the real reason for the season. Hopefully as the years go by, he will develop a true understanding of why we celebrate different Advent and Christmas traditions and ultimately our true purpose for being here on this Earth, which reminds me of my all-time favorite quote:

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'"

-Erma Bombeck

We celebrated Finn's first birthday this year with a fun-filled Christmas-themed party. Finn seemed to enjoy taking in all the sights and sounds throughout all the commotion during the night. Eli loved seeing his cousins again and playing with all the other kids there (18 total!).

There were several activity stations with various arts and crafts from creating ornaments to mixing up reindeer food.

After a snack break for the kids and story time, there was a special guest appearance by Santa (and this guy was the most genuine and authentic Santa I have ever seen!). He called up each one by name and handed out gifts to all the kids while they took turns sitting on his lap. Eli enjoyed his seat on Grandma Mary's lap and watched Santa from a distance. There was no sitting on Santa's lap happening this year. Before he left, Santa even led a sing-along with the kids joining in and entertained some of their questions before departing.