The Happy Hasselds: 12 Activities of Christmas

My last post made it seem like we hadn't done anything Christmas-y this year. When I started going through the pictures, I remembered all of these events:

1. Surprising the kids with seeing The Polar Express. At an IMAX. In 3-D. Bella was a little freaked at first, but once the first scene began with falling snowflakes, she giggled, "This is actually awesome!" as she tried to catch snowflakes.

Ryan's ready.

Can you tell Bella is excited?

2. The local Catholic church did a "Walk to Bethlehem." It helped that it was about 50 degrees that night! They took us in "families" led by a re-enactor in costume through the hill country and on our way to the manger. It was really fun and Bella wanted to do it again as soon as we were done.

This was a tent leading into the sanctuary where we waited. The woman is showing Bella some pomegranates.

These were the angels, singing in the darkness.

We were given scrolls that had to be stamped as part of our census.

We made it to town! Here are some goats.

Finally-the star!

The manger scene. Even though some of the kids were bored, and it was a babydoll in the manger, it still filled me with wonder that this was how Christ entered the world.

3. A bunch of our small groups (called a flock) had a Christmas party with a Christmas hat theme. Joshua won 1st place because his hat was a fireplace that actually lit up!

4. Downtown Carmel had some winter hooplah going on one Saturday so we went to check it out.

The kids got to decorate sugar cookies. Ryan ate his and Bella's.

There were live reindeer. The kids talked more about the deer peeing in the parking lot than the fact that they were actually touching real reindeer!

Of course Bella's going in for a closer look!

We waited in line for an hour for a horse-drawn carriage ride!

This is what it looked like. It was a whopping 20 minute ride, but the kids thought it was the coolest thing.

5. Bella watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

6. We bought an Elf on the Shelf. Bella named her Peppermint and the kids race around the house each morning to see what kind of things Peppermint is up to.

TP'ing the kids' bathroom.

Hanging from Ryan's underpants in his room.

Playing the XBox.

Enjoying Candyland with Cinderella and Fred.

Making a sugar angel.

Feeling a little under the weather.

Watching Star Wars. She's a big fan.

Trying to drive off with our bag of marshmallows.

7. Downtown Carmel hosted a gingerbread house scavenger hunt. Businesses in town had a gingerbread house in their window and you had to answer questions about each one. It was a cold, windy day, but we ran up and down, finishing our hunt.

Bella waiting for her pot of tea to finish brewing.

Ryan enjoys his "warm chocolate"-they made it cool enough for him to drink right away.

Our final stop was the candy store in town. The kids played outside, then got $1 worth of candy apiece.

8. Santa came to the toy store where I've been working. They were very casual about the whole thing!

Bella asked for pink ice skates. Even though she's never gone skating. That's all she asked for.

Ryan's putting in his request for a train. That's it. Nothing else.

Bella goofing around inside the flexiball.

9. Our sad attempts at the gingerbread houses before we gave up.

10. The Salvation Army guy outside of WalMart is really friendly. He let the kids ring the bell and you would've thought it was the coolest job on the planet.

This is Bella's "Cindy Lou Who" hair after watching the Grinch.

11. Bella's kindergarten winter program. They song the dreidel song, a Kwanzaa song, Feliz Navidad, and even a French song (I think), but nothing about Jesus. *sigh*

Thanks, Maga, for the beautiful dress!

The program started at 6:30. We got there at 6:00. These were our seats. I think we should've camped out the night before!

Ryan wanted to take a picture, so here it is.

Bella's in this one, although you probably have to really zoom in to see her.

12. Last day of school! Bella's last day of school before break had a two-hour delay because of the snow. That gave me time to make pancakes! And no, those aren't reindeer droppings next to it! Extra chocolate chips!

SNOW! The kids could hardly wait for school to be over so they could go outside and play. We didn't stay out long because it was soooooo cold, but they didn't care-they loved every minute of it.