Christmas Activities, December 1-5

December 1: Put up the Christmas Tree and Decorations

We had fun putting up the tree, listening to Mannheim Steamroller and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows.  Henry had about 6 ornaments hanging from the one branch, so I did have to a little re-arranging. :)  I had a church supper to help at on Wednesday, so rather than make Henry miss his nap to get the tree up, we did this on Thursday. Dad ended up taking the afternoon off and got to hang out with us too.

Both fell asleep on the couch afterward.

December 2:  Decorate Wrapping Paper
December 3:  Make Christmas Finger Jello

Because of the delay in putting the tree up, we did both of these activities on Friday.  We made red and green finger jello and cut it into Christmas shapes, although Henry kept calling the cross was a "plus."  We also decorated kraft paper with paint, glue, and glitter.  There was less than half the jar of white glitter left, a little more than half of blue, and there wasn't that much surface area to cover!

December 4:  Make Supper and Bring Some Away

I had supper made, all ready to go, and Henry refused to go for a car ride.  Since these would be surprise drop-offs, I had planned chili soup and cinnamon rolls - something that could easily be froze or saved for the next day, so I didn't push it.  I wasn't going to bring it away by myself just to get it done, and I wasn't going to force Henry to go and turn it into a miserable activity.  Instead, we brought them away as a family after church today and left the surprises by back doors for them to come home to.

December 5:  Make Star Cookies with Mom

Sometimes Henry just gets excited about taking off the numbers, acts excited about the activity I tell him, and then goes off to play trucks again.  At least today he knew what was involved and went straight to the kitchen table to push the chair across the kitchen.

He always has fun mixing, but he also has a short attention span and got in trouble for opening the oven door (even though it wasn't on yet), and disappeared right before what I thought was the fun stuff.  He did show back up to roll a few cookies in sugar, tried to take over my job of scooping balls and started to treat it like play dough, pushed a few stars in the hot cookies and then disappeared again.

Along with a few stars. 

I know I can't expect "perfect" activities if I want to have fun, so I remind myself: flexibility is key!