How We Christmas! Countdown Activity Calendar

Today I’m participating in my very first Link up with Erika and Shay! 

I’m so excited to be sharing a little bit about how we do Christmas. Because Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year! 

I try my best to spend good quality time with my family throughout the entire year, but at Christmas time I take even more time to make sure that I don’t allow life to get in the way of it. 

My favorite way of doing that is by creating a countdown to Christmas Activity countdown Calendar. 

My mom bought me this adorable snowman countdown calendar about 10 years ago.

The first few years we would fill it with candy, money, small toys etc. and the girls would just take turns opening a door to reveal the prize. 

Then, a few years into it I decided to turn it into an activity countdown. Thanks PINTEREST! 😉 

I spend a little time in November creating a schedule of traditions or activities that we love to do together. Every year I have a mix of traditional stuff and new things that we’ve never really done before. I just type up the list on Word and print it out. Cut it into strips and load up the calendar. 

Our poor snowman has been around for so long that the doors don’t stay shut and some of them are missing knobs, but I just tape it up and the kids all take turns opening a door each morning to reveal the activity of the day! 

We try our best to complete each activity on that day, regardless of our busy after school schedules, but there are some days where we have to put our activity off until the next day. 

Here’s a look into what our December has looked like so far and what’s to come!

On December 1 we made papersnowflakes! It took me a few years to learn how to properly cut the snowflakes, and I’ve yet to actually invest in the proper paper. But I think they turned out pretty darn cute this year! I actually don’t mind having them displayed on the dining room window. In some of the years past, our snowflakes were a disaster, but we would always still hang them because the kids really enjoyed it. I would cringe every time I walked by the window. But I have truly learned to appreciate those types of decorations more and more with each passing year 

On December 2nd we had a candy cane hunt. Mike and I hid 60 mini candy canes all throughout the main level of the house and the kids ran around like crazy trying to find the most. Last year I tied a few dollar bills to some of the candy canes, and one special candy cane had a Five Dollar Bill. They were a little bummed that I skipped that this year, but they still had a blast searching. Although I’m pretty sure there are still a few stragglers around, The same thing happens to us with Easter Eggs! I can never remember where I hid them. After they found all of them, they hid them again for mike and I to find. It was a fun little activity for us all. 

On December 3rd we had Family Game Night. It was another busy weeknight, but I’m so glad we made the time for it. Nothing like a good old Belly Laugh with the family! 

December 4th was a trip to the Movies! We were lucky enough to find a showing directly after school and with enough time to make it to softball practice. Mike was traveling for work so he couldn’t join us, but the kids and I had a blast. And Ralph Breaks the Internet is definitely highly recommended by our crew! 

December 5th we all sat down together to write out Christmas Cards. I didn’t print out our usual family picture card this year. There has honestly just been so much going on with the move and settling in here, that we never got around to getting our pictures taken. So, I decided to save a little time and money and just buy the generic ones this year. Plus I feel like even though they aren’t personalized with a picture they are handwritten with love. 

December 6th we played Christmas Song Pictionary! Thanks to Kara over at Creations by Kara I was able to just print out the pre designed cards and cut them out. There were some songs that were super easy and some that were near impossible, but it was another fun time had by all. 

December 7th was our first trip to the local parks tree lighting celebration! Although our little guy was super tired and not himself, we still had a great time. We got to see Santa arrive in the horse drawn carriage with the mounted patrol, sip on hot chocolate, get our craft on and try out some really yummy food trucks! 

December 8th was our annual Hot Chocolate Bar. This year I ordered the Hot Cocoa Bar print from Savannah of Classy Clutter, and tried to decorate it up pretty cute. My kids drink hot chocolate almost every day of the winter, but having all the fixins and the cute little set up is something they always look forward to!

On December 9th the girls and I along with my oldest sister and mom, went to see Scrooge the musical at our local Children’s theater. My girls have somehow never heard the story of scrooge so I was super excited for them to see the play. It was an amazing production and great interpretation of the story. 

On December 10th we baked cookies! We usually try to do this on a weekend because cookie baking can be very time consuming and MESSY, and who has time for a mess on a week night. BUT…I decided to squeeze it in, and I’m so happy I did. We baked for 4 hours straight, and cleaned for probably 5, but the cookies turned out so yummy. I found most of our recipes on Pinterest again, I’ll add links at the end if anyone wants to try some of then. My favorites were probably the lemon curd cookies.  We ended up with 250 cookies! So if anyone has a sweet tooth this week, stop on by! 😉 

December 11th was supposed to be DIY Christmas Ornaments. But I kind of slacked on the planning of that one, and we never got around to it. But we’ll most likely do that tonight along with our December 12th Chick Fil-a for Dinner. We’ll probably just make Salt Dough ornaments and paint them.

And here is my remaining list for whats to come!

• December 13th: Christmas BINGO with a prize. (probably a $5 starbucks gift card)
• December 14th: Bake Gingerbread Men 
• December 15th: Gingerbread house Party 
• December 16th: Shopping 
• December 17th: Wrapping presents together 
• December 18th: Ice Cream Sundaes for DINNER!
• December 19th: Santa Clause Lane (A super festive Christmas house in our area.)
• December 20th: At home Christmas Manicure/Spa Night. I’m sure the boys will love this one! 😉 
• December 21st: Make a snack to bring to our families Christmas party 
• December 22nd: Roll a Christmas tree game 
• December 23rd: Emmy’s (my mom) house for our Christmas Gift Exchange. 
• December 24th: We spend Christmas Eve the same way every year. I do have to work a few hours in the morning but after that we will go to Christmas Eve mass at Church, have Mexican food for dinner, get cozied up in the Christmas jammies that our elf drops off, whip up some hot chocolate and drive all around town lookin gat lights, then read Twas the Night Before Christmas before going to bed. Or stay up in bed all night too excited to sleep. 

And there you have it! That’s how we do Christmas at the Johnston Household! 

And, here are those cookie recipes I promised! 🙂

1.Melt in your mouth Snowball cookies from: Roxanna at A Treats Affair, http://atreatsaffair.com/snowball-cookies-recipe/

2. Lemon Curd Cookies from: Madhurri at Mad About Kitchen, http://madaboutkitchen.in/lemon-curd-cookies/

3. Peanut Butter Cookies from A Dash of Sanity,  https://www.dashofsanity.com/best-ever-soft-peanut-butter-cookies/ 

4. White Chocolate chip Cranberry Cookies from: Danielle at Live Well Bake Often, https://www.livewellbakeoften.com/white-chocolate-cranberry-oatmeal-cookies/

5. Chocolate Chip Cookies: Straight off the back of the toll house bag 🙂 

6. Red Velvet cake mix cookies: Once again From Live Well Bake often,   https://www.livewellbakeoften.com/red-velvet-cake-mix-cookies/

7. Finally, our own version of the haystack cookie. Just Chow Mein noodles, Cheerios, melted white chocolate and some Christmas Sprinkles! 🙂 

ENJOY!