Finishing up with Advent

So the week before Christmas {Advent Calendar} went a little something like this..

Day #18 - We sang and danced and jammed the night away {loud like the kids like it} to some of our favorite iTunes Christmas carols...Jeremy Camp's version of Let it Snow, and Jason Gray's version of JOY to the World were a couple of our favorites!

Day #19 - The kids got a coupon redeemable for {candy cane} hot cocoa any time of the day ;) I loved this recipe:  Peppermint Stick Cocoa

Day #20 - We watched several of our favorite Christmas movie(s) - just depending on the audience - throughout the day...the boys like the Veggie Tales Christmas, and the girls like Santa Claus 2.

Day #21 - We baked (THE best!) Peppermint Brownies. I love this recipe: Peppermint Brownie Mix. I had even made some of these for jar-gifts after trying them out. They are a Christmas recipe keeper and look really festive in their jar. Be warned, if you ever do find Andes peppermint crunch baking chips... stock up, because you won't find them again during the season. Sadly I only bought 2 bags, and I checked everywhere for more...it appeared everyone else discovered them - and all the stores in the area were "out"!

Day #22 - Out to lunch @ at a fancy restaurant. Fancy includes IHOP!

After our lunch/dinner we went to the {great} Grandparents for another Advent celebration:

Day #23 - Acting out the Christmas Story! 

Day #24 (Of course they will figure out that we rig this every year to be the one we always do on the 24th) but that night they got to "sleep underneath the Christmas Tree in sleeping bags"while Luke and I hurry up and finish all the wrapping. They love the tradition and look forward to it each year. Asher didn't know the difference...so we tucked him into his bed...but the rest of them crashed hard after a full evening of candlelight service, dinner, and gift exchange with extended family. Here are some pics from Christmas Eve:

Apparently we have not arrived at the day where everyone knows to "smile" at the camera yet ;)

The cousins

Leo-Love

In love with his Imaginext Stegosaurus & Dimetrodon

Best Friends Forever Dolls Delight!

Wowsers...we're jumping into the gaming world...look out!

Christmas Chaos

Then, on Christmas Day we spent some more time with family...after a little just us time waking up with the kids in the morning, opening their {mini} stockings and gifts. I keep teasing the kids as I have been on the hunt for years now for their perfect knit, matching, long, stockings like ours...that honestly, the older they get, they just might want to keep these mini's...because very few thing$ can fit in little $tockings ;) We know it's not about the presents at all, but the kids were filled with J-O-Y this year as they opened their gifts...it was truly a gift to Luke and I. After reading this earlier in the season, we started a new tradition to our gift giving with the kids. Speaking of new traditions, since we have a decent view, I have also started the tradition of taking a picture of the Christmas Morning Sky. Last year did not disappoint, we actually put it on the back of our cards this year...look familiar? Well enjoy the few pics I actually took on Christmas Day, they were all just so giddy with their giving and receiving of gifts and all the excitement that ensues:

Christmas Morning 2011

Christmas Morning 2012

One..Two..Three..... Go for it!

Spiderman, who insisted on wearing his new spiderman jammies and shoes to open gifts,
LOVES him some color orange..go BSU!

Jordan's babydoll actually got a bigger wardrobe than her this year!

Lastly, here are some pics of the {family} gifts Luke and I made this year. I purchased an {unfinished} wooden crate from Michael's and contemplated on how I wanted to decorate it. My vision was to create a personalized crate that could not only serve as the basket for some home-made goods, but then be used as a piece of art/furniture to decorate their homes once emptied! The options became truly endless, but here's how a few of them turned out:

Here's the simple steps I took if you want to make or refurbish your own an antique wooden crate:

First I stenciled the lettering with black craft paint & a sponge brush. After that was dry I rubbed one coat of oil-based minwax special walnut stain, by just wiping it on with a rag & gloves. The next day I put a couple thin coats of polyurethane on to seal it up nicely. Once the finish was dry, I decorated the end with torn scrapbook paper and several coats of modge-podge. Now one could continue on with distressing, or antiquing etc. No two were alike! Do note: Don't reverse the order - polyurethane first (on wood) modge-podge second (over paper). If you wait and seal the entire thing once you have used modge-podge...the urethane will turn the modge-podge strokes a nasty hue of yellow (not that I learned from experience or anything :)

The fun part was actually cramming them full filling them. We made them with the intention of filling them with our canned and baked goods as they were just the right size for jars! Wish I had remembered to take a picture of one all wrapped up pretty!

I was pleased with how they turned out and so were the family members. Giving credit where credit is due...after I had purchased a couple of the crates from Michael's - not entirely sure what I was going to do yet - Luke then took some measurements and built the rest of them {custom sized} for me. Ingenious!

It has actually led me to be thinking about next Christmas...wondering.. a)do I go for something very cool I found while trying to decide what to do with these that looks even harder and more difficult to accomplish {because I love a challenge}...just so long as I start in January...or b) forget it and decided that hand-made Christmas gifts is an every-other-year-in-order-to-stay-sane type of addiction tradition. Verdicts not out yet :)