Last year was not our best. 2011 was not kind to our family. We had a few good moments with her, but, oh man, she was rough. So goodbye, good riddance, adios, auf weidersehen 2011!
Our family bucket list update:
1: Eat too much at family dinners & feel no guilt –Life is too short to worry so much!
We ate so many Christmas cookies… Wow! THEY WERE AMAZING!
2: Volunteer together
We rang the Salvation Army bell as a family. Corah sang carols during the bell ringing while EJ wished every person that walked into Rural King a MERRY CHRISTMAS at the top of his lungs!
3: Cookies for Santa & Reindeer food – see above pictures. There were about 2 dozen cookies leftover…that is until Zoey the dog ate them. EJ put out carrots for the reindeer.
4: Give 2 “secret’ gifts to 2 special people in our lives. We chose 2 children from the Salvation Army gift tree. We picked out a 12 year old girl and a 5 year old boy.
5: Fill Stockings – the kids had their stockings hung from the top of the TV stand. Good thing Santa is tall and provides great wake-up calls at 3:00am.
6: Make Advent calendars/stringed presents. We found a lego advent calendar for EJ. He watched Caillou’s Christmas story of the Advent season that explained each day of the calendar and the variations of Christmas throughout the world. He enjoyed the advent calendar. Each day he opened a small part to build to create the city. He also enjoyed Corah’s advent calendar. When she went to open Day 5… no chocolate….Day 12 gone, Day 16 gone. EJ had enjoyed her days as well as his!
7: Make peppermint bark & caramels – made caramels a little last minute, but they got done. EJ and I took treats to the hospital. He had naughty treats (coal made from oreos) and nice treats (caramels). He enjoyed going around and deciding on whether people were naughty or nice. Everyone got a huge kick out of him. Didn’t get to making the peppermint bark… ran out of white chocolate making buckeyes. The Big E LOVES white chocolate buckeyes.
8: Ice skating in Lafayette – waiting on this glorious Indiana weather
9: See 3D movie @ IMAX Indy – Polar Express? – didn’t go see the IMAX, however, for EJ’s birthday, we went to see a 3D movie in Lafayette. We took Gma, who hadn’t seen a 3D movie EVER… She thought it was outstanding. PUSS in Boots was super cute. And of course our Christmas season couldn’t be complete without viewing the Polar Express and The Christmas Story 500 times!
10: See a play/musical/dance – We will be going to Wabash in January to see Swan Lake. It’s the FAMILY GIRLS NIGHT OUT! All the wonderful women in our lives will be dressing up, going to dinner and then going to the musical/play/ballet.
11: Make a gingerbread house – GMA put a gingerbread house together with the kids. Corah did a lot of the frosting whereas EJ was in charge of the CANDY… SURPRISE!
12: Cut down our family Christmas tree – We went to the tree farm and of course, like every other year, we went on a day that it was not opened! Due to chaotic scheduling, we opted to go to the local B&K and pick our tree out from the kind people who cut them down from their family farm and sell them to the YAHOOs of Logantucky that missed the days that the farm is really open.
13: String popcorn/cranberries for the tree – decided the dogs would have gained too much interest in the tree with food on it. Maybe another try next year.
14: Send out a new “awesome” number of Christmas cards – I believe our final total was around 80. Not our greatest year, but it will do. Next year…. Our card is already planned out.
15: Make Hot Cocoa after sledding – once again… waiting on the wonderful weather of Indiana to produce some of the white stuff so our children can use the NEW sleds.
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