Christmas Miscellaneous

This was the first snow (mid-December) that we had... not a lot, but enough to accumulate on the ground. Macey was fascinated by it! She pulled off her gloves and had to touch it. She was so excited to show me what she discovered.

Even though we didn't have "our tree" this year, we still had to hang our new ornaments up. Here's what we chose for the kids this year:

Sadie: LOVES going to the dentist and playing dentist--hope that trend continues!

Kinnick: LOVES all things superhero... too much sometimes. Batman and Spiderman are his favorites. Amazing how boys pick up on this stuff!

Macey: We still continue to call her our "sweet" girl. We get comments on others all the time about how sweet she is. She loves it when other adults pick her up (friends, family, strangers--it doesn't matter).

This year for gifts the kids helped me mix up a couple BIG batches of cocoa (recipe posted below--it's our favorite--we never buy cocoa anymore!) We made little goodie bags of cocoa and cookies for all their teachers at MOPS and at church. We also did bags for our small group.

We also helped with a Christmas party at Ms. Pearl's. It was at a local elementary school. We visited classrooms (with Santa) and passed out awesome treat bags--loaded with TONS of goodies. Sadie got to go with me for this while Kinnick and Macey hung out at the daycare.

For the party I volunteered to make cookies (not sure I thought that one through!) With some help from the kids we made about 230 cookies... sugar cookies with sprinkles, M&M cookies, and pb kiss cookies...

We are Homeowners!!!

As of Friday, December 16th we officially own our new home. We were so grateful to make it to closing day and get through closing day with no bumps. We had to have some repair work done on our water lines in order to get our water going... as of late last night we now have heat and running water--let the fun begin!! Lots of work to do, ripping out carpet & painting. We plan to move in right before New Year's or the first of January. More updates coming soon!

'11 Christmas Pictures

Weekend Get-Away & Bowling

The first weekend in December Marc surprised me with a weekend away. Ms. Jennifer offered to keep the kids for us so we could do Christmas shopping. Marc booked a room in Naperville for us so we could make a weekend of it. Jennifer met us Saturday morning to pick up the kids. We actually had a good portion of shopping already done, but still had lots of different stores to go to for only one or two things. It was so great to take our time all day long. We enjoyed coffee in the morning, and a leisurely lunch midst all of our shopping. We checked into the hotel by late afternoon and enjoyed some down time and the hot tub before dinner. We had dinner out at Olive Garden....

Sunday morning we were able to sleep in and enjoy breakfast at Cracker Barrel before heading to Streator. We watched the Bears game at Todd & Jennifer's and stayed in town for Carson's birthday party that evening.

The kids were so excited to go bowling for Carson's birthday!

We had a fabulous weekend... the perfect way to kick off the busy month of December!

Decorating our Tree

Christmas was a little different for us this year... ALL of our Christmas decorations, lights, ornaments, books, DVD's... were in storage. We usually get a real tree, but the tree stand and everything for it was in storage. Fortunatly we have so many generous people in our life--we had several offers to borrow a tree and ornaments. We did put up a white tree with some borrowed ornaments, garland, and topper. I also thought it would be fun to make some ornaments with the kids. We used cereal boxes, cookie cutters, paint, glue, & glitter... This is what we ended up with:

We made 4 sets of these ornaments so each of the kids can keep one as well as Marc and I. The kids LOVED this project and had a blast decorating our little tree!

We also bought LOTS of candy canes to hang up... the kids loved eating candy canes almost every day!

A Christmas to Remember!

25 Days of Christmas... Part 1

This year for the month of December we tried something new... I believe it will become a new tradition in the Gorsch household. We did an advent countdown to Christmas with daily activities. I read this idea in a Family Fun magazine and thought it would be perfect to add some extra fun to our December since we didn't have any of our Christmas decorations, books, etc.

Marc and I brainstormed a list of ideas. We came up with a lot more than 25 so some have been saved for future years! We decided on a schedule and made a master list of activities. I made note cards listing the activities (I saved these to re-use) and put them into envelopes (not sealed). If we needed to switch anything at the last minute (and we did) it was no big deal. Each morning the kids got to open an envelope to see what special activity we would get to do.... December 1: Open Family Present #1... matching Christmas P.J.'s!

December 2: Christmas Breakfast #1 (we continued this tradition from last year) We had pink & green cinnamon bread and hot chocolate.

December 3: Each kid chose a toy to give away.

December 4: Family Gift #2... Christmas children's C.D. set and Christmas socks for each kid.

December 5: We took the kids shopping at our new favorite store, 5 Below and they each got to chose one toy to donate to Toys for Tots.

December 6: We decorated our (borrowed) tree... with borrowed decorations.

December 7: We made cards to mail to the great-grandparents. I painted the kids hands to make a Christmas tree shape and Sadie helped me decorate the trees with sequins.

December 8: We had Christmas Breakfast #2... Tree-shaped mint pancakes. The kids also got to write letters to Santa. We took them to Macy's to mail.

December 9: We made snowman-shaped pizzas.

December 10: Took the kids to visit Santa, they also got to shop for presents for each other (Marc and I tag-teamed this). Marc finished the day by taking them to get a present for me (while I got groceries!)

December 11: Christmas Pictures after church (taken by mom) and Family Present #3-New Christmas DVD... this set was perfect for us this year! The kids watched them over and over.

December 12: We made Christmas cookies to deliver to some special people.

December 13: I helped the kids make ornaments for their Grandparents (something we do each year). Marc and I also enjoyed an "ugly sweeter" party with our small group while the kids got to spend a night with their favorite babysitter from Streator... Miss Alyssa.

Stay tuned for the rest of our Christmas Fun!

Jump Zone

The weekend of Kinnick's birthday we decided to have a family fun day... we checked out a place close to us called "Jump Zone". We had a blast!

Marc and I had a good mix of hanging out while the kids played and playing with them... fun for all!