25 Days of Christmas, Days 10-19

December is flying by, how is it the 20th already?? We have continued with our 25 days of Christmas, here's a quick recap of what we've been up to:

Day 10 brought another new book, Olive the Other Reindeer. Simon surprised us by knowing the story well from reading it at school!

Day 11 was another one for Matt to handle, and he and the boys checked out Santa's home and global route on Google Earth!

Day 12 we made some Christmas cards and other crafts...

Day 13 the boys got some special Christmas treats (ummm...I may have forgotten to put a hint in and just gave them cookies to make up for it)

Day 14 we went to our pharmacy and chose 2 kids off of the "giving tree" to buy presents for. Simon chose a 4 year old boy, just like him, and we chose a boy Nate's age as well. We headed over to the toy store around the corner and bought new gifts for these boys for Christmas.

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Day 15 we got our TREE! The boys both really enjoyed helping with the lights, the ornaments, the whole thing. 

Day 16 we did another ornament craft, check out our beautiful work!

Day 17 we watched a new Christmas movie again, the Grinch with Jim Carrey.

Day 18 we had special hot chocolate night, everyone got to make their own. Simon's included a bowl of marshmallows on the side and whipped cream in his hot chocolate, while Nate refused it altogether!

And tonight, on day 19, we went for a drive through two of the neighborhoods near us that go all out with lights. The hint was fun today, a little row of decorated houses propped up on the advent tree.

During all of this fun, Kenny the Elf has been getting into all kinds of trouble. He got stuck in the cereal box, took a nap in Simon's stocking and tried to go for a ride on Thomas the train, among other things: