Filling our hearts with Christmas Spirit

By this point it should be pretty clear that Christmas is one of our favorite holidays to celebrate. It helps that we've got nearly 2 months to prepare for it as soon as Halloween is over. That gives us two months to get into the Christmas spirit and these kids certainly love to figure out fun things to do to celebrate. 

Even in November, we got a very early visit from Santa Claus. While Theresa and I were in the kitchen, Santa came to the living room. The kids yelled excitedly for us to come. 

Santa put up a tree for us. 

And underneath were presents for us! It was plain copy paper, but all of them were colored to look like wrapping paper, and there were even bows drawn on them. 

Inside were presents for us that Santa knew we would like. I got a Left Twix (no Right Twix imposters here) plus a Heath bar. 

Santa left me a card too. 

"Ho Ho Ho. You Joe have been extra good! I would lik you to have extra pesents. Love Santa."

Too cute. 

I thought it was really clever of the kids to make a tree, presents for it, and a card, all under the guise of Santa coming early and bringing us special presents. After they were done they told us to go back to the kitchen for a little while. 

And when we came back, who was there? It was Santa himself, ready to drop off extra presents for Theresa and I! 

After thanking Santa and giving him hugs, he headed upstairs to leave from the chimney. 

It was really cute. I'm glad I took video. 

After Santa went upstairs, a short time later Ian came down. He asked innocently "Did I miss anything?" Clever deception. 

I wonder if we'll ever get a visit from Mrs. Claus. Over lunch we discussed what she did during Christmas. Turns out, according to the kids, she had her own sleigh and 3 reindeer. She goes to the houses that have any issues and fixes them. Her sleigh has to be faster because she's dealing with all the problems. 

The other thing the kids have loved is decorating our wall in the dining room. It really started around Thanksgiving that they began putting pictures up on this wall. Anything related to the season makes it up on the wall, and they've gotten pretty creative. 

Just like how Duffy and ShellieMay got dressed up as a Turkey and Mashed Potatoes for Thanksgiving, they made outfits for Christmas too. ShellieMay is dressed as a Christmas Tree, and Duffy is dressed up like Santa. 

And at some point, a little Duffy decided to dress up as a stocking. 

Some drawings were a collaboration. I drew the tree. Alli drew the presents, and we combined our two drawings to make a 3D finished piece. 

Alli thought the wall needed Figgy Pudding (I don't know why it was so small) and a Fruit Cake. 

I love Ian's Nutcracker and Santa Grogu (Baby Yoda). 

And Alli drew a Prep and Landing Elf. 

There's a big poster-size picture at the bottom of the stairs for Theresa and I. 

"You are the best. Yow are the best. I hope you have a grat crismis mom and dad!"

Aww, I love it Alli. 

Some of the clay work Alli did in school (over Zoom). 

One thing the kids love that Theresa remembers to get them every year is a Lego Advent Calendar. This year Alli is getting a Lego City Advent Calendar while Ian is getting a Star Wars Advent Calendar. I think it fits them both very well. 

Every night after bath-time and stories, the kids loved finding a new Lego creation to put together. 

They have some really cool creations. There's so many different things you can put together Jay's Brick Blog did a great job of putting together a good write-up of what we got every day. 

There were lots of fun ships, but the mini-figs and other characters were the favorites here. 

After that Porg showed up, and we watched a few Porg videos on youtube, suddenly Ian decided that the Porg should be naughty. 

Extra time was requested each night for more playtime. The Porg had a lot of battles to fight. Ian's setup was a constant battle zone. 

While Alli's on the other hand was a pleasant village with everything orderly. She told Ian that he couldn't come play Naughty Porg on her Advent Calendar. 

Mmm, apple cake. It's especially tasty for breakfast. 

The kids have been having fun playing by the tree. They requested and received a fort setup around the tree so they could make their own area. I came out of the kitchen to find them like this. I see feet sticking out from under the blanket. 

Alli is doing Reading Eggs (she's got to earn those eggs to buy the Christmas outfits for her character). Ian is playing some Lego game. All on a quilt that Gram made in front of the fireplace. 

Christmas Break with time off school and work is wonderful. We love having more time to spend together. 

Over a couple days, the fort turned into a living area, with an iPad for a TV, a couch, a bed, a window you can look out, a Christmas tree with ornaments, flowers, and even candy canes that you can eat! 

And so aside from the Christmas Decorations, Christmas Movies, and Christmas Lights, that's a few of the things that we've been doing to get into the Christmas spirit.