Day Seven: Festival of Lights

Day 7 of the 12 Days of the Reeders' Christmas...

We spent an evening with friends at the Cincinnati Zoo's Festival of Lights this week. The kids' eyes were wide as they took in all the twinkling light displays. Joe loved the tunnel of lights that leads into the zoo as well as the flashing tree by the entrance. Brooke's favorite spot was the fairy land by the elephant house that was filled with pink & purple lights. I'm pretty sure Jack's favorite part was the nap he took midway through :)

They have lots of fun Christmas activities for the kids. There were 4 reindeer for the kids to see; Brooke & Joe spent several minutes trying to guess which of Santa's reindeer they were (they both agreed one of them had to be Prancer.) Brooke got to write a letter to Santa and put it in the zoo's mailbox. A zoo employee told her that the letter would be taken to Santa that night - he said the reindeer fly back to the North Pole each night to get ready for Christmas. They also got to take pictures with Frosty & a gingerbread girl (Joe was very nervous and wouldn't get too close, though.) I think my favorite part was meeting Mrs. Claus. She's the best! There weren't any other children around so she spent a solid 5 minutes with the kids, telling them all of Santa's favorite things and about the North Pole. It was super cute!

It was freeeeezing cold with a fierce wind that did not help things. Although I prepared the kids for the cold (2 pair of pants each, sweatshirts under winter coats, hats/gloves/scarves/etc.), we found ourselves ducking inside every chance we got. This actually worked to our advantage, though, because our kids are usually too afraid to go in the "houses" at the zoo (think insect house, nocturnal house, cat house, etc.) Since there weren't any animals outside, this was the only way we got to see anything. Between the lack of animals and the bitter cold, our stay was brief. Despite this, we had a great time and the kids did, too.

Day Six: Christmas Book Countdown

Day 6 of the 12 Days of the Reeders' Christmas...

One of my favorite holiday traditions that we started a couple of years ago is our Christmas book countdown. On November 30th, I wrapped up 24 of our Christmas books. Every night in December, the kids take turns opening a book, and then we read it before bed. Since we pack away our Christmas books with our decorations, they barely remember which holiday books we have so it's exciting to open them. I usually add in a couple new ones each year, too. So much fun!

Day Five: Hot Chocolate Picnic

Day 5 of the 12 Days of the Reeders' Christmas...

We have lots of ways we count down to Christmas in our house, and the kids' most favorite way is our advent calendar. Each day, they takes turns looking in the pockets to see what the surprise is. This past Sunday, the pocket had clues in it that led the kids to the Christmas tree. Underneath, they found kid-sized mugs & hot chocolate - one of their most favorite treats! The whole family watched the Polar Express in our pajamas and had a hot chocolate picnic in the family room.

Baby Jack wanted in on the action. The big kids learned very quickly to protect their treat!

Day Four: Making our Gingerbread House

Day 4 of the 12 Days of the Reeders' Christmas...

We went to a Gingerbread House Party down at the Rec the first week of December. It was such a fun event! Each family had a gingerbread house to decorate & take home. There was a giant table full of every candy and sugary treat you could think of to use to decorate. The kids were more into the candy-eating than the decorating, surprise surprise. Especially Joe - I'm not even sure I can quantify how much candy he ate that night! They did help out a bit, though. Each child was given a side of the roof to decorate. Brooke was very methodical on her side, carefully placing gumdrops and candies where she wanted them. Joe insisted on putting graham crackers on his side (we decided they were solar panels...our gingerbread house is very green.) Our house is now proudly displayed on our kitchen table for all to see :)

Day Three: Victorian Holiday Village

Day 3 of the 12 Days of the Reeders' Christmas...

For years, I've seen this adorable miniature village covered in lights right down the road from us. I knew you could walk around to look at it, but never really checked it out. Upon some investigation this year, I discovered that they have a free little event for children a few select days in December. We took the kids after dinner one night and they had a blast! Brooke and Joe loved peeking in the windows of the cute little houses. They passed out hot chocolate and cookies, had balloon animals, an opportunity to visit Santa (which we skipped because of a killer line), and a little train ride (which we skipped because Joe was throwing an epic tantrum because he didn't like the candy cane balloon animal that he asked for so we had to leave.) Despite a less-than-stellar ending, it was fun!

Day Two: St. Nick's Visit

Day 2 of the 12 Days of the Reeders' Christmas...

St. Nick visited our house last weekend! We watched the Veggie Tales St. Nicholas movie the day before to remind the kids (and Daddy!) of the meaning behind the night. By the time the evening came, they were super eager to put their shoes by the fireplace. Although he's not quite wearing shoes yet, we found a shoe for Jack to use, too. By the time the morning rolled around, Joe & Brooke were beside themselves with anticipation. St. Nick left them the usual: candy filling their shoe, an orange, & a few holiday books/movies/CDs to share. It was a very exciting morning for everybody :)

Jack's hair is just the absolute best. #tallhairdontcare

12 Days of the Reeders' Christmas

This year, I'm going to share some of our favorite holiday happenings/traditions as they happen rather than waiting until after Christmas (and then not actually finding the time to do it before March, let's be honest.) While these aren't necessarily happening same-day, they are some of the fun things we've done with the kids this holiday season!

Day One: Decorating the Tree

Pulling out the Christmas tree is the official start to the season, if you ask me. This was something my family always did a week or 2 before Thanksgiving (when you have 6 trees, you kinda have to get a jump start!) I'm always very eager to get ours up mid-November, but this year it had to wait. We did some painting & redecorating the week of Thanksgiving, taking advantage of the husband's vacation days, so the tree had to wait. It finally went up the weekend after Thanksgiving & the big kids could not have been more excited! Brooke & Joe both have quite a collection of ornaments already that they are so proud of. They excitedly hung each one in a special spot, all of which were on the bottom 1/3 of the tree (and all of Joe's were on the same 2 branches.) Jack has 1 ornament so far and helped Daddy hang it, gazing at all the shining lights, completely clueless as to what was going on. Once they were all done and in bed, Mom & Dad put up our ornaments and rearranged their work a little bit. We all absolutely love how it turned out!

(Jack is getting a bucket to catch all of his drool for Christmas...)