It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (Christmas 2015)

I've currently got a Christmas playlist going on Spotify while I sit with my poinsettia blanket sipping on hot coffee in my penguin mug with a lit and decorated tree in the corner. It's definitely starting to look like Christmas around here at the Treiber house! 

Every Christmas season I try to do something special with the kids to count down to the big day. We usually do some crafts, baking, fun outings, reading a special book, watch a Christmas movie, do a service project, etc. So as I'm planning the upcoming events I like to go back and gather ideas from previous years, but lo and behold, I discovered I actually never got around to writing anything about our Christmas 2015. Sad, sad, so very sad. So I figure now is as good a time as any to take a look back and write about our Christmas last year! 

Daniel and I started December with a quick weekend trip to Austin (without children!!) so I could be a bridesmaid in my old college roommate's wedding.

Time to ourselves is very rare, and oh so very precious. I love this man I'm married to and I LOVE getting to spend one-on-one time with him. I was very grateful for this special weekend together, and for family willing to watch our brood while we're away.  

The beautiful bride

The bride's sister and my other college roomie

My forever wedding date...
whether he likes it or not ;)

It was a gorgeous night, but since
the wedding was on a Sunday evening
we unfortunately we had to cut it short
and get back to McKinney to
go about our normal work/school week

The following weekend was a very special Mommy Daughter Trip to Houston to visit my Great Auntie JoJo. My Auntie JoJo is one special lady who happens to be the sister of another incredibly special lady, my Grandma Phyllis, who passed away the previous summer. While battling cancer my grandma often made trips to Houston to receive treatment at MD Anderson so I've been able to sneak in a couple trips in recent years to visit both lovely ladies. This time, heading to Houston knowing my grandma wouldn't be there, was quite emotional but being able to recall fond memories of her with my aunt was comforting and such a treasured time. This girls' weekend is something we had talked about for a couple years but could never pull off because of babies and life, but this year was our year to make it happen and it couldn't have been any more amazing!!! Oh, how I want to go back!

This little lady is such a great traveller,
we always have so much fun together!!

We stumbled upon a Christmas party at my aunt's church,
so we stayed awhile and met Santa.

Auntie JoJo treated us to a showing of The Nutcracker
put on by the Houston Ballet.

So we got all fancied up and
went out on the town for a fabulous time!

So beautiful!!

Sunday morning, before having to head home, we went
to my aunt's church, which was just absolutely STUNNINGLY beautiful.
It has a rich history and I was just in awe throughout the service.
And the choir, oh my goodness, it was simply glorious!!
It's all very different from the church we attend on a regular basis,
which I think is why I was so enamored and fascinated.
I love how Christ followers can worship the same great God
in so many unique, creative, amazing ways.
Also, fun fact, it's the same church that Former President Bush Sr. attends.

She's such a precious soul. She followed along
the whole time without complaint or fidget.
Bless her.

Then we got to come home and give hugs
and gifts to this big guy!
He loved his new Spiderman shirt...and still does to this day.

Going out of town the first two weekends in December put me a bit behind on my Christmas to-do list, but we still managed to squeeze in many festive moments.

Candy Cane Paint!
I can't find the link to this anymore,
and I'm not exactly sure what I used here,
possibly shaving cream with red food dye and peppermint extract...
but I have no clue how I made sure my one year old
didn't put shaving cream in his mouth, because
surely that's not healthy?!
So, maybe I used whipped cream?

Either way it was fun apparently :)

We crushed up candy canes with a hammer and
made some yummy fudge.

Isn't he just the handsomest?!

Dropping off our letters to Santa at Macy's,
and this year I actually remembered the stamp
to help out the Make A Wish Foundation ;)

My dear friend and I took our two girls out for dinner
and to a Christmas play called Truthical...welllll,
it was supposed to be a play,
but we got there later than I would have hoped
and there were no more seats in the auditorium
so we had to sit in another room that was playing
the live play on a TV screen...womp womp.
The girl's still seemed to enjoy it though!

We made snow playdough, using this basic recipe,
and adding glitter, then read The Trinity Snowman Poem
which talks about how God is Three in One.

Throughout the year the kids and I, along with a few of our friends, plan a visit to our local assisted living home, usually around the major holidays. So for Christmas we planned a Cookies and Carols event. We brought our homemade cookies, cards, Santa hats, bells, and practiced songs to our friends and hopefully made their day a bit brighter.

Having fun at Selah's class Christmas party

Mailing out gifts and experiencing
his very first lollipop!

There's a neighborhood in Plano, TX that goes all
out for Christmas and it is quite the experience to walk
through! It all started with builders wanting to attract people to
look at this particular neighborhood, which at the time was
pretty far north and far from the city, by offering big cash prizes
for the best decorated house. You can read more about it
here, but if you are in this area I definitely encourage you to check
it out...people's creativity never ceases to amazing me!!!

Riding on Rudolph!

A Cars scene

Star Wars setup!

These boards told the whole story
of How The Grinch Stole Christmas...amazing!
These pictures really just don't do it justice, there were
people playing instruments, horse-drawn carriage rides, dancing
Santas, flying reindeer...I mean, it was just incredible.

The kids getting to lick the beaters after helping make
Christmas cookies.

Now getting to decorate cookies!!

Yummy!

I always love to make homemade gifts for Christmas, it doesn't always happen, but this year I made several people coffee cup sleeves.

You can get instructions for these here

Each one is two-sided so you can change
it up depending on your mood for that day :)

This one was for Selah's teacher.
We got an empty cup to put the sleeve around,
a Dunkin' Donuts gift card, and some chocolates
to put inside the cup. 

For the past couple years we've been invited to our friend's sister's house to celebrate Christmas Eve with their family and friends. We eat a super suuuuuuper yummy Italian meal with decadent desserts and watch a gazzilion (not really, but kinda) kids frantically and excitedly open up gifts. It is a highly anticipated event and we've loved going the past two years. I'll have to come up with something else for this Christmas Eve since we don't live near by them anymore, but boy do we have amazing memories from our Christmas Eves with the Dunn family!!!

First we head to downtown McKinney to attend our church's
Christmas Eve service...always a sweet time to worship
and celebrate our Savior's birth with our church family.

All the kids got homemade gingerbread playdough
and a cookie cutter.

The children all gathered for quick pictures before
ripping open those beautifully wrapped gifts!!!

Then we wrap up our night with the kids opening one gift.
This year it was Christmas PJs.

And this is what Santa and Mrs. Clause got set up
before they went to bed

 And just like that, it's Christmas Day!!

And bright-eyed kids clamor downstairs to see
what's waiting for them by the Christmas tree

This guy was pretty excited about his yogurt melts
and munched on them all morning

Kids figuring out the new LeapFrog Pad,
while Blake continues munching those melts

We took a break to eat breakfast and wait for our family to arrive with their gifts.

Clever wrap job by Auntie and Uncle

Can't go wrong with Packer gear

Breaking in the new scooters

This little brother won't take "no" for
an answer

It's a good thing he has such a sweet sister

A couple days later we got together with family again for pizza and playing with all those new toys.

Last year was a great Christmas, and little did I know it would be our last Christmas in that house. I'm glad I didn't know, it probably would have added a great deal of stress thinking I would need to make it super extra special. The plan for Christmas this year is to keep everything simple. Daniel and I are shifting our focus as far from ourselves as we can and trying to find ways to spread Christmas cheer throughout our community this year. We will still do the baking, crafting, playing games, reading books, watching movies, gift giving, but it's all been scaled down...by a lot. I've gotten off Facebook and Pinterest and I'm just going to see what happens when I just sort of let Christmas happen without a lot of prepping and planning...and stressing. Daniel and I want to glorify God in all that we do and make His name known, and running around crazy trying to make perfect Christmas memories for our own little family isn't going to accomplish much. Wonderful Christmas memories will be made this year, I'm certain of it, but I'm just going about it a bit differently this year. I'll keep you posted and let you know how it all turns out ;)