The Last 13 Days of Advent Activities

The first 12 days of our Advent Activities were filled with holiday magic, and the fun continued through the rest of the month, culminating in our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations!Advent Activity Day 13: Going to see cousin Waverly’s school Christmas program. Isla was so excited to see Wavy sing she could hardly stand it! The two girls waved and smiled at each other ecstatically from across the gym. When Isla worried that Wavy looked nervous, she’d wave an enthusiastic “thumbs up” in the air. The love these two share for each other is pretty darn special!
During breaks in the performance, Isla would lean in to me and ask things like, “Will my kindergarten have performances?” And “Will I get to perform up on a stage?” I think this girl is very ready for both!
We put together a bouquet for Wavy and tucked a few of the glittered pine cones from the previous day’s advent activity in among the flowers. We liked it so much we decided we’d make some for ourselves to have at home. Isla couldn’t wait to hand the bouquet to Wavy and tell her what a great job she had done!

Advent Activity Day 14: Home Alone themed night with our other Home Alone obsessed friends. We put together a simple evening with treats inspired by the movie and then ate them all while watching the movie! Easy and SO much fun! We wore comfy Home Alone inspired clothes and ordered cheese pizzas. Our friends picked up some Pepsi and ice cream sundae fixings. They even double checked the part of the movie where Kevin eats the sundae just to make sure they got the same toppings! It’s so awesome when your friends get into the fun as much as you do! This will definitely become a tradition!

Also, great parenting hack: Little Mikey was dying to drink Pepsi, so his parents took an empty can and filled it with a less sugary toddler-approved drink. So clever!

Cole was LOVING his little bites of ice cream! I got my super cozy Home Alone inspired sweatshirt here.

Advent Day 15: Gingerbread Houses with Nana, Papa and the cousins! What Isla also didn’t know was that Santa was making another surprise visit and we were celebrating at the annual Albaugh family Christmas gathering. Sometimes you have so many joyous holiday activities planned you have to combine a bunch into one wonderful, magical day!!!So, a funny back story… Cousin Waverly attended a Breakfast with Santa event one week earlier. We were all a little nervous that she was now old enough to recognize that the Santas were different, but when they walked in to the breakfast event there was OUR Santa! It was a Christmas miracle! She invited him to Nana and Papa’s again, so she was already anticipating his arrival.

When Santa showed up, the kiddos were ecstatic- as in rushing him at the door and jumping all over him! He visited with each of the kids, sat on the floor with them while they opened presents, read books with them, and joined us when we sang carols. It doesn’t get any more magical than that!Isla whispered something into Santa’s ear. She said it was her secret wish and she couldn’t tell us or it wouldn’t come true. Thankfully, I was standing just close enough to overhear, and my heart absolutely melted when I learned what she wanted most. She asked Santa to please make sure our house was all clean and breakfast was ready so that her Mommy and Daddo wouldn’t have to do anything on Christmas morning. Santa looked up at me and then back at Isla and hesitated. He told Isla he would try his best, but that he would likely be very busy delivering presents. Undeterred, Isla’s eyes widened and she smiled. She leaned in again, cupping her hand around her mouth and said, “That’s okay. I was hoping you could just use a little of your magic to do it!” Then she turned to us, eyes sparkling and the biggest smile spread across her sweet face. For days after that she would tell us how excited she was about her big wish, and how she and Santa has a special surprise for us.Promising to leave bacon and beer for Santa on Christmas Eve (a little inside joke from last year’s visit).Opening Christmas jammies from Nana and Papa. Isla thought it was hilarious that there were Santas on them!Thank you for the adorable jammies and new books, Nana and Papa!

This might be the first year that more candy made it onto Isla’s gingerbread house than into her tummy!Cole was so excited to take part in the gingerbread house decorating this year. He was absolutely beaming! He watched his cousins and then stuck a few marshmallows onto his tree all by himself! He spent the rest of the time sampling the icing and candies… looks like he takes after his sister!Burning off all that sugar with a trip to the park. This girl can traverse the monkey bars with ease now. Go, Isla, go!Cole had an absolute ball swinging and sliding with Morgan!*Gingerbread House Update: We left Isla’s gingerbread house out on the porch and our neighborhood squirrels enjoyed a sweet feast. I can only imagine how wired they must have been after all that sugar!
Isla was a little sad at first, but quickly found joy in the fact that she made the squirrels’ holidays so much more festive!Last week Isla caught us by surprise when she made up an advent activity for us! She drew a little picture and tucked it away in the advent box. She even gave us a present to open! Our activity was to play Christmas music together using instruments, and inside the bag was a train whistle! Ha! We love that doing this advent activity is instilling a spirit of thoughtfulness and giving in our sweet girl!

Special occasions call for a little sparkle. Isla was so excited to get dressed up for the Nutcracker.

Before the ballet, we started the evening with a fancy dinner, and the girls had our waiter wrapped around their fingers in about 2 seconds.Before the ballet, we started the evening with a fancy dinner, and the girls had our waiter wrapped around their fingers in about 2 seconds.

Before we left the restaurant, the girls came rushing up to us with these flyers and said, “Look! Sugarplum fairies!” We were absolutely dying; it was an ad for a NYE drag show!

Isla was absolutely captivated through the whole show. She spent about half of it standing at the balcony and the other half on my lap.
When the prima ballerina first appeared, Isla couldn’t contain her excitement. She gasped loudly and just HAD to hop up and twirl around once. Everyone near us in the audience began to giggle. It was the sweetest moment!
We left the ballet with such happy hearts. The experience was every bit as magical as I’d hoped it would be!

Earlier this month we were all in the car, and Isla said very solemnly, “Mom, Dad, I want to tell you something.” Intrigued, and a little worried by the seriousness of her tone, we turned down the Christmas music so we could listen. “Next year, when we do the advent activities-” She added a long, dramatic pause. “I want one of the activities to be going to space.”Advent Activity Day 17: Cookie Baking!!!
I found this sweet “Santa’s Little Helper” apron on sale for $1.50 at Craft Warehouse last year and have been saving it for some messy holiday fun. So, I wrapped it up so that Isla could have the joy of opening it. She couldn’t wait to put it on and get baking!Preparing the graham crackers for the magic bars with Uncle Ian.This epic battle also happened during our cookie baking night! Every Christmas since Isla was born I have managed to capture such meaningful photos of her with Uncle Tristan. He’s actually my cousin, but he has earned the title of Uncle a hundred times over! We are always amazed by how much time and effort my cousins pour into playing with Isla. We realize leaving the adults to go and play with kids is not always appealing to most people. Every time we’re together, one of my cousins takes the time to indulge Isla in a game of make believe, to dance and sing with her, or in this case, to help her build a cardboard robot costume and then have a massive, giggle-filled pillow fight. We are SO grateful for the time and effort they put into building relationships with our children, and for the joy they bring to their lives.We were thrilled to have Auntie Lizzie and Uncle Chaz home from Copenhagen for a few days this holiday season! Isla and Lizzie were in charge of putting the kisses in the peanut butter blossoms on cookie baking night. Our friend, Helene, taught us to use caramel kisses… seriously, wow! If you haven’t tried peanut butter blossoms with caramel kisses you are in for a BIG treat!Advent Activity Day 18: The festivities continued with our early Christmas celebration. Cole joined the annual whiskey tasting (with a sippy cup and water) and lead many rousing rounds of cheers with everyone. I’m not sure there is a cuter sound than Cole’s enthusiastic, “Cheers!”Cole and Gruncle: BFF’s.Apparently it’s not a party until the feather boas come out! Isla and Great Uncle Mike played a little dress up before dinner.The evening was absolute perfection. Amazing good, wonderful company, thoughtful gifts, and even the cutest little shirtless piano player providing us with endless entertainment!Grandma DJ gave Isla her first REAL tea set and Isla could not have been more thrilled!Isla made Grandma DJ a bookmark using the flower she had pressed with the flower press DJ had built for me as a child!Many rousing games of Sorry were enjoyed and Isla brushed up on her trash talking skills!Merry Early Christmas!Advent Activity Day 19: Eat dinner by the Christmas tree. This is a great activity for when you’re short on time and/or energy. You’ve got to eat, so why not do it in front of your sparkly Christmas tree? Cheers to making the mundane a little more memorable!Advent Activity Day 20: Watch a Christmas movie. This is another simple, relaxing, zero-prep advent activity.Advent Activity Day 21: Go see the Christmas lights at Peacock Lane! This is one of our favorite holiday traditions Clearly excitement levels were high as we set off to see lights at Peacock Lane! We feel fortunate to live so close to this iconic street, and since the rain had taken a break, we decided to bundle up and walk. We had the best time and will definitely walk there in future years. Our first stop was to pick up warm holiday drinks. Then we meandered through our neighborhood admiring all the twinkly houses until we reached Peacock Lane. Christmas music played from the phone in my pocket, and the whole experience felt so wonderful and festive! Love, love, love this wonderful neighborhood of ours!Isla is ALL about the colored lights this year, so when I asked her which house on Peacock Lane was her favorite, she immediately responded, “The one with the colorful lights!” It really was beautiful.
I’ve already picked up a box of colored twinkly lights to string on Isla’s tree for next year 🙂 Make sure you check post-Christmas sales for lights and ornaments. I found boxes of lights for as little as $0.34 and ornaments for $.050!Isla absolutely loved this big gingerbread man! Plans are already underway to create our own next year… because that’s how things go when you’re a family full of dreamers. Time to start working on our jigsaw skills!Cole was every bit as enchanted by the lights as we thought he might be, and it was absolutely heartwarming to see his eyes widen and hear him excitedly shout, “Oooh!” We ended up spending a solid two hours walking around the neighborhood and Peacock Lane that evening, and Cole, bundled up in his reindeer outfit, was happy as could be the whole time. It helped that we brought two giant bottles of milk along too… it’s all about having enough snacks, am I right?!

Our little family after our walk through Peacock Lane; full of cocoa and happiness and holiday sparkle.

Advent Activity Day 22: Christmas music dance party. This kid was all in!dvent Activity Day 23: Our Annual Prawns and Champagne night! December 23rd is the anniversary of my grandmother’s passing, and over the years our family has created a tradition where we gather in her honor to celebrate togetherness and express gratitude. A fire crackles behind us in the living room fireplace as we sit around the coffee table and eat Cajun prawns. Our glasses clink as we toast with champagne. We each take turns expressing appreciation for the gifts and experiences that have shaped us throughout the year. We laugh. We cry. We laugh again. It is a very special evening, and we look forward to it with great anticipation all year long. This year we had an almost comically large magnum of bubbly to enjoy throughout the evening. It was so heavy it took two hands to pour!For Christmas, Isla considered Cole’s favorite things (cars and snuggly things) and decided she wanted to make him a “beep beep” blanket. I love her thoughtful heart so much!!! We made a special trip to the fabric store and she selected two flannel fabrics with car prints all by herself. Grauntie assisted Isla in sewing the fabrics together- she ran the pedal while Isla guided the fabrics through the sewing machine. I absolutely love how much thought and care Isla put into this sweet gift. Cole’s enthusiastic response to his blanket on Christmas morning was pretty wonderful too! More on that later…Coley, the other reindeer!“Chee”
“Yights”
“Stah”
Cole’s Christmas vocabulary grew steadily this season. Of course, “Mommy” is my favorite of his recently acquired words, but tree, lights, and star are pretty great too. Celebrating with Daddo when he won his fantasy football league! 2nd year in a row!One Christmas Eve morning Isla helped Grauntie make biscuits. She then used the leftover dough to make her own special treat. She added dried cherries and cinnamon and sugar. Nana and Cole started off the morning with some Christmas music on the piano.The proud smile on her little face as she sliced and handed out her treat at breakfast will remain ingrained in my mind and heart forever.Present time! Cole could see the fin of his stuffed shark sticking out of the bag and was so excited he started snuggling it!Needless to say, the shark was a HUGE hit!Fun tool belts from Uncles Tristan and Ian.More beep beeps!Isla was thrilled to receive her own cash register!

Everyone joined us at Nana’s in the evening for spaghetti and meatballs, and the thoughtful gift giving continued.
Cole gifted all his grandparents a sweet silver bells footprint craft. Everyone was absolutely floored by how big his footprint was!Her own green dollars!

The beep beeps kept coming…. and Cole was LOVING it!We helped Isla have her first book, “Gardening with Nana” printed for Nana. She wrote all about their time together in the garden, the things they planted, what she enjoyed most about gardening, her own recipes, and listed the fruits and vegetables she hoped to plant next year. She also created all the illustrations and they are SO darling! To go with the book, she made a bookmark out of the leaves and flowers she and Nana had pressed together that summer. She was strategic in selecting each item for the bookmark; Nana’s favorite green hydrangeas, strawberry leaves from the plant Isla had given her, a flower from their pea plant, Isla’s favorite mint leaves. These were all items that would remind Nana of their time together.When will we parents wise up to the fact that the boxes are ALWAYS more fun than the presents themselves?!We wrapped up Christmas Eve by Isla reciting ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to us all. She was so proud!Given the hustle and bustle of the season, it wasn’t too hard to ensure the house was a bit messy when Isla went to bed. But, Santa’s magic was stronger than the clutter, and in the morning Isla was thrilled to find a sparkling clean house, breakfast on the table, and Santa’s bacon plate and beer were empty!She checked out the stockings as she patiently waits for Cole to wake up. Those first quiet moments of Christmas morning are so, so sweet.
Isla is the only kiddo I’ve ever known to be absolutely ecstatic about celery in their stocking! She had asked Santa for her own fruits and vegetables, and he delivered with some carrots, celery, and a mango!Christmas morning 2018 was one for the books. Our time together opening presents was filled joy, excitement, and appreciation. Every second was wonderful, and we are so very grateful! Our hearts just about exploded watching these two enjoy Christmas morning together. We love that they are making such precious childhood memories and can’t help but imagine how wonderful it will be to reminisce about these moments with them when they are grown- not that we are wanting that to happen quickly!
Cole received treasured new beep beeps and beep boop beeps.
Isla was thrilled with her new Alexa dot and science gear. Both kiddos took time to admire each gift and express appreciation- which honestly was the GREATEST gift to us!While there were countless special moments, my favorite was when Isla opened her new swim goggles from Santa. Absolutely giddy, she jumped up and down, squealing and hugging the goggles. Then she paused, turned her gaze upwards and mouthed “Thank you.” Oh, my heart!!!In honor of Cole taking his first steps to reach the flashing police cars, Santa brought Cole a beeping, flashing police car of his own.We paused in the middle of presents to go and have breakfast- thank you, Santa, for having everything ready for us! Isla cut up her Mango from Santa to add to our breakfast spread.Little did we know, Isla gifted both of us beautiful snowflake art!Cole absolutely loved the beep beep blanket that Isla made him for Christmas. When he saw it he exclaimed, “Oh! Beep beep!” He wrapped it around himself and snuggled the soft fabric against his cheek. Isla watched him, beaming with pride. We are so hopeful that practicing the act of giving from an early age will help Isla and Cole learn to think about what they can do for others.Isla was thrilled about her science kit, lab coat, goggles, and light-up magnifying glass. She set straight to work examining anything she could.Cole’s interest in this pretend fab lasted all of 10 seconds. Apparently, he is a purist! Oh well, you win some, you lose some… Cole made Daddo a bookmark out of one of his paintings.Horay for new beep beep books!We spent such a special Christmas Day with the Marshall family. More incredible food, sentimental gifts, happy conversation (this year, surrounding the Enneagram Personality Test!), and SO MUCH cousin play time! Earlier this month Isla spent one morning working away with her play dough. It isn’t uncommon for her to spend a few hours crafting, but she seemed particularly focused on this project. When she finished she proudly shared with me the sculpture of the nativity she made for Nana and Papa. She was SO excited to give it to them on Christmas Day she couldn’t wait more than about 5 minutes after we arrived!The kiddos enjoyed our annual egg bake and cinnamon roll brunch from their own little table. Thanks, Nana!Nana and Papa worked with Isaac to create a gorgeous Marshall Family photo book for each family! It was such a sentimental and meaningful gift, and we all sat around flipping through the pages, reminiscing about old stories, laughing at silly hairstyles and awkward shorts, and feeling so much happy nostalgia. Inspired by this project, Nana went a step further and created photo albums for each of her kids with their childhood photos. We are so very grateful for such loving, thoughtful gifts that will continue to bring our family joy for the rest of our lives! How cute is that little guy?!That photo on the right of baby Isaac snuggling a kitten is my new most favorite photo of him EVER! Cali opening the play dough we got her was the best, most unexpected reaction of the day. It filled our hearts to overflowing!

Wow, did you make it all the way here?! That was quite a recap. We are so graeful to have enjoyed such a special Christmas season and such fun, meaningful, intentional advent activities. Only 10 months to go before we gear up for next Christmas!