Christmas Traditions Part 1: Advent Calendar

decorate

 New ornaments this year!

 Christmas cards, mistletoe, and the tree

 Our outside lights!

breakfast for dinner...or lunch after church :)

make our favorite christmas snack
Three Town House crackers put together with peanut butter, dipped in white chocolate, topped with red and green sugar sprinkles...so good!

make ornaments...I found this idea on Pinterest and got super excited about it. I bought several little cardboard ornaments and lots of yarn. After a major fail, I got this one to work out, then failed again on my next one, then gave up. It's safe to say that I participated in this activity by myself. :)

wrap presents

try a new recipe

make a gingerbread house

 intense concentration

have the youth leaders over for dinner...we also had a youth Christmas party, which is where these pictures are from

date night
Angus Barn thanks to a very generous gift giver! Amazing! Enough said.

make & decorate cookies
sugar cookies + your child's husband's favorite icing (confetti) + christmas sprinkles =  yumminess!

get starbucks

make and take gifts to the neighbors
We had a lot of fun with this! I baked some individual loaves of pumpkin bread and we shared them with the sweet old ladies in our apartment building and with my other grandma, Mema. It was such a pleasure spending the afternoon visiting with them!

eat at our favorite mexican restaurant

summit christmas party
we got a chick-fil-a calendar as our gift! score!

bahama christmas parade
aka a morning spent with Steph!

drive around and look at lights
I thought these first two houses were pretty cool with their Noel lights...

 ...however I had no idea what was just up ahead. I had heard about this house, but had no idea just how awesome it is. We had to wait in line to see it...They had it linked up with a radio station that you could listen to in your car and watch the show.

 I loved the reindeer in the window

 The best part was the Santa pig!

It was intense and very bright! I'm not going to lie, my eyes were a little overwhelmed after watching and I had a headache from the brightness and speed of all of the lights, but it was really cool! You can see a video Stephen took of it here.

invite friends in the neighborhood over for dinner & white elephant gift exchange

eka christmas

volunteer
we had the honor of serving dinner at the Urban Ministries of Durham where we got to hang out with some pretty cool people...after driving around downtown Durham lost for a while.

have my mother in law over for dinner

drink hot chocolate and watch a christmas movie

camp out under the christmas tree
How to: lay all blankets and sleeping bags in the house out on the living room floor, including the comforter from the bed. Use several sets of old sheets to cover up with. Snuggle up with just the tree on and watch Elf! And, if you're like me, fall asleep within the first five minutes of the movie.

have mom, dad, and ally poo over for dinner
Coconut had to come too! He was very snuggly with me all night! I'm pretty sure he misses me!

summit christmas service (at the dpac!)

 the drum line was amazing!

 photo source

open gifts