More Christmas Activities

Picking up where I left off before with our daily Advent activities...
Dec 8 - make gingerbread houses
A few weeks ago, we attended a festival of lights event and they had lots of gingerbread houses.  Like houses people entered in competitions.  I was sure our houses would be so awesome this year.  They turned out very...amateurish :) Note to self: chocolate graham crackers are much less sturdy than regular graham crackers. 

our finished products, from left to right: cayle's house, mommy's house, lindy's/daddy's house

 Dec 9 - have french toast and hot chocolate for dinner

I used cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes.  Tasty, tasty dinner!

Dec 10 - have a Christmas music dance party
This was hilarious.  I bought a $5 CD of kids Christmas tunes at Wal-Mart.  Poor Lindy was so dizzy she could barely stand...
Our dance party

Dec 11 - take snacks to the retirement home
We have a retirement village across the street from our house.  Cayle and I made white chocolate dipped pretzels to take to the residents.  It just so happened to be a 1/2 day SIP day, so I was able to come home at lunch and run over with Nick and the kids to share our goodies.  The residents loved the kids and Cayle did a great job walking around asking if anyone wanted a pretzel :)

Dec 12 - have sparkling cider with dinner

What pretty drinks!  Sparkling apple cider with a drop or two of red/green food coloring :)

Dec 13 - make snow flakes
Cayle made snow flakes with daddy the other day.  He hung them on the windows in his bedroom and Lindy's bedroom.

Dec 14 - donate old toys to charity
I was super proud of Cayle (and Lindy) this day.  I explained to Cayle that some boys and girls don't have any toys to play with, and we have so many.  So we went through every toy we had and got rid of duplicates or toys they don't use any more.  He was really excited to help out and didn't complain a bit. 

Dec 15 - decorate cookies and deliver to neighbors/family/friends
Mommy cheated a little on this one.  We just so happened to make rolo/pretzels, chocolate chews, and peppermint brittle the day before.  So on this day we just made the sugar cookies and the oreo balls

Our finished products!

close-up

Dec 16 - drive around and look at Christmas lights
Last night, we drove around town and found two houses whose lights are synched to music.  I find that so fascinating!  And the kids loved listening to the radio station that matches the house lights.  We also drove through a Winter Wonderland of lights set up by the park district.  The kids got to take some snacks and drinks with them, and wore their jammies.  It was easy to carry them both straight from the car to bed after our drive :)

Dec 17 - wrap Christmas presents
Finally getting started on wrapping gifts.  Since we don't have to ship everything, I've completely procrastinated in this area this year. 

Redneck Thanksgiving

I've been meaning to write this post for some time now... well at least since Thanksgiving. My dad has somewhat of a reputation for thinking outside the box. Especially when it comes to celebrating the holidays. From riding bicycles to go pick out a Christmas tree to renting a stretch Hummer Limo to celebrate Thanksgiving...

Yes, this Thanksgiving, 2013, Dad rented a stretch Hummer Limo to take a tour of Redneckville, IL. We were going to be hitting all the classic stops, kids included. Limo was fully stocked with snacks and drinks, and we were set for the day. Trust me, we got plenty of stares... :-)

First stop for the day was Moonshine, IL. Population 2. Yep, you read that right. It's a barn like building that serves as a kind of general store/hamburger stop. Good burgers too! Just don't try to get 2 doubles with bacon like my brother Bob did. They were HUGE and he needed HELP! This place is apparently big with the biker crowd, but today there were none, but there were other tourists doing the same thing we were... getting some hamburgers and sightseeing.

Bob with his double with Bacon

Next stop after Moonshine was MVP bar near Newton, IL. (These are all within an hour of our house) Despite running around in this area growing up, I had never been to MVP. The place is notorious for it's rough crowd! It's apparently tame enough during the day to bring kids along. After being there during the day, it's easy to see how the place gets it's reputation. Tough to believe that places like this really do exist...

self explanatory

concert venue

the bar walks out onto the sandbar in the Embarras River

DJ Booth

the pig...

that's a monster!!!

Next stop was the MUG Tree in Yale, IL. Just a tree along the road in the middle of nowhere that has a bunch of coffee mugs on it. Interesting!

Pretty self explanatory really...

4th stop on tour was a supposed "petting zoo" at an apple orchard nearby Greenup, IL. It really just turned out to be an apple orchard with some animals... It provided good entertainment for sure, and Cayle and Santi enjoyed it. 

Not working out so well...

Maybe a better method...

Finally!

Dad seemed to want to ride everything today... Too much time cooped up in the Limo probably...

A baby goat!

Lindy crashed on mommy's lap during this stop

5th stop on our tour was a Winery in Greenup, IL. Much classier place than our previous 2 stops... It was really nice! We would have a glass or 2 of wine here, then visit the covered bridge down the road about a mile. 

attempting a family pic...

Covered Bridge

Some drinks may have been consumed...

My Brothers

Michael reflecting on the days happenings...

We then headed back to my parents for dinner and several games of pool. Quite the unique experience and opportunity to see lots of things that I had never seen before. We all loved the limo, especially Cayle!

goofing off at Moonshine

Grandma and Grandsons

Apple from the orchard