The Sparkle Parade is one of our family traditions. Every December, no matter what the weather, we trudge to Main Street to watch a (thankfully) short and sweet parade full of twinkle lights.
The school's band wear antlers with sleigh bells, lighted hats and bracelets and march down the street playing festive holiday tunes. They are followed by boy scouts with candy canes and more lights.
The local unicycling group (yes we have one and they are pretty darn good) made up of elementary and middle school students light up their wheels and don Santa hats as they make their way down the street stopping every hundred feet or so to "perform."
There is a glowing Mickey Mouse and Pooh Bear too. The local McDonald's employees dress up as french fries. And, other local groups set up bands in beds of pick ups or
The boys' eyes glow when they see the lit up bulldozers, fire truck, giant LL Bean boot, and, last but not least, Santa traveling aboard a fishing boat. The smiles on the kids' faces make the cold and dark worth it every year. We have been there in snow, sleet, rain, warm(ish) temperatures, and freezing cold. It doesn't matter because it is a fun and festive parade that warms my heart.
Showing posts with label traditions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traditions. Show all posts
Monday, December 23, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
Advent Adventures - Buddy's Scavenger Hunt
Buddy is our elf. You know, of the Elf on the Shelf variety. As an aside, I am torn on our little Buddy. On one hand, whoever came up with the idea is a freaking genius. I mean Buddy works for behavior manipulation like a dream, BUT it is a little creepy if you think about it. Who wants to be "watched" every moment of every day?
Anyway, Buddy left a scavenger hunt for one of our advent adventures. I picked up these pails and chocolate gold coins at Target for $1 each. Then I wrapped the pails with a note from Buddy telling the boys about the hidden treasure.
The boys had to find all of the "treasure" that Buddy had hidden for them.
The boys LOVED it and it was a pretty cheap activity coming in at $4 in all. If you want to know more about our advent adventures, check out the post here.
Anyway, Buddy left a scavenger hunt for one of our advent adventures. I picked up these pails and chocolate gold coins at Target for $1 each. Then I wrapped the pails with a note from Buddy telling the boys about the hidden treasure.
The boys had to find all of the "treasure" that Buddy had hidden for them.
The boys LOVED it and it was a pretty cheap activity coming in at $4 in all. If you want to know more about our advent adventures, check out the post here.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Advent Adventures: Make a Gift for Someone Else
I want my kids to understand that Christmas is not all about getting presents and Santa. It is also about giving, and family, and love, and hope, and all those other wonderful things. So, today's adventure is to make a gift for someone else. Knowing how much my kids like dough, I decided to go with salt dough ornaments. I have fond memories of doing this craft as a kid and thought the kids would really enjoy it.
The recipe:
I mixed and kneaded the dough, then rolled it out and let the kids go to town.
Then we baked them for 2 hours at 250 degrees
Some of them did puff up just a little bit. I simply deflated the air bubbles when they first came out and they stayed down. There is also some cracking on some of the ornaments, but it adds to the charm of the handmade gifts I think.
When they were done, and cooled, we started painting. I had the kids use poster paints because I knew they would clean easily but be a little thicker than water colors.
When they were done, and cooled, we started painting. I had the kids use poster paints because I knew they would clean easily but be a little thicker than water colors.
When the paint was dry I sprayed both sides of the ornaments with clear spray paint to seal them. Then we strung ribbon through the holes so they could be hung on Christmas trees.
Now we just have to wrap them up for Nana and Papa, Grandpa and Nana Jojo, Grandma, the dog and her friends, and everyone else who will be lucky enough to have these handmade gifts grace their tree.
To read more about advent adventures, go here.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Advent Adventures Day 1: Let's Find a Tree and Cut It Down
Today began our advent adventures, my new plan to give "experiences" in the advent calendar instead of candy or trinkets. You can read all about it here.
Day one involved hunting for the perfect Christmas tree. In the past, the hunt for our tree has taken hours and involved frozen fingers and toes, piggy back rides, and even some tears. I'm not sure if the stress of getting out of the house with two boys screaming at each other, one baby screaming in his car seat, and me,screaming calmly suggesting that maybe today wasn't the right day to go, allowed us to lower our expectations for the trip or not, but this was the shortest hunt ever. It seriously took us about 10 minutes to find THE tree - and it takes at least five to get us out of the car and into the tree farm.
Since it was the shortest expedition in my tree hunting history, I wasn't able to get as many pictures of the adventure as I would have liked. But I did snap a few.
It was nice to get the boys outside to run around and all in all, once we got out there, it was a quick and easy advent adventure. Of course, I can't get a tree and not set it all up so here she is in all her glory.
Ah....the holidays are here.
Day one involved hunting for the perfect Christmas tree. In the past, the hunt for our tree has taken hours and involved frozen fingers and toes, piggy back rides, and even some tears. I'm not sure if the stress of getting out of the house with two boys screaming at each other, one baby screaming in his car seat, and me,
Since it was the shortest expedition in my tree hunting history, I wasn't able to get as many pictures of the adventure as I would have liked. But I did snap a few.
Pointing out all the possibilities
Finding a good option. He always falls in love with the saddest trees.
Inspecting the sawing progress
The hubs had lots of help
....and we're done!
It was nice to get the boys outside to run around and all in all, once we got out there, it was a quick and easy advent adventure. Of course, I can't get a tree and not set it all up so here she is in all her glory.
Ah....the holidays are here.
Friday, November 22, 2013
The 2013 Holiday Season is Here!
The holiday season officially kicked off tonight at the LL Bean tree lighting.
Check out this lightorama:
large from Home from the Ground Up on Vimeo.
Crazy, right?
Here we go... the 2013 holiday season is here!
Did anyone else have tree lightings this weekend? Anything as elaborate as this?
Check out this lightorama:
large from Home from the Ground Up on Vimeo.
Crazy, right?
Here we go... the 2013 holiday season is here!
Did anyone else have tree lightings this weekend? Anything as elaborate as this?
Let the countdown to Christmas begin!
I know this one is a little early, but I figured if anyone wanted to try this idea for filling their advent calenders they would need a few days to get everything together. Plus, the Christmas tree lighting in town is tonight so ready or not, here come the holidays!
I love our advent "calendar." It is from L.L. Bean. I actually dreamed about owning it for a few years but couldn't justify the price tag. One day The Hubs' mom showed up at our door with it. Love her!
Every year I try to come up with something interesting to hide in it for the boys. The first year I bought a bucket of little green army men which fit okay in the little boxes on the lighthouse. Certain men fit better than others and it took a little bit to figure out which ones we could use, but it wasn't candy which was my whole goal so I felt like I was winning.
The next year I caved and bought Hershey Kisses to put in the boxes. It was easier since I had two boys who I needed to make happy and more than one kiss fit in some of the boxes. The year after that I resorted to the chocolate again because I was tired and running out of ideas that would work for both boys.
Last year we had little Lego kits that we stole from a Lego advent calendar that Grandma got us. That was a hit for a few days, but I ended up putting most of them together in the end.
Then, one day, I was wasting some time scrolling through Pinterest when I can across this:
What??? Give "experiences" rather than little trinkets or chocolate? Sounds good to me! And, this idea comes with bonuses (even better)!
The bonuses:
#1 We try to squeeze in a ton of events every holiday season. These events can easily become cards for the lighthouse and since I get to load up the advent "calendar," I can make sure that the events are pulled on the correct day.
#2 There is an "unwrap a book" card. I have always loved the idea of unwrapping a book as a kind of countdown to Christmas, but I didn't really want to have 25 new books (holy expensive) and have to find homes for them in addition to the new gifts.
#3 Some of the cards that I have seen/came up with have to do with the kids doing something nice for someone else, i.e. buy a gift to donate, wrap and bring a gift to the neighbors, etc... This way the boys can see that the holidays are also about doing nice things for others and not just about getting presents.
It took me a little while to come up with a variety of things and, I will admit, some have to do with candy, but overall I think there is a nice variety in the adventures that we will be experiencing this December. Thanks to Kim and her awesome blog post I had a great starting point. Many of the experiences below are borrowed from her.
1. Go to the Sparkle Parade
2. Cut down our tree (more on that tradition here)
3. Put up some holiday lights/ decorate your bedrooms
4. Walk around town and look at the lights
5. Buy and donate a gift to a needy child
6. Make hot chocolate
7. Unwrap a book (this one will probably be used more than once)
8. Family movie night
9. Go out to eat as a family (the boys LOVE restaurants and we hardly ever go.)
10. Decorate Cookies
11. Go for a walk in the woods and collect branches for a wreath
12. Wrap a gift for the neighbors
13. Go on a light drive (LOVE this! We do it every year and have been since before we had kids)
14. Eat a candy cane
15. Go to a holiday movie at the movie theater (one of the local movie theaters has a free movie morning for kids)
16. Visit Santa
17. Go ice skating
18. Make a gift for someone else
19. Bake a treat
20. Go snowshoeing/skiing (depending on the snow)
21. Go to a holiday party
22. Get Chinese Food and have a picnic by the tree (the Chinese food request has been happening weekly and we have yet to get it.)
23. Decorate a tree. (This one has many possibilities. There are lots of "trees" that you could decorate.)
24. Open our Christmas Eve box (More on this little tradition later...)
Other ideas:
Make a gingerbread house
Take a winter walk on the beach
Go to a holiday party/ Have a holiday party
Bring a dinner to someone else
Donate food for a needy family (we actually do this one before Thanksgiving)
That is what I have so far. I plan to blog about some of these experiences as we go. Do you have any other ideas that I could add? How do you countdown to Christmas? What is your advent calendar tradition?
I love our advent "calendar." It is from L.L. Bean. I actually dreamed about owning it for a few years but couldn't justify the price tag. One day The Hubs' mom showed up at our door with it. Love her!
Every year I try to come up with something interesting to hide in it for the boys. The first year I bought a bucket of little green army men which fit okay in the little boxes on the lighthouse. Certain men fit better than others and it took a little bit to figure out which ones we could use, but it wasn't candy which was my whole goal so I felt like I was winning.
The next year I caved and bought Hershey Kisses to put in the boxes. It was easier since I had two boys who I needed to make happy and more than one kiss fit in some of the boxes. The year after that I resorted to the chocolate again because I was tired and running out of ideas that would work for both boys.
Last year we had little Lego kits that we stole from a Lego advent calendar that Grandma got us. That was a hit for a few days, but I ended up putting most of them together in the end.
Then, one day, I was wasting some time scrolling through Pinterest when I can across this:
What??? Give "experiences" rather than little trinkets or chocolate? Sounds good to me! And, this idea comes with bonuses (even better)!
The bonuses:
#1 We try to squeeze in a ton of events every holiday season. These events can easily become cards for the lighthouse and since I get to load up the advent "calendar," I can make sure that the events are pulled on the correct day.
#2 There is an "unwrap a book" card. I have always loved the idea of unwrapping a book as a kind of countdown to Christmas, but I didn't really want to have 25 new books (holy expensive) and have to find homes for them in addition to the new gifts.
#3 Some of the cards that I have seen/came up with have to do with the kids doing something nice for someone else, i.e. buy a gift to donate, wrap and bring a gift to the neighbors, etc... This way the boys can see that the holidays are also about doing nice things for others and not just about getting presents.
It took me a little while to come up with a variety of things and, I will admit, some have to do with candy, but overall I think there is a nice variety in the adventures that we will be experiencing this December. Thanks to Kim and her awesome blog post I had a great starting point. Many of the experiences below are borrowed from her.
1. Go to the Sparkle Parade
2. Cut down our tree (more on that tradition here)
3. Put up some holiday lights/ decorate your bedrooms
4. Walk around town and look at the lights
5. Buy and donate a gift to a needy child
6. Make hot chocolate
7. Unwrap a book (this one will probably be used more than once)
8. Family movie night
9. Go out to eat as a family (the boys LOVE restaurants and we hardly ever go.)
10. Decorate Cookies
11. Go for a walk in the woods and collect branches for a wreath
12. Wrap a gift for the neighbors
13. Go on a light drive (LOVE this! We do it every year and have been since before we had kids)
14. Eat a candy cane
15. Go to a holiday movie at the movie theater (one of the local movie theaters has a free movie morning for kids)
16. Visit Santa
17. Go ice skating
18. Make a gift for someone else
19. Bake a treat
20. Go snowshoeing/skiing (depending on the snow)
21. Go to a holiday party
22. Get Chinese Food and have a picnic by the tree (the Chinese food request has been happening weekly and we have yet to get it.)
23. Decorate a tree. (This one has many possibilities. There are lots of "trees" that you could decorate.)
24. Open our Christmas Eve box (More on this little tradition later...)
Other ideas:
Make a gingerbread house
Take a winter walk on the beach
Go to a holiday party/ Have a holiday party
Bring a dinner to someone else
Donate food for a needy family (we actually do this one before Thanksgiving)
That is what I have so far. I plan to blog about some of these experiences as we go. Do you have any other ideas that I could add? How do you countdown to Christmas? What is your advent calendar tradition?
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