week 4 activities

our last week of events leading up to the big day. here is a recap:

1. visit festival of lights (local drive-thru christmas light display)

2. family picture in front of the christmas tree (this should be fun and interesting!)

3. make ricotta cookies

4. make creme brulee

5. read the polar express

6. christmas jammies!

visit festival of lights: it has been several years since i've driven through and it seems that it has gotten even longer. after our drive, we determined that 3 (or almost 3) is definitely the minimum age for the festival of lights (unless under 1 and you can fall asleep in the car :) ) miles actually did well for the first 20 minutes, but after that i think it was just too much. he isn't a huge fan of car rides these days. the candy canes at the end of the trip did wonders to make both boys happy though!

family picture in front of the christmas tree: well, this didn't get done in front of our christmas tree, but it did get done! we took it christmas night at lance's family's house and i love that we have a family photo for christmas day, we never did get one last year that i recall.

make ricotta cookies: this has long been a favorite cookie recipe of mine. we always made it growing up and it is very easy and so good. it makes so many cookies you have to freeze at least half of them, but they are even better right out of the freezer.

make creme brulee: i LOVE creme brulee. if it wasn't so bad for you, i would eat it every week! yum! but i try to limit it to special occasions. my sister gave me a creme brulee set and recipe book a few years ago and i tried out a recipe from it and it was perfect! i've enjoyed it guilt-free this year too, thanks to the baby in my belly :)

read the polar express: i had wanted this to get done on christmas eve, but that didn't happen. we did it one day before naps and ethan loved it. he had actually seen the book a few weeks earlier and was very interested in it thanks to the beautiful pictures of the train. my parents gave me my copy of this book christmas 1988 (i was 10 years old) and we've read it at least once a christmas season almost every year since. we always read it on christmas eve. i hope that we can continue this tradition with the boys.

christmas jammies: i love the boys' jammies, i think they are just perfect! last year they only wore them on christmas eve and christmas day and i decided that wasn't enough. so we broke them out a bit early this year (for our christmas card pics too) and ethan has been very excited about them so i bet we'll keep them up until spring at least.