week one activites

here is a recap of my list - we did well and only had to make one minor chage:

1. listen to holiday music
2. bake holiday cookies
3. decorate gingerbread house BECAME - watch christmas parade
4. pick out coats to donate to local coat drive
5. pick out toys to donate to toys for tots

listen to christmas music: i located several of my favorite holiday cd's and have them in my car. i LOVE listening to christmas music. growing up my favorite christmas music to listen to was john denver and the muppets christmas together. my parents were big john denver fans so we always had his music playing. to this day, it is still one of my favorites. i hope that the boys will grow up and remember all the music we listened to during the holidays and make some of them part of their traditions.

bake holiday cookies: i helped baked cookies for a local bake sale earlier this week and it was hard (i didn't make enough to extras to eat!!!) so there will definitely be another holiday cookie event this month. chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorites and this is a delicious recipe, but i also tried these cranberry ones (substituting semi-sweet for white chocolate chips) and these might be a new favorite!

attend christmas parade: as usual we forgot the christmas parade was this weekend and were out running errands with the boys. we happened to be near downtown right around the start of the parade, so even though it was really chilly out, we decided to give it a try. miles loved being outside and enjoyed watching everything. ethan was a little bit more wary, especially since the parade started out with some large trucks and motorcyles which were really loud (he does not like loud noises) but he perked up when he saw the floats with santa claus and snowmen. he also really enjoyed the band. it wasn't a huge parade, but i think it will be a fun tradition to start with the boys. this was my first year to attend it as well.

pick out coats for coat drive: we ended up gathering 7 coats (some new, some used) and will be taking them to the drop-off locations later this week.

pick out toys for toys for tots: ethan is too much fun! i decided we'd pick out gifts for a girl because i thought it would be easier for him to realize they were for someone else and not him. we started going through the aisles and he was all over the girl stuff. he did pretty well, but did have a bit of trouble letting go of one of his choices. his final picks: a dora make-up kit (this is the one he wanted to keep!) and a strawberry shortcake car and dolls. it was so much fun letting him pick things out and we'll definitely keep this up each year.