Our Hoffman 25 Days of Christmas has begun!
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| Liam & Blake's 24 mini stockings I made that's stuffed with fun Christmas activities |
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| I numbered each stocking and used mini clothes pins to hang them |
DAY 1 - ALL ABOUT THE ELF
Today was all about Elf on the Shelf. So we prepared for our elf's arrival tomorrow. We just started this popular tradition this year. We read the book & watched the movie Elf on the Shelf. We learned about his special job and how to keep his magic alive. Liam enjoyed watching the movie and liked reading the book. I'm hoping this will help to keep Liam on his best behavior and add a bit more magic to Christmas this year.
Also Liam went to the Railroad Museum here in town with Daddy for a special family event. Liam took a tour of the museum and learned about trains and the Polar Express book. Liam had a blast! He was able to be the engineer on a few of the little Lionel Trains. He was even presented with certificate stating that he was an engineer. So sweet! Liam has liked trains but just recently has really taken to them more which is great. Such a fun place to go and so great that it was a free event also.
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| New Braunfels Texas Railroad Museum |
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| Liam's Engineer certificate |
DAY 2 - PAINT WITH SANTA
Today we continued a special tradition we love to do. It's Paint with Santa at our favorite pottery store. Blake painted a plate and Liam painted an ornament. This year was extra special because it was Blake's first time to make a Santa plate & he LOVED it! As you can see from the pictures Blake smiled and giggled and thought it was the coolest thing. Liam did an awesome job painting his Christmas tree ornament. Both boys loved meeting Santa. Blake didn't even cry he was just in awe of Santa's white long beard and Liam told Santa what he wanted for Christmas which is a toy motorcycle and more cars of course. Such a special memory.
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| My sweet Blake loved getting his hand painted. He kept smiling & giggling and laughing. I think he liked our helper too she was so sweet and thought he was adorable. |
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| Blake was so careful and still |
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| Perfect little handprint so cute! |
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| Clean up time was fun too! |
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| Liam painting his Christmas tree ornament |
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| Painter hard at work |
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| Mommy and Blake having fun |
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| Lots of concentration he took his time! |
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| Liam and Blake with the man himself Santa Claus! |
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| Santa gave the boys these adorable antlers headbands too cute! |
DAY 3 - POLAR EXPRESS FUN
Today Liam read the book and watched the movie Polar Express with Daddy and had hot chocolate. Liam was excited to receive his very own bell just like the one from the movie. He wore it around his neck all evening.
DAY 4 - ICE CREAM AFTER SCHOOL
Today we were suppose to take Liam out for ice cream after school but instead we ended up taking him to the doctor. He came home from school sick with his first ear infection. I felt so bad for him he was in so much pain. He came home and took his medicine and rested. Poor guy. I told him when he felt better we would make it up. SO when he gets feeling better I will post some pictures of him enjoying his ice cream treat.
DAY 5 -Christmas Ornaments
Today's Advent Calendar activity was making Christmas ornaments. Liam & I put the Christmas tree lights on, listened to Christmas carols and we made pom pom & glitter ornaments. We had so much fun together. Liam was home from school sick with his very first ear infection. He was on medicine and rested but in between we spent time crafting together. He was really into making the ornaments this year. He loved sprinkling all the glitter on the ornament and using lots of glue and coloring too. This was just a project for Liam & I to do together. I will be planning a special ornament for Blake & I to do together. I think Blake would love it too!
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| Pom Pom Candy Cane |
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| Liam loved using the pom poms |
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| Lots of colors to choose from. I let him pick which ever colors he wanted. Surprised he wanted the traditional candy cane colors |
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| That's the fake smile he has now that I can't stand UGH! |
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| The finished pom pom candy cane! |
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| Liam's candy & wreath he made himself |
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| Having fun with the pom poms! |
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| Coloring his star |
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| Time for some glitter! |
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| Liam's glitter ornaments! Too cute! |
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| Pom Pom ornaments Liam made! |
DAY 6 - NORTH POLE VILLAGE
Today we had a blast at our annual holiday visit to North Pole Village. During the holidays the amazing members at the Recreation Center turn their facility into a Santa's North Pole Village. Beautifully decorated with Christmas trees and thousands of lights. They have several little gingerbread looking houses set up such as the bakery, toy shop, library, school house, animal barn, post office, and you can meet Santa too. The boys had fun adopting a stuffed animal, picking out a book, decorating a cookie, face painting, singing Christmas carols, and meeting characters like Frosty and a silly, dancing gingerbread man It was extra special because Blake was old enough to enjoy it this year. So many wonderful memories.
It's these type of traditions that keep the spirit of the Christmas alive and the Hoffman boys love it!
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| It was opening night and we were the first in line! While we waited for the doors to open Liam had fun running around and seeing the big lit Christmas tree out front. He looks too cute in these reindeer antlers. |
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| We were the first ones through the door & this is what we saw! Beautiful! |
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| Blake & Mommy in the Village Library picking out a book for Blake. You can see me holding a shoe in my left hand. Blake hates wearing shoes always taking them off and throwing them. Silly Boy! |
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| Liam reading his book he got Dr. Seuss his favorite of course |
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| Lots of stuffed animals to adopt at the pet adoption center. Liam got a cute bunny & Blake got a HUGE Pooh Bear that he picked out himself. |
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| Lots of fun characters walking around. Here's Frosty |
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| Choir singing carols |
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| Time for some pop corn |
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| Blake & Mommy hanging out! Blake loved looking at all the lights. So sweet! |
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| Village Chapel |
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| Village Bakery where the boys decorated Christmas cookies |
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| Toy Land AKA as the animal adoption center |
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| Liam & his silly smile UGH! He loves his Charlie Brown Christmas shirt. Always asks to wear it when we go out to any Christmas event so cute! |
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| Santa! |
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| Liam at the Petting Barn where he got to pet a cute dog |
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| Liam in Awe of the Christmas tree! |
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| Ginger Bread Man! Our hands were full so didn't capture the moment but Liam and Mr. Gingerbread man exchanged high fives and laughs so cute! |
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| Liam has always LOVED getting his face painted from the time he first had his face painting at 1 year old. I'm amazed that he sits so still. |
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| Love the smile he's so excited! |
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| Getting his own red nose like Rudolf! Adorable! |
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| Blake LOVED these animated penguins that sang and danced! You can see Liam's painted face. He got a cute green hot chocolate mug & a red nose like Rudolf of course. |
DAY 7 - ALL ABOUT RUDOLF
Today was all about that little reindeer that saved Christmas Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer of course!
The boys read the classic story about Rudolf
Then we made these adorable Rudolf crafts. A BIG hit & SO CUTE!
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| Liam The Red Nosed Reindeer! |
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Blake The Red Nosed Reindeer!
We also sang Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer using our own instruments.
Tonight we enjoyed watching Rudolf the movie and eating lots & lots of popcorn AKA Liam's favorite snack. YUMMY!
We even watched a silly movie earlier in the day about another reindeer called Olive. The movie was called Olive The Other Reindeer. It had a cute twist. Olive was actually a dog that learned to take over when one of Santa's reindeers was injured too funny!
Chris had to work all day so it was just the boys and I hanging out together and it was such a special time. I'm amazed how much Liam loves Christmas this year now that he's getting older. It's so special to watch both the boys explore and discover the magic of Christmas. Awww to be a kid again I get a second chance by experiencing it with them. Priceless!
DAY 8 - Christmas Cookie Time!
It was cookie time! Liam & I baked Christmas cookies. We're going to be making lots of cookies this year. This day was just to get us warmed up a bit. Liam and I made chocolate peppermint cookies that were so yummy! Blake joined in the fun eating the cookies! He loved the peppermint icing the best!
Today was filled with so many Christmas fun activities! First we went to a family Christmas party that our country club was hosting for its members. Santa was there to take pictures, they had carolers, cookies and chocolate milk. So much fun! Liam got his picture with Santa but Blake was not interested this time around. Liam felt happy that he was able to meet Santa for the second time!
After we left and headed over to our favorite place The Texas Ski Ranch where they had real snow for the kids to play in! Liam was SO EXCITED to see real snow. He loved it! The owners also set up a ramp for Texas style sledding AKA white artificial turf with tubes and snowboards to slide down on! I was so surprised when Liam said "I wanna go sledding please." Liam walked right up and slid down and had a blast. It was so much fun he went 4 times :) We love the staff there and the owners are friends of ours so they are always so accommodating and they love the kids!
DAY 10 - West Pole House Lights!
This evening we went and visited a house that we LOVE to visit each year. It's decorated with hundreds of Christmas lights and is set to music. You drive up to the house and set your car radio to their radio station and you can listen to music and watch the lights. It's amazing! We have gone the last three years and it has become such a fun Christmas tradition for our family!
DAY 11 - Ornament Day Again!
Today Liam, Blake & I made Christmas ornaments again! We are planning to send some to family for Christmas gifts so we had to put another day down for ornament making. This time Blake helped out and had a ball finger painting for the first time! Love making ornaments with the boys. Hope to keep this tradition going every year!
DAY 12 - Live Nativity
Since Liam is learning about the letter "N" as in Nativity at preschool this week I thought it would be great to go see a Live Nativity that a local church was putting on. It was wonderful! They had hot chocolate and cookies, live animals (sheep, donkey, calf) and beautiful costumes. I really loved the costumes the wise men were wearing. Liam is starting to really grasp the story of Jesus' birth. We've read the story several times and he can name everyone in the nativity. He's really great at remembering the three wise men and what gifts they brought baby Jesus. It reminded me of when I was young and our church had a Live Nativity. My brother and I were always in it. He was a shepherd or a wise man and I was an angel. Such special memories. Lots of great moments to remember around the holidays. This was the boys first Live Nativity hope to go again next year.
DAY 13 - Christmas Program
Today was such a fun day. Liam had his preschool Christmas program at school today. It was so adorable. The kids did such a great job. Liam was fine until he saw us in the audience of coarse. He got really shy and covered his face and didn't sing. I was so disappointed he loves to sing but he just has a hard time seeing us in the audience. Other than that he did great!
DAY 14 - Snowman Day
Today was all about Frosty The Snowman! We made snowman pizzas, a Frosty The Snowman craft, sang the song & watched the movie. It's Liam's favorite movie and song. He loves singing the song.
DAY 15 - ICE CREAM CONE TREES
DAY 16 - MAKE GINGER BREAD HOUSE
DAY 17 - GO SHOPPING WITH MOMMY
Today Liam went shopping with Mommy to buy Christmas gifts for Daddy, Grammy & Blake.
DAY 18 - GO OUT FOR ICE CREAM
DAY 19 - MAKE GIFTS FOR MRS. WILLIAMS
Today Liam was home sick with a cold from school. But he was resting so he wouldn't miss his Christmas party tomorrow at preschool. He felt better by the afternoon so we were able to make his teacher her presents. Liam made two different tree ornaments and then I gave her one with her name on it along with a Target Gift Card. Liam had fun making the ornaments for his sweet preschool teacher Mrs. Williams.
DAY 20 - CHRISTMAS PARTY AT SCHOOL
Today Liam was feeling much better so he went to school for his Christmas party. He had a blast!
DAY 21 - 24
So sorry that we were unable to continue with our Advent Calendar activities from the 21 - 24th because we all got very sick with the flu. Liam was the only one that was not that sick since he was sick last week. But Chris, Blake & I were all down with a soar throat, cough, aches and pains of being sick. It was so hard. We had planned to make cookies look at lights etc. but we ended up cuddling up together and watching Christmas movies trying to feel better. Sometimes you just have make the best out of a bad situation. Although we were disappointed Liam seemed to be enjoying our time with him. We were so blessed to be together and that we were able to to do most of the activities we had planned at the beginning of the month.
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