A Turkey Craft, Teddy Returns, and A New Christmas Tradition (? if mom doesn't lose her mind)

Oh how I have fallen behind...again. Here's an attempt to jam the last 5 or 6 posts I've meant to do all into one.

Right before Thanksgiving, Teddy returned to our home. When I picked Colin up that day, as soon as the car door closed, he began insisting that we get Teddy out of the bag because he missed him so much and Eli started yelling "Ted-dy, Ted-dy". Yessss. That bear went everywhere Colin went. He jammed out with the boys to "Hey Soul Sister" (by Train) and ate every meal with my little man. I also had a fun activity already planned that we decided to document with Teddy, pinecone turkeys! I think this craft actually turned out pretty cute (despite the missing acorn feet). So cute, in fact, that the next night I made 11 more to use as table decorations at the TPG holiday party. Which was a blast, as always. I sure do love those mamas and their families.

Speaking of turkeys, the fam and I had a nice Thanksgiving. We celebrated with Grammy and Poppy this year. We're all thankful for the usuals (family, friends, health, work, etc), but I feel particularly thankful that we didn't spend the entire week of Thanksgiving in the hospital with Eli. It's crazy to think it's been a year since his last surgery. He's doing so great and it's amazing what modern medicine can do.

Costume Colin made in school.

On to the next holiday - Christmas! So, I've decided to attempt 25 different holiday activities for the month of December. I'm not sure which is crazier, the fact that I want to do a different holiday activitiy everyday during what seems to be the busiest time of year, or my intention to blog about it everyday. Let's face it, two posts in one week is good for me. I don't think it's a good sign that it's only Day 2 and I'm already behind. I guess you've gotta start somewhere. My plan is to write a Christmas activitiy on a piece of paper and put it in our advent calendar. The kids get to open a door everyday but instead of candy, they get to find out what our Christmas activitiy is going to be. Yippee!

On the first day, the boys helped me hang decorations on our windows. We had already decorated our tree, but let's be perfectly honest about this. I don't really let them help me decorate it (yet!). Eli kept taking all the ornaments apart and Colin put all the ornaments on one square foot section of the tree. That evening, as soon as he was tucked into bed, I promptly redistributed the ornaments he hung to the rest of the tree. I felt a little guilty because he seemed really proud of his handy work, but I warned him that if he didn't spread them out himself, that I was going to do it for him. The next morning he didn't really seem to mind and said he thought the tree looked great. Phew!

With the window decorations, on the otherhand, I let them go to town. They can put them wherever they want and they can rearrange them all month long. Much more fun for them and less expensive for me if they mutilate them.

Our Day 2 activity was making paper snowflakes. I thought it would be a great opportunity for Colin to practice his scissor skills, but it turns out that it's actually pretty hard to cut through construction paper that's been folded so many times. He gave it a good shot but I did most of the cutting. He did enjoy gluing and glittering the snowflakes. Eli got to play with our scraps because, well, he's 1 and can't use scissors and I'm not crazy enough to let him get near the glitter. He looks thrilled though, right?

Alrighty then. Two down, 23 to go!