Christmas Bucket List!

 

1. Decorate! I am holding off as long as I can, but its really hard! Especially this year when we could all use a little happiness to cheer us up! This year I have some new things to put up, and I got the idea off Pinterest to do a Hot cocoa bar! Rachel will really love that.

2. Watch Christmas movies. Of course you have to watch Christmas movies! We already watched our first one of the season last week. It was cheesy, but good. Of course we'll watch all the classics like Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Elf. And Im looking forward to several new ones this year on Netflix and Hulu. 

3. Get family pictures taken~ Its been forever, and we are finally getting some new family pictures taken! A friend at our church has started back up her photography business. She is doing Christmas sessions at a local tree farm. I have been planning and coordinating our outfits. I'm so excited! 

4. Pick out a Christmas tree~ We love to get a real tree! We sometimes go to a tree farm, and since we will be getting our family pics done at a farm, we will just pick out our tree right after! That really worked out great! 

5. Christmas craft day~ I bought some different kinds of plain, clear and wooden ornaments. I am planning for me and the girls to paint and make homemade ornaments one day.. and maybe some more crafty things if we can come up with any cute ideas. 

6. Bake Christmas cookies~ This goes without saying! Not sure what kind this year. Everyone knows I'm not a great cook/baker, so I may just go the easy route ;) 

7. Send out Christmas cards~ I do this every year! We do photo cards and send them to lots of family and friends. I am really excited this year that we will have such great family pics on them! I really wish more people still sent cards out.. I love finding them in the mailbox and then displaying them!

8. Angel Tree~ We plan to try to adopt an angel tree child this year and buy gifts! I want to remind the kids that they are very fortunate, and it is good to give to others. 

9. Random Acts of Christmas Kindness~ I love doing these during the Christmas season! Usually every year we do a few things to try and bless people. We usually go for a dinner out sometime during the Christmas season and leave an EXTRA large tip for our waiter. I also like to pay for someone behind me in the drive thru line. And buy a box of food for donation at our local grocery store. And you can do things as simple as let someone go in front of you in line, or just give someone a big smile! It is always nice to give to others, and you might just be making someone's day! 

10. Drive-Thru Christmas Parade~ Things are a little different this year so sadly we wont be going to our town parade and see Brooke play in the band. But they have a few drive-thru parades we might try to go to. 

11. Christmas Service at church~ So looking forward to this! They have the best music that night! And I may be extra excited because Arnold is playing in the service this year! They will be doing a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song, and also a Lincoln Brewster song. 

12. Get-Together/Parties w/ Family & Friends~ I have a couple of good friends I get together with and have dinner or lunch with, and we exchange gifts and hang out. We go to my inlaws house on Christmas Eve for lunch. We usually spend Christmas with my family. And baby Roman will be joining us this year-- his first Christmas!! ;D 

13. Go see the Christmas Lights~ We do the same thing every year since the kids were little. We go to Morganton and drive thru to see the lights, all while eating Papa Johns pizza in the car and listening to Christmas music ;) 

14. Make Gingerbread house/Similar~ Arnold has always HATED building gingerbread houses, and we never seem to do very good, they always fall down on us. But maybe we can try again this year?! They have a lot of really cute sets out too, that might not be as hard? I even saw a treehouse! ;)

15. Read Christmas story in the Bible~ I grew up with my dad reading us the Christmas story out of the Bible every year before we opened gifts. Good to remember the real reason for the season!