Three Magee: Christmas Jones Style

We have FOUR Christmases. I know, crazy right? In the midst of traveling, we make a day long trip from Tulsa to Wichita, round trip 7+ hours in the car with four kids, I have made it my mission to give us some wonderful holiday traditions. Some of them we keep and do every year, sometimes we try some new stuff out. Here's how it all went down.

This year we did the Elf on the Shelf. Charlie was a great elf and he's definitely coming back next year. He didn't do anything naughty or that required a bunch of extra work or clean up because lets face it I have enough to do without cleaning up a mess I make myself. He played in the snow (made an elf-angel) and built a fort out of marshmallows and flour (it took about 2 minutes to make it and 2 to clean it up) while we went to Wichita for the day. He hung from the ceiling and hit on our angel (she is pretty cute). On Christmas Eve he crepe papered the door of the big kids room so they had to break through to get to their presents (although we watched Ethan army style crawl underneath.) Super fun tradition that we're keeping.

We leave cookies and milk for Santa and treats like apples, carrots and celery for the reindeer. Best part about this year was watching the girls make gingerbread cookies with my brother. They had so much fun!

We hosted a Christmas Eve dinner and it was a lot of fun. I attempted to go all fancy and put a tablecloth on the table, which Jack eventually pulled off. He thought it was loads of fun. At least I could just toss it in the wash. Ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cheesy garlic bread, apple pie, cookies, brownies and a relish tray that the kids raved about for days. It was definitely a keeper.

Beary Christmas was kind of overshadowed by our elf movement. Ethan and I were the main movers of beary. It was more of a decoration than an advent calender. Ellie did use it to see how many days were left until Christmas a few times. We'll keep it, mainly because its my tradition and I couldn't bear the thought of not doing it.

We read The Night Before Christmas, The Velveteen Rabbit and a book from when I was a kid called Santa;s Elf. I love reading all together before they go to bed. We read every night anyways, but the big kids often just read to themselves. It's nice to have all four of them snuggled up around me. Keeping that tradition for sure.

The kids school has a "Santa Shop" that is open for about a week before they go on break. You can send money with your kids and they can shop for presents. We sent the big kids to school with $5 each and the rule that they could only buy for their family, not for friends or themselves. It sounds kind of mean when I type it out but we wanted them to focus on others and learn the joy from giving. I had them each wrap the presents they bought. I loved watching them give the gifts and I think they enjoyed putting their names alone on the "from" section of the gift tag. So glad we did it!

We didn't get around to making gift tags like last year. Although we did save some more cards so we should have plenty if we get around to doing it next year. I also picked up a cute little stamper on clearance that has a deer and the words to and from. So maybe we will.

We made lots and lots and lots of cookies. It wasn't as fun for me this year, I think because I did more making than they did. We did eliminate a few non keep recipes.

We made what I deemed "Reindeer Alert Dust" which we sprinkled all over the backyard so that it would glitter from up above when Santa flew over and appeal to the reindeer with the smell of oats and coffee. It consisted of coffee, oatmeal and red glitter. It would have been nice if it were all snowy outside, the glitter would have really sparkled, but they saw it sparkle in the moonlight so all was good. Next year I think we will sprinkle it while it is still daylight.

That's a few of the things we do. I want to make memories with my children and give them the best childhood I can. Not just toys and presents but things we do together.

She was so proud of her arrangement. Then there was an apple thief!

Its blurry but he was the reindeer apple thief, on the move!

See that tablecloth behind me? Hehehe!

She couldn't believe this one was for Mom and Dad.

I got to open a lot of Jack's presents so naturally I modeled them for Dale so we could have some fun memories of me being excited about his presents.