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Our Holiday Card + Bucket List Progress

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Continuing the holiday spirit theme this week, I wanted to pop in and share our 2018 holiday card with you! I wish I could send each of you a card via good ol' snail mail, but this will have to do. :) 


The photos we used are ones from our family photo session this summer, so they were taken all the way back in July. We usually do one family shoot per year and it used to be around C's birthday, so closer to Christmas, but for the past two years we've chosen to do a summer shoot around H's birthday instead. So the girls both look a bit older now than in these pictures, but that's ok... it still works!

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Now for the progress we've made on our Holiday Bucket List! We've crossed almost everything off in one form or another. I still have wrapping to do and need to nail down our menu for Christmas Day dinner and get those groceries, but otherwise we are ready to just sit back and enjoy the season. It's been a fun month so far!



Bake cookies & go to a swap: Check! Attended a cookie swap this past weekend and made these cookies for the first time.


Go Christmas shopping: Check! Alllmost completely done. This year I've done a mix of in store and online shopping (I always prefer in store, but there have been a lot of great deals online with free shipping). 

Deck the halls: Check! We decorated our house early this year... right after Thanksgiving!


Drive around looking at lights: Check! Just did this last night! Although we ran out of time for all the neighborhoods we wanted to hit, so decided we're going to split this into two nights this year. I think we'll do night two this weekend.


Watch Christmas movies: Check! We've watched most of our favorites. I plan to introduce C to "Jingle All the Way" during H's nap this Friday (I think it might be a bit old for H), and other than that the only favorite we haven't watched yet is Home Alone 2.

Go on a holiday hayride: We didn't check this one off and probably won't at this point, but that's ok. Instead of doing the lights hayride, we ventured into the city.


Visit Santa & get a picture: Check! The girls told Santa they would like "face paint and a wig, please" -- C beamed from ear to ear and H was not a fan (understandably!) but warmed up after a little.


Wrap gifts while listening to music: Check! Yesterday during nap time and while C was at school, I got a good chunk of wrapping done while sipping coffee and watching a cheesy Netflix Christmas movie. To be continued this week!

Donate toys and books: Check! We donated new toys to Toys for Tots and some of our old favorites to other families within our community. Another thing we did to encourage the girls to look outside of themselves this season was to bake cookies and bring them to our local fire and police stations. So much fun!


Go to a holiday village: Check! We checked this off a few weeks ago when we visited Peddler's Village.

Read Christmas books: Check! We've been reading Christmas books before bed for the past couple of weeks. Our favorites include: The Polar Express, The Sweet Smells of Christmas, How to Catch a Santa, and You Are My Merry among others.

Mail out holiday cards: Check! See above. ;)

Make a gingerbread house: Check! We did mini gingerbread houses this year.

Host Christmas dinner: Will check this off in 6 days! We plan to make our traditional ham with cherry glaze (yummm), mashed potatoes and maybe my mom will bring green bean casserole. I can't wait.


The key with these bucket lists, I think, is to make them an inspirational list of ideas to enjoy throughout each season. As you can see, I put a mix of everything from our yearly family traditions to things so simple as decorating our house. It's all part of the enjoyment of the season (plus, I love crossing things off a list that I know I'm going to do anyway ;)).

What has been the best thing you've seen or done so far this month?

4 comments:

  1. I love your card and you are doing a great job on your Christmas Bucket List!!!

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    1. Thanks so much, friend! We've been having a lot of fun this December! :)

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  2. I love your card - so cute.
    Oh man, my mom makes those coconut almond cookies and they are my favorite. This reminds me... she hasn't made them recently. I'm seriously about to message her and ask her to make them for Christmas now. Thanks for the inspiration - HAHA!

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    1. Thanks, Steph! Aren't those cookies SO good? I wish I had known about them before - they definitely would have been my go-to all these years! Hope she makes them for you. :) xo

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