Christmas Traditions

Besides visiting Crown Center, Union Station, and Santa, here a few more Christmas traditions.  

 Making cookies:  I only make cookies from scratch with my kids once a year.  I was tempted to skip it this year.  Then Olive said it was her favorite Christmas tradition, so of course we had to do it.  

Decorating Gingerbread Houses:  Olive decorated one at school, but they "had to make the village, too."  I always get a kit at the grocery store and it is super easy.  Especially since this year they made it all themselves without any help!

Looking at Christmas lights:  We make hot chocolate, load up the kids in the car, and drive around to see some KC displays.  This year it was Candy Cane Lane, Vince &Associates, and Deanna Rose.  It was a close call, but we decided Vince & Associates was our favorite.  Here is a bad picture of it, or you can watch the show here.  It will be a sad day when the kids are too big to sit on our laps in the front seat and watch the lights.

Homemade gifts for the grandparents:  This year it was key chains.  Hannah drew dogs for Great-grandma Velma, bird feeders for Great-grandma Alice, a tree on a farm for Granny and Papa, and Grandma and Grandpa's new house.

On the reverse side Olive drew a rainbow for Velma, flower for Alice, banana tree for Granny/Papa, and Stan the cat for Grandma/Grandpa.

Reading Christmas books:  Each November I wrap all our Christmas books (sometimes two together because we have over thirty books) and the girls open up one a day to countdown to Christmas.  The wrapping takes forever, but it is a fun way to do an advent calendar!

2016 Family Pictures

Santa

 We made our usual trek to Bass Pro to visit Santa.  Hannah asked for a scooter snowboard and Olive asked for a nutcracker.  Olive had trouble coming up with anything that she wanted and Hannah had trouble narrowing it down to one thing!

They built this "sleigh" at home to play Santa.

Union Station

Christmas isn't complete with a visit to Union Station to check out the decorations.  This is a view of the new outdoor area of Science City that will have exhibits in the spring.

Mini Union Station in the model train display.

And we couldn't leave without some Science City time.

School Christmas Parties

It was an exciting last day of school.  They had their parties in the morning and moved into their new school in the afternoon!!  I'm a room mom in Olive's class, so I was in charge of her party.  But another mom took over halfway through so I could get a peek at Hannah's party, too.

Making hot chocolate!

Snow!

Last year it only really snowed once in Kansas City.  The year before that was the same story.  So this year we are crossing our fingers for a snowy winter.  I know there lots of people that dislike ice and snow, but we love it!  I feel like if it is going to be below freezing, I want to see some snow to make it worthwhile. Otherwise winter is pretty boring.  We got our first mini snow that didn't really cover the grass, but the girls didn't care.  They couldn't wait to get bundled up in snow gear and go play!

Our second snow of the season was better.  It just barely covered the grass and leaves.  Even though it was only 15 degrees, Hannah wanted to stay out all day and sled.  She kept telling me she wasn't cold at all.  Silly snow girl.

We got excited that snow was in the forecast again for Christmas...but now it says the high will be 60 degrees.  KC weather is always surprising!

PTA Reflections Contest

The girls entered the PTA Reflections contest this year.  The theme was "What is your story?" and there were lots of different categories to enter such as literature, visual arts, dance, etc.  Both of them chose visual arts.  

Hannah's art won the award of excellence and advanced to the district competition!  It is called "A Walk in the Woods."  Hannah's story is she is adventurous and likes exploring nature.

Olive's art won the award of merit and it is called "Soccer."  Olive wrote, "I play soccer and I like it."

Liberty Memorial

December is the 10th anniversary of the WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial and so it was free admission for a week.  It was the girls' first time up in the tower.  The last time Steve and I were there I was pregnant with Hannah.  Time flies.  The girls weren't interested in the museum, but they loved looking seeing the city from the memorial.

The white shape is the roof of the ice skating rink and the Crown Center tree is to the left of it.