Making Christmas Special

We made these candy cane reindeer last night for our Christmas activity.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is watching the kids unpack our boxes of ornaments before we decorate the Christmas tree. When they receive new ornaments, I write their names and the year somewhere on the ornaments. Each of the kids has a box of his own, and when they open their boxes, it's like watching them open presents!

Every year I try to find new ornaments to give to the kids. I look for things I know they've enjoyed during the year. I went to the Hallmark store with Emily over the weekend and I was able to purchase a couple of their ornaments regularly priced $16 for only $6. I picked out Rocket from The Little Einsteins for Jared. Rocket even plays their theme song!

Caleb still enjoys playing with his cars from the movie Cars, so I bought this one for him. I found it at Target.

Gracie's new favorite is Hello Kitty. She really likes the color pink and has just started to enjoy cats. This little set, also from Target, seemed perfect for her.

I have to admit that this is probably my favorite new ornament! I found this one for Lily at the Hallmark store.

Every night Lily sleeps with a beautiful Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt that my mom made for Jared when he was baby. She loves to "read" the story to her siblings by laying out the quilt and stepping on the different quilt squares as she reads each page.

Here's Caleb's candy cane reindeer from last night. It's Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer!