The Organ Family: November 2012

25 Days of Christmas

I LOVE Christmas! I love everything about this wonderful season...Christmas lights, hot chocolate, holiday music, Christmas movies, cold weather, and the Salvation Army bell ringers. I even enjoy the all the hustle and bustle and chaos! Now that we have a little one, Christmas seems to be even more special.

Another thing I LOVE are family traditions! It is very important to me that Mike & I start our own traditions for our little family.

Since McKinley is finally at an age to really start enjoying and participating in different activities, I wanted to try extra hard to create some lasting Christmas traditions, so I came up with "The Organ Family 25 Days of Christmas".

I have spent the last few weeks researching and planning family activities to do through the month of December (thank you Pinterest!). I have compiled a list of about 70 holiday activities which gives me plenty of options to switch out and add in the coming years.

Here are a few of the activities that have made it to this years calendar:

-December 6^th is St. Nicholas Day

-Visit Opryland Hotel lights & Decoration

-Dickens of a Christmas

-See a Living Nativity Scene

-Build a gingerbread house

-Pick Angels fro the Angel Tree & Shop

-Cookie baking & decorating

-Attend a church Christmas play or musical

-Breakfast with Santa

-Write letter to Santa

-Reading events @ the library, Barnes & Noble

-Attend a Christmas concert/ballet

-Special Christmas breakfast (the same year after year)

-Make a special treat & deliver it to Daddy’s work and have a picnic

-Decorate Kids rooms

-Donate to a food bank

-Read the Christmas Story from Luke 2:1-20

-Christmas movie nights

A couple years ago I purchased a colorful wooden advent calendar. I knew the advent calendar would be the perfect way of housing our "25 Days" activities. I printed out each activity on a piece of paper and placed it in the calendar. So each morning after McKinley eats breakfast she can open the advent calendar door and see what our "25 Days of Christmas" activity is for the day.

In addition to "25 Days of Christmas", we are also starting the tradition of "25 Books". This is where you unwrap one Christmas themed book each day until Christmas. Actually, this year we are only opening 16 books since I am still building our Christmas Library. I have wrapped and numbered all the books and placed them under the tree.

If you can't tell, I am super excited about the Christmas Season! I will be posting every few days throughout December to update on our "25 Days of Christmas" experience.

Merry Christmas!

Life Group Kiddos

This picture was taken at life group a few weeks back. There are a few kids missing from the picture, but when I look at this photo I can't help but feel blessed! Blessed to see that McKinley is surrounded by Godly children & friends. I am also blessed by what you can't see in the picture, the big group of parents standing behind the camera. Over the years these special people have become more than friends, they are family.

Walden Farm: Pumpkin Patch

A couple weeks ago, Mike and I took McKinley to Walden Farm. We figured 18 months old was the perfect age to let her experience her very first Pumpkin Patch. We had such a great time, the weather was amazing, and we even managed to get a few good pictures of M.

I think her favorite part of the farm was (of course) the animals!

Now that McKinley is walking, she LOVED exploring the farm, touching all the pumpkins and playing/picking up anything she could get her hands on.

This will definitely be a picture we take each year so we can watch our little pumpkin grow!

Trunk or Treat 2012

This year for Trunk or Treat McKinley went as a cute little pink owl. It is amazing the difference a year makes. Here is McKinley last year as a pea pod. This year she is walking and interacting with others. She even knew to hold her basket out at each car to receive candy. Overall the night was a success. I think she had more fun looking at others costumes than she did collecting the candy.

Myrtle Beach 2012: Family Photo Shoot

Myrtle Beach 2012: Snapshots

This October, the Organ clan headed to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week long vacation. The week was filled with shopping, golf, eating and typical touristy things. It was great getting to spend time with family. Here are some snapshots from that week.