Funny Christmas Animals

Yesterday didn't turn out the way I'd planned. My sister's family got sick so our Christmas celebration had to be rescheduled. Of course, we were also planning to celebrate birthdays that night with dinner out. That meant some scrambling on my part to put together a birthday for my hubby.

I asked him to take our son to speech therapy so I could have a couple of hours to plan something. While he was gone, I baked his favorite kind of cake...devil's food chocolate. I wrapped his gifts and came up with a plan for his birthday. So that evening we drove to Portland to visit the Grotto and see the lights, puppet show, petting zoo and music performances. After that we went to the Laurelwood brewpub for dinner. We hadn't been out to eat like that in over a month so it was a nice treat and they brew great beer there so a nice treat for my hubby. We went home for cake and presents. A really nice birthday!

Funny Christmas Animal
Funny Christmas Animal
Funny Christmas AnimalI'll be preparing for tomorrow's kick off of an intense writing month (aka JaNoWriMo), finishing work on our budget and menu, setting up our envelope system and getting caught up on a few things that need to be done. Tonight will be pretty mellow. I hope to talk hubby into taking the kids to either Zoolights or Portland International Raceway to see the lights. It's the last night for both. Then we'll use the east coast's countdown at 9 o'clock our time to usher in the new year with them. I've got sparkling cider and a box with hats, tiaras, leis and noisemakers to open.
Funny Christmas Animal
Funny Christmas AnimalOne thing I've noticed is so many people act as if Christmas is over. We take the twelve days of Christmas to heart around here. December 1- 24 were Advent, the preparation to Christmas. I didn't get my Department 56 villages up until Christmas Eve! The 25th until Epiphany is the actual time to celebrate the holiday.

I've been trying to teach this to the kidlets, too. Each child picks one of their gift from under the Christmas tree on the 25th to put aside until Epiphany, the day symbolizing the visit of the three Wise men/kings/magi when they gave gifts to Jesus. My dad called this Little Christmas when I was growing up though we never exchanged gifts on that day. But I figured saving the gifts might help the kids understand better why I have us do what we do. Time will tell if I succeeded.
Funny Christmas Animal
Funny Christmas AnimalOne family I know puts up their lights a couple of weeks before Christmas, but doesn't turn them on until Christmas day. They celebrate the twelve days of Christmas by leaving little gifts in the stockings each of the twelve days. I thought that was a neat idea and was so happy that my oldest got to hear that we're not the only ones who do things a little differently.

Of course, the rest of my family takes down their trees and decorations on the 26th which is why we're hosting Christmas today since our decorations stay up until after Epiphany. And now that we have an artificial tree, I won't have to worry about it turning into a matchstick by the first week of January!