Christmas Advent: Days 21-24

Day 21: Go look at Christmas lights.

With everyone in their jammies we loaded up in the car and drove around to look at the lights.  Autumn joined us and helped Adrian keep count.  I jokingly told them to see how many houses we saw with lights.  They thought I really wanted them to count!  I'm glad they did though because now we have a record to beat next year.  In about a half hour we saw......230 houses with some form of Christmas lights on them!!!  The boys don't think we will ever be able to beat that record:)

Day 22:  Be a secret Santa.

We were asked to organize a team of 4 families that could help provide Christmas to a family in our ward.  This family had 4 children and they needed help with one present for each so we just each got a present for one child.  Of course we had to get the present for the boy close to Adrian's age.  We had a lot of fun deciding what to do, especially since we had no idea who the family was!  Another member of our ward came by to pick up the presents and deliver them to the secret destination.  Merry Christmas!!

Day 23: Take kids shopping.
[Due to the "top secret" nature of this shopping trip the kids didn't want photographic evidence!]
We decided to start a new tradition this year and have the kids each pick out a present for each other.  Unfortunately, Andrew had to work so he couldn't join us.  However, my mom was happy to help out!  Originally I was going to have them draw names, but since the little ones still need help it was easier to just assign them so we could divide up in teams.  The kids had a lot of fun trying to be stealth in the store so that no one could see what the others were up to.  In the end they all made wise purchases and really thought about the person they were buying for.  Adrian had Jonathan (Ninjago legos), Luke had Adrian (lego city legos), Jonathan had Reagan (baby doll stroller), and Reagan had Luke (spy gear recording device).  Great job guys!  It was fun teaching them how to do for someone else instead of look for yourself;)

Day 24: Get a family picture.

My amazingly talented brother, Chad, helped us out this year and took our family pictures.  I found Reagan's dress when I was out shopping on black Friday and decided to coordinate us to her.  Little princess;)  Adrian got a new tie, Luke wore a bow tie that my mom had (it actually belonged to my Great-Grandfather!), and Andrew, Jonathan, and I already had what we wore.  My bestie, Heidi, told us about a cool turquoise barn door close by that we could take our pictures in front of.  It's pretty funny really...I didn't realize until we were driving away and Andrew pointed it out to me, but we took our family pics in the same place, in almost the same pose, with the same colors as they did!  Guess we just both have amazingly good taste!  We love you Durants:) 

(I got these pics from my brother's facebook page.  He says that the ones on the CD are a little darker, but I actually thing the lighting on these is pretty cool!)

Thank you Chad for the amazing family photos!!!!

Advent Overview:

SUCH A BLAST!!!! We are totally going to do this again next year, but with some different things of course.  Some we will definitely be repeating though;)

It was so nice to have Christmas last the whole month.  We also were able to do way more service for others than we have done in the past because we actually planned it out.  Next year I might have our Advent focus more on service and include some RACKs in it (Random Acts of Christmas Kindness), but I better start saving the money for it now;)