Advent Calendar day 24 (our family Christmas day)

Today is Christmas Eve, the day we celebrated our family Christmas since I work tomorrow. Since we had painted upstairs yesterday, it still smelled bad like paint so Oliver slept on his mattress on our bedroom floor. We all awoke around 6:45 this morning. I think Oliver forgot that it was Christmas at first because I asked him if he heard Santa last night and he said "yes" then thought about it and ran out too look under the tree. I had a monkey bread that rose overnight in the fridge that I threw in the oven quick before he tore into the presents. 

It was hard for him to wait to take a picture first but he did.

Oliver was so excited when he picked up the long present. The only thing he had asked Santa for was a fishing pole and he knew it had to be that. I captured his reaction and was so happy that I did. Watch it below. 

His fishing pole 

He was very excited about his pirate ship too

All of his presents. He received 3 from Santa because that is how many Jesus got and 3 from us. 

My poor baby doesn't understand that it is too cold today at -16 degrees this AM to go fishing. It didn't stop him from attempting to fish in the house and from asking us it seemed every hour to go fishing. Soon after this picture everything of course had to come out of the boxes to be played with. 

The rest of the morning we cleaned the house, did laundry and made food for Christmas Eve tonight at Grandpa Doerschery's and Grandma Sandy's all while Oliver played with his new toys.

As I said, we are going to my parents tonight with my sister and her family to celebrate and tomorrow, Shawn's parents plan on coming over to our house where they plan on deep frying a chicken. Thanks for following us on our 24 days of Advent activities this month. Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.

Advent Calendar day 23

Monday, December 23rd, Shawn and I had both taken off to run a lot of errands and get things done before our Christmas on Christmas Eve. I work Christmas day so we were having our family Christmas today (the 24th). We are in the process of getting a bigger room upstairs ready for Oliver as he's getting too big for his toddler bed so we're moving him into a bigger room with a full size bed. So, yesterday we had torn off all the wallpaper and painted the room. (I only have 1 more main room in my house with wallpaper!!!!!) 

We stopped in at Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley's yesterday morning and opened Christmas presents. Oliver's favorite present by far was his remote control monster truck. It didn't take him long to figure out how to use the remote and make it go. The steering part is a little more challenging for him but he does pretty well. 

Last night we then prepared for Santa to come by reading 3 books- "Grover's night before Christmas," and 2 books of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" one read by me and another that was recorded by Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley.

We also set out our cookie for Santa to which Oliver chose a green frosted bell cookie that he happened to frost and of course a carrot for Santa's reindeer specifically for Comet. 

Advent Calendar days 21 and 22

December 21st we wrapped Christmas presents.  All Oliver wanted to do though was to cut using the "special cutter." He tried using the tape but it always got tangled and he and I both were frustrated so he was better as my other set of hands to hold the paper in place while I taped.

December 22nd we made cookies for Santa.  We made a gingerbread cookie recipe from Kraft using butterscotch pudding mix that is really yummy and somehow takes on a crunch note when they first come out of the oven, but after putting them in a container and letting them sit overnight, they have a delish chewy texture.  We then rolled them out and cut them out with tree, bell, and snowmen cookie cutters. 

My lefty trying to roll them out one handed mostly because on his step stool he was already leaning in a lot to the left to reach the dough.
 

Our cookies right out of the oven pre-frosted. 

I know he has tried frosting cookies at daycare but I had never done it with him before and it was so adorable to see him so proud of his frosted cookies.  

Our finished product of cookies for Santa. Can you tell which one Oliver frosted and which ones I did? (his are mostly on the right and bottom)

Advent Calendar days 18-20

December 18th we ran over to Prairie after Shawn got off work to get some last minute gifts so our advent activity turned out to be drive around and look at Christmas lights. Sorry the pictures aren't that clear, Shawn wouldn't pull over so I could open the window to take pictures. And, I don't have that great of a camera that can take good night time pictures. This house happened to be in McGregor and was much better than the picture shows.

December 19th we made a snowman pizza. It was supposed to be a Christmas tree pizza with the mushrooms as ornaments but it really is hard to cut out a tree and have it fit on our Pizzazz pizza maker and Shawn insisted I use it. 

My little helper liked the rolling pin but refused to look at the camera. 

So the mushrooms became buttons, eyes and a nose. 

December 20th we went Christmas Caroling. A few people I'm friends with on Facebook had an idea to go Christmas Caroling at our friends house next door since they've missed out on a lot of holiday cheer this year with their son being in the hospital. So about 30 of us showed up next door singing carols bringing my friend to tears. It was a cold winter evening and we all dressed up in our Christmas hats and sang 4 songs. One of the songs Oliver knew (Jingle Bells) and so he sang along and Shawn knew only 3 songs (he didn't know Hark the Herald Angels Sing.) 

Advent Calendar days 16-17

December 16th, we watched a video message from Santa. He was very excited when I told him that Santa had sent him an email message and he couldn't take his eye off the video.

December 17 I had the day off and we had 4 inches of snow fall the day before with the few inches we already had it made a good day to go sledding. The little sled is getting too little that it didn't really make it down the hill before he slid out of it.

It worked better to use the big sled and go down together.  I didn't have anyone to take pictures of us but just picture us going down together and snow blowing up into our faces. 

We went all the way down but only a few times because it's a long way back up. 

Advent calendar days 12-15

December 12th I had to take Oliver down to Dubuque for a follow-up with his pediatrician so we did a few fun things. The activity was donate money or a gift to charity. This was completed by donating money to (the bell ringers) the Salvation Army. While down there we also bought gifts for friends and family. I had most of our Christmas shopping done but Oliver helped me pick up a few more things for his cousins.

December 13th, we ate popcorn while watching a Christmas movie.  We started out watching my favorite movie White Christmas but it wasn't interesting enough to keep Oliver or even Shawn's attention. Guess they don't share my love of that movie. So instead we watched Disney's A Christmas Carol. 

On December 14th, I was working my last weekend so Oliver as usual spent a few hours with the Grandparents so Shawn could get stuff done. He went over to "Grandpa Doerscherys" and Grandma Sandy's house today where they took him to see Santa again this time downtown St. Olaf.  Oliver didn't like seeing Santa this day and my dad said he wouldn't even go up to him this time because there were way too many people here and it was too noisy. That didn't stop him from getting a special Christmas treat.  Oliver got a candy cane, cookie, maracas (which are very noisy), and a Santa cup while down seeing Santa.

December 15th Oliver went to Grandpa Chuck's and Grandma Shirley's house and where they did the next activity - make an ornament for the tree. That tree according to Oliver though is for the one outside and not the Christmas tree because "we don't have birds in our house" he said. He didn't believe me when I told him that we have had birds in our house 2 years in a row until Shawn capped off the chimney last year.

Big change for me

Okay, so I've been a little behind on posting our advent activities but I just came off big stretch of working. And, I worked my last scheduled weekend this past weekend and only have 1 more holiday (Christmas) to work! That's right, starting in January I will be like most normal adults working 5 days a week as the clinical informaticist/case manager at the hospital. I still will be helping out as needed as a nurse working in all the areas at the hospital.

If you're wondering what a clinical informaticist is I am the liaison between the electronic health record and the end users (nurses, doctors, etc.) So I work closely with the doctors especially and helping them with using the electronic medical record, sit in a lot of meetings, and update our staff on changes and any issues. We are part of Unity Point Health systems so I work closely with corporate as well.

As the case manager, I work closely with the social worker and physician's again in determining what qualifies the patient to be at a certain level of care at the hospital. As most people know, insurance companies play a huge part in health care so I help and make sure we are compliant with insurances (mostly medicare/medicaid) and that the patient can stay with certain diagnoses and the plan of care.

It is definitely a big change working 5 days a week! It will be nice to have weekends and holidays off but I miss my 4 days off a week and time with Oliver on our days off. I do like though that we get to eat breakfast and supper together as a family every day!

Advent Calendar days 9-11

December 9th was make a Holiday treat. This ended up being this today because I realized when I got home from work that I had a potluck the next day and needed to make a dessert item. My favorite cookie is a peanut butter cookie with the chocolate star on them so I wanted to make them but I didn't have any stars so we used chocolate chips scattered on the top. Oliver did a pretty good job putting the chips on the top. I also made a pumpkin torte because I realized that my cookies were oh so good to take and give away. The torte was pretty fabulous as well.

December 10th was go see Santa. Every year where I work at the Guttenberg Hospital they have Santa come visit for employees children/grandchildren. We had been talking to Oliver about Santa for weeks ahead of time preparing him to go see him. We would tell him not to be afraid and that he didn't have to cry, but that he should just go up to him and sit on his lap to tell him what he wants for Christmas. Well, it paid off. He did amazing for the shy boy he is! We walked in and Santa was right there. Oliver couldn't take him eye off of him even when taking his coat off and he went up to him and sat down. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas Oliver said, "a fishing pole." Santa asked him what he was going to do with a fishing pole and Oliver said "to go fishing in the Turkey River."

People at work commented on how well he did for a 3 year old and that he was the perfect boy. I was pretty proud of him. 

After seeing Santa we headed up to Marquette to see the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train come to town. Shawn's parents have taken Oliver to see this before but I had never been it was really exciting to see the train pull into town all lit up. Shawn had texted me that it came through Postville by his shop so we knew we didn't have to wait long for it to arrive. We really only waited about 10-15 minutes for it and we had a perfect spot to watch it. Unfortunately it was frigid cold at 7 degrees so we were dressed in all our winter clothes including snowpants, boots, and thermal pants and we were still freezing.  

The train included a band and Santa of course but since we just had saw Santa at Guttenberg, we didn't go with the crowds of people to see him but headed to the train engine.  

Oliver didn't much like walking right next to the engine because it was so noisy and he thought it would start moving at any minute. After leaving there we went over to Prairie to eat some supper before coming home to tell Daddy all about our busy exciting day!

December 11th is read every Christmas book we own. As I'm typing this we've only read 4 of them and have approximately that many more to read yet tonight. With temps below 0 even before 6 pm it is a good night to snuggle and read books. 

Advent Calendar day 7 and 8

December 7th was make snowman pancakes and sleep under the Christmas tree. The snowman pancakes was an add on since we didn't know what to make for supper and I have to thank my sister for the idea. I made my own pancake mix with lots of vanilla in it as we like it and started making the snowman below. 

But lesson learned, you cannot flip a snowman like this without a big huge spatula which I do not have so it ended up being in a pile. So we make snowmen of only 2 circles. 

An orange for a mouth, a bacon scarf and chocolate chip eyes and buttons.  

He tried picking it up at first until I told him we could put syrup on it.  

Then after supper and a bath for Oliver we blew up the air mattress for our bed. Oliver was so very excited and wanted to go to bed right away even at 6:50 to sleep by the tree. Shawn didn't want to sleep on the floor with us but slept on the couch for awhile until going to bed. 

December 8th we started the morning with going to the kids Christmas program at church and then this afternoon after nap we played in the snow. 

Rode his trike in the snow

And made snow angels in the snow. It is so nice to have a cemented driveway now to make perfect snow angels not to mention the ease of shoveling now. 

We came in the house then and had some more hot chocolate with marshmallows.