1. Humbolt, Iowa
I know it probably doesn't make sense for most of you to drive upwards of two hours to see all that Humboldt has to offer at Christmastime...I count myself lucky that my little hometown is only about 40 minutes away. However...if you live within a one hour radius...IT IS WORTH THE DRIVE! Do some research beforehand (this is my dad's job every year) so you know when different 'attractions' are open. Our favorite is the giant, lit house and hill in Dakota City (make sure to get out and hike around!), but we also like the Christmas Tree Walk at the Methodist Church, and Kawani's Santa Land (free pictures with Santa!). There are numerous great places to eat, sleigh rides, and even a parade on Thanksgiving weekend! We are never able to do ALL six of those things. so we pick our favorites (trees at the church and lights at the hill!) add in a place to eat, and rotate doing the other activities each year.
2. Cutout Sugar Cookies
This is something I grew up doing every year and now it's a 'thing' for me. Even before we had Maverick, I would spend at least one evening each Christmas "baking" and frosting cutout cookies. It's not hard to buy a roll of Pillsbury dough and a container of frosting...so the little bit of effort I put into rolling, cutting, and frosting is worth it (especially because frosted sugar cookies are my #1 favorite Christmas treat). If I'm at my parents house I like helping my mom dip stuff in chocolate or shake puppy chow...but I haven't quite gotten there myself. I keep this pretty low-key/no-stress/easy...that will probably change when I have a three-year-old shaking sprinkles all over my kitchen...but that's what these darn tile floors and the Dyson are for. ;)
3. Jolly Holiday Lights
My family came down for this Des Moines attraction a couple times growing up, and in the past 10-ish years we've made it more of a 'tradition.' It's fun to hop in the car, bring cider/coffee/cocoa in travel mugs, crank the Christmas music and settle in for the drive. JHL was previously at Water Works Park, and for $10/car...it was a nice thing to enjoy for a good cause. Nothing spectacular, but nice. With the move JHL made to the Adventureland Campground this year because of flooding...there are more than double the displays! And they're all new! IT IS SO AMAZING!!! The stories of the kids who have been blessed by the Children's Miracle Network are updated and 'showcased' better, which I enjoyed. Easily worth more than $10 AND worth the drive to Altoona from anywhere in Central Iowa. Seriously. I can't stress this one enough.
***I'd recommend going on a weekday to avoid a crazy line.***
4. Visiting grandparents/neighbors
We see our grandma's on or around Christmas, but I always like walking across the street to visit our honorary G'ma, Norma for our annual spritz cookie + pop date. When we were little we would take a plate of cookies to all of our 'grandparents' in the neighborhood (which is why I need to get better at the baking thing) and spend some time 'visiting.' Now that we're adults with our own kiddo in our own little neighborhood...I'd like to start doing the same thing. I also like to arrange a special date with my G'ma Rose for coffee and to come see our house at Christmas. And we try and take a trip up to see Josh's grandparents at the farm before the craziness of the actual extended family gathering so we have quality time to visit with them all to ourselves. It's a special time of year to spend with the ones we love the most and sometimes accidentally see the least.
5. Bag Hunger
We've done this for the past couple years at our church, and I love it! It makes giving back in a tangible way SUPER easy amidst the December craziness. One Sunday we're handed a brown paper bag with a shopping list attached. The next Sunday we bring back the bag full of food and truckloads of non-perishable items are hauled to the MICA Food Bank in Ames. I like to make a 'special' shopping trip to just focus on what we're buying for our bag (it's so easy I think from now on we will do one bag per member of our family when this is offered at our church) so it's more of a focus than just throwing everything in with our groceries. This is also a grocery trip I try to make with the whole family so we're all involved (these things are easier because Fareway is five blocks from our house) I would encourage everyone to try and do something like this over the holiday's to take the emphasis OFF the expensive gifts and shopping lists and pretty houses and GIVE BACK.
6. Favorite Movie List
To say we're avid Christmas movie-watchers would be putting it mildly. We gradually start watching them in October (only the ones that start at Thanksgiving are allowed!) and by November, nothing but Hallmark movies, Christmas classics, TV Christmas specials (SNL Christmas is our fave!), Peanuts, and Christmas episodes of our favorite sitcoms are allowed. The ones we put in as party background or have going while we're working on wrapping or decorating (or to fall asleep to) are: Home Alone 1 & 2, The Holiday, Christmas Vacation, The Grinch, A Christmas Story, The Santa Clause, A Boyfriend for Christmas, and Family Stone. Hallmark airs Christmas movies 24/7 starting November 1st, but their best ones are on at 7 and 9pm and weekends so choose wisely. ;)
7. Hosting
We go nuts decorating mostly because we like living in our house like this for three months (yes I said three), but we also LOVE having people over! We usually start our hosting season with Thanksgiving, followed by ThanksChristmas...but we throw in parties here and there as much as possible (without over-doing it...I try to make sure it never becomes stressful and always stays FUN). This year we've been the first stop for two progressive dinners; enjoyed having my parents here last weekend; are having girls over tomorrow for our annual 'Dead Week Sleepover' (even though none of us are in college and it's not even Dead Week); and I fill in with having girls over for coffee during nap for catch-up/crafting time. The other day Josh's brother/sister-in-law/niece came over so we could spend the day hanging out making tiny trees and it was such a fun Christmas day! Even though we made a complete mess of the kitchen drilling into wood and cutting apart garland, it wasn't stressful at all! Once the projects and decorating are done and the house is 'ready'...it's easy to keep it that way throughout the season. Opening our home for friends and family to enjoy our cozy Christmas Wonderland is one of our favorite things...it's kind of like our Olympics because it takes all year to prepare for the whirlwind but it's so worth it and so fun! ;)
8. Game Nights
Honestly, we struggle with this unless I force it. When it gets dark so early during this time of year all we want to do is be in pajamas cuddled in front of the TV! But a couple times a week once Maverick is in bed, instead of starting our movie right away we play games. Maybe just one game of Ticket to Ride or a couple quick games of Monopoly Deal...but it gets us using our brains doing something different than just watching movies for hours every night. Josh hates games, so on nights like this he usually gets to pick the movie. ;)
9. Reiman Gardens
You might think there's not a lot to see at Reiman Gardens at Christmas because it's freezing and going outside sounds miserable...but that's not true! It's the perfect place to spend a morning pretending you're in a tropical forest. The butterfly house and garden room are both kept at 80 degrees or warmer. WARMER THAN 80 DEGREES! Iowans spend most of the year complaining about the humidity, but yesterday Jamie actually said out loud, "I want my hair and skin to soak up all this MOISTURE!" And if it hadn't been lunch time (and Maverick hadn't just gone bonk and gotten a bloody lip) we could have stayed for another hour. The second Wednesday of each month is free (perfect for our little trip yesterday...which happened to be Jamie's day off) and is about as much as we enjoy going at this point since Maverick can't really run around and play. And I haven't even mentioned the best part! Besides the huge, beautiful, real wreaths, trees, and poinsettias they have everywhere...there's a 'Reiman Gardens Express' miniature train set up, weaving all around the warm garden room. So while Maverick stood and watched the train loop around over and over and over, Jamie and I drank our coffee in the glorious humid warmth. Highly recommend a trip.
10. Christmas Eve/Cornerstone Production/Church Services
The best for last. There's just something more special about going to church at Christmastime. The songs we sing, the trees up front, and the extra dramas, puppets, children's choir, etc. are all things that get me excited to celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus. We're even planning to swing though a live nativity this weekend in Ames! I like the balance we have of going to church at Cornerstone, but also attending at least one church service at my home church for the traditional Hymns and decorating I love. Whether we're super busy or have colds or have just hosted a party until 2am the night before...getting our butts to church during the Christmas season is a high priority. It puts in perspective what we're really celebrating all season long.
Things like decorating a gingerbread house, Tours of Homes (in both Pella and Manson!), touring Terrace Hill, the Salisbury Mansion (Des Moines), and the Smeltzer Mansion (Fort Dodge) are all things we like doing...but rotate through every couple of years. Or skip out on altogether if our month is too busy. We like to spend an evening driving around Ames to look at lights as a family...and Josh and I try and take at least one 'Christmas Date' now that we're parents to do some Maverick-shopping. But for the most part, we're able to pack in a lot of Christmas, without too many time-commitments and stress. If we have one 'big thing' per week and one 'small thing' per week...I feel like we're doing good. Other than that, I'm home all day every day, and we're home together almost every night this time of year...which is a really nice change of pace compared to the previous eight months we've had. ;)
This year, I found having my Christmas cards done and out by December 1st and 90% of our gift shopping done early in the month made a HUGE difference. I haven't felt like we've been rushed or missed out anything. I said no to a dinner with all the girls in Josh's family because it was a week we were heavy on some other events, but I felt great about it. We missed Santa Cow at Chick-Fil-A because it was the same morning we were doing family pictures..so even though I could have MADE both of those things happen, I didn't. On the rare occasion we end up having two 'events' per day...it's important we don't take on a third thing. That's when all three of us end up maxxed out, crabby...and the all 'fun-having' has stopped.
So here's to hoping we all find the balance and are able to enjoy our Christmas season to the fullest! With all the best traditions and good food and friends and family...while we remember the real reason for it all. Our Savior was born!
MmB
No comments:
Post a Comment