It's the most wonderful time of the year!
My two little boys LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas time. We've spent the first two weeks of December getting into the Christmas spirit with a Christmas party, decorating the house, and preparing for fun activities at school this last week before an EIGHTEEN DAY BREAK! We are so excited!
Every year my school hosts a Christmas part for the foster children in our county. The party began at 5:00, so the boys hung with me at the party for a little bit until RA was off work and could pick them up. RF had fun playing some of the games.
Ellis had fun letting the art students give him a Christmas hand tattoo...
The next day RA had to make a trip to North Carolina to pick up a piece of furniture (yes, another piece of furniture - we're running out of wall space...), so the boys and I ran a few errands and stopped by the local Christmas tree farm to pick out our 2017 Christmas tree.
Trying to decide which one...
Found it!
The perfect tree!
The farm has a small train for the kids to ride, so of course the Hawk boys took a moment to enjoy a little ride around the track.
Mama and her boys!
RF helped me do a little cleaning (in his reindeer antlers, of course) before we worked on getting the Christmas decorations down from the attic and started decorating the house while jamming out to holiday songs...
Shelves in the kitchen are decorated...
Christmas tree is up and decorated...
Dining room table and sideboard...
A festive rug and towel in the kitchen...
Bookshelf in the living room...
Small Christmas tree in the living room + we had to hang the stockings above our bar this year for two reasons.
1. Beagles!
2. Now that we use the fireplace, the stockings wouldn't have been able to hang on the mantle.
Christmas mantle 2017 with a roaring fire, courtesy of Mr. Hawk when he arrived back from North Carolina...
This week has been super busy with festivities at work and school for the whole family. Monday was the annual cookie swap at my school, so Sunday night I worked on making a few dozen Christmas cookies + chocolate covered pretzels only to discover that Gus had knocked the platter off the dining room table and eaten them! UGH. So, at 8:00PM I started over making the cookies and pretzels. Took some to the cookie swap Monday and sent some to RF and E's school for the staff to enjoy.
We made it through Monday and made sure to prepare for Tuesday's festivities for the boys at school - PAJAMA DAY!
They got to watch The Polar Express and spend the day in the Christmas pjs with their friends at school.
Tuesday afternoon we came home and made sure that the goody bags for RF and E's holiday parties were ready to go. We used brown paper bags, googly eyes, candy canes for the antlers, and a red puff nose to make Rudolph.
The boys helped by putting the treats in the bags. We included a pack of Christmas gummies, Hershey kisses, Starbursts, and candy canes. We had a little assembly line going where everyone had a specific role.
Proud of their work!
50 goody bags ready to go!
I think they turned out pretty cute!
Wednesday was the annual Snackapalooza at my school. Yes, it's exactly as it sounds. FOOD GALORE. Everyone brings a dish and you snack/graze all day on the tasty treats. This year I took meatballs and a few dozen mini-quiche. It's a well known fact at EHS that calories do not count on Snackapalooza day. We also delivered the Rudolph goody bags to their classrooms Wednesday afternoon when I picked them up from school.
Thursday was Ellis's class holiday party, so he decided to dress festively.
Thursday afternoon included making sure that the gifts for their teachers were finished. I saw an idea online (Pinterest, of course) and decided to go with it. I took items I had at home in our craft supply - clothespins, Popsicle sticks, and wooden circles and hot glued them into the shape of snowflakes. The boys painted them white and then used white and blue decorations (puff balls, buttons, and gem stickers) to decorate each snowflake in their own individual way. We included a little note that read, "Thank you for treating each child like a snowflake; each one unique, each one a gift from heaven. Merry Christmas! Love, the Hawk boys, 2017"
Ellis's three snowflakes - one for each of his teachers and one for the director of their school.
Snowflake #1
Snowflake #2
Snowflake #3
Robert Franklin's snowflakes - one for each of his regular school day teachers and one for his teacher in the after school program...
Snowflake #4 (RF is REALLY into patterns right now, so he made sure that all three snowflakes he decorated had patterns).
Snowflake #5 (another pattern)
Snowflake #6 (his favorite one with another cool pattern)
Today was Robert Franklin's holiday party and since RA and I were at work, Nana and Babu came up to support RF as he sang his holiday songs and enjoyed his holiday party. They had so much fun and when I got home from work he showed me the videos and all of his arts and crafts.
Playing a little 'Pin the Nose on Rudolph'...
Making candy canes...Ellis snuck out of his classroom and came to enjoy the fun in the Pre-K classroom with RF...
Coloring a holiday picture with Nana. These two boys LOVE their Nana and we are so thankful that she and Mr. Joe came today to support the boys.
Christmas Break started today and we are ready for two weeks of FUN at home as a family during this holiday season! Merry Christmas to you and yours!
