The Twelve Days of Christmas: Days 1 -4

In my house we celebrate the whole 12 days of Christmas plus Epiphany. It started sort of by accident when my son was small and I had bought way too many gifts. So I took all the arts and crafts supplies and parceled them out one day at a time.

Over the years I have done different themes: books, matchbox cars, candy. One year I bought a book to represent each month via a holiday or season. One year all 12 books had a winter or Christmas theme. (I bought most of them used at Bookman’s so it wasn’t terribly expensive.) For the candy I did one chocolate bar, two turtle candies, three peppermint patties etc. At the larger numbers I used things like 10 skittles and 11 m &ms.

One year I got really crazy and tried to follow the song. My favorites that year were fried chicken for dinner for “Three French Hens” and a pogo stick for “Ten Lords a Leaping”.

Another key piece is that the gifts are hidden and my son has to find them. Some days I think the hunt is more exciting than the gift.

This year I decided to focus more on activities and less on stuff. I am going for a balance of at home mellow days and out and about things to do days.

Day 1 – Christmas Day

Since this day is already pretty full I just went with the 12 Days of Moose Munch from Harry and David. I thought the little bags of popcorn would be good to take with us on some of our outings.

Day 2- Boxing Day

Yes, this is the day we pretend we are British and have Christmas Crackers and something British for dinner. This year it was Somerset Rabbit from Nigella Lawson’s book “Feast”. I found real imported UK cheese and mustard at the commissary. Yum! Yum! I will be making this again.

For dessert I went with box shaped cupcakes with a chocolate glaze. Both homemade and scrumptious.

*The Penguin is actually a Christmas Cracker. You can find them on-line and usually at World Market.*

Our activity for today was a sleepover by the Christmas tree. We pulled out the sofa bed and spent the evening reading next to the tree. It is fun because it is not something typically done and it feels special.

Day 3

After lunch at Chick-Fil-A (you know, three French hens) we headed to the Reid Park Zoo. It was nice to get outside and it even seemed a bit wintry with a layer of clouds. Chilly enough for a sweater it was as close to winter as we seem to get these days in the desert southwest.

*Yes, I went with a picture of an anteater. I love how unusual they look and their coats are so pretty. Do the zoo keepers brush them every morning?*

Day 4

I opted for an at home day today. I gave my son what will probably be his favorite day: unlimited computer use. To go with that I gave him his first Bitsbox. I got him a one year subscription to help him learning coding. I know coding interests him but I don’t think he has found the best way for him to learn it yet. Hopefully this will help (and keep him off Minecraft for at least a little while!)