The Inglehart Family: Fun in December!

December is here and boy are we having fun this time of year! We have been super busy little bees. So far, we have put up our Christmas decorations. I do this every year on the day after Thanksgiving. I play holiday music, drink cocoa, and get into the spirit of Christmas. I love that Hudson gets to join in on the fun now. He even climbed WAY up into the attic to help daddy get all of the holiday boxes down for me. He was a little scared initially being up so high. That's why you can barely see him peaking over the edge here.

He was a great helper with decorating the tree...

And, himself!

He even got to do the BIGGEST and most important job of all----> putting the star on the top! What a show stopper!

He took this job very seriously :-)

We've made Christmas sugar cookies. This was so cute to see him work so hard at making them just right.

Parker likes our Christmas tree and he is trying very hard to get himself up high enough to give it a good tug.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Elf on the Shelf craze, but we love this little game of Elmer the elf sneaking in our house early in the morning and doing silly things for Hudson to find each day. He watches over the kids each day to help remind them of being nice. One of our latest Elmer adventures was Elmer the Pirate. John built this elaborate pirate ship out of Duplo blocks and he even made the sail, the eye patch, the sword AND a treasure map.

Hudson is really into pirates right now and I cannot tell you how much he LOVED this treasure hunt. He found where the X marked the spot in his rocket ship and inside the treasure chest was real gold coins!

Ok, ok, so they were chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil, but I think he liked that even better.

Parker helped a little ;-)

I'm not sure when this tradition started, but I can remember back in high school, and possibly even middle school of adopting a less fortunate kid or a family for Christmas. You buy them gifts or things they need and even a Christmas dinner to help spread joy during the holidays. It is also a good way to help remind ourselves how blessed we are to have what we have. I think so many times we get caught up in the whole "what the Jones' have" world that it is easy to overlook all the blessings we have right in front of our noses. It feels so good to know that we are making someone's day brighter, even if it's just knowing that someone out there cares enough to think of them. My mom is so generous and compassionate towards those who are in need. It's truly inspiring and it is such a wonderful tradition to continue over the years. We make it even more fun by making a challenge of not going over a set amount and trying to get closest to the number. We had a blast this year at Target watching the cashier ring up each persons stuff and cheering along as the beeps kept on going. I think people probably thought we were crazy, but it was sooooo much fun!

I love holiday baking and usually my mom and I and sometimes CJ will spend at least a day baking for our church bake sale in Ottawa. This year my mom's promotion at her work kept us from being able to do this, and I missed this day of baking terribly. I sort of made up for it by baking with Hudson and buy getting this ginger bread house kit. It was relaxing and great to be with 3 of my favorite people making a beautiful holiday treat. Hudson cannot keep his hands off of it. I think it is already missing a few candies and we've had it for less than a day!