Thursday, December 11, 2008

Christmas Surprises

I have mentioned to some of you that I am doing a surprise every day this month with my kids. They have been just simple things to add a little fun and anticipation to our day and hopefully create some memories. Even Torsten is loving it, which makes my mother heart happy.

Most of the surprises I've done so far have involved some kind of riddle or "hunt". We always hide our stockings and Easter baskets too because the kids love the thrill of the hunt almost more than the catch.

Here is one of the riddles I made for them to find Christmas socks. (I knew Torsten wouldn't want Christmas socks so I got him some badly needed dress socks.)After decoding and unscrambling words, they ran to the Christmas tree where they found a baggie with the "se wi ng de sk" cards to be arranged in the proper order. Then in my sewing desk drawer, they found the socks.

We had a similar hunt involving yellow sticky notes with arrows and dialogue written from the perspective of a nutcracker on them. After following the sticky notes trail out to the deck, Taylor was the first to spot a new nutcracker to add to our collection, hiding on the hill next to our house.

Another day I had the kids leave the living room then come back a few minutes later. They had to study our Christmas tree very carefully and look for anything new or out of place. (They love those I Spy books so this was right in their element.) Nestled in the branches were 3 new red bird ornaments. The kids were so excited- isn't it fun when kids appreciate small things like that? Well, I told them to look again and this time their sharp eyes spotted the addition of 5 lifesaver candy canes to the tree. (The candy canes that were all ready on the tree were sour patch brand candy canes that look very similar.) I told them those 5 canes were for them to have as a treat. Yes, we eat a lot of candy canes this time of year. :-}

I have to admit I didn't do a surprise on Tuesday because I had a terrible headache/migraine that refused to go away, but I think the kids excused me for that. We have some fun outings planned as surprises too, but I won't reveal them yet because I know Hailey is a regular reader of my blog. Hi Hailey!

6 comments:

Paige said...

Sariah~ Love It! Your so creative and it sounds like the kids are having a great time too. I enjoy logging on and reading your posts. It's inspiring me to post more often. I was thinking about an earlier post of yours, talking about reading Christmas favorites to the kids....I recently read " PEEF" the Christmas bear to my kids again. It's one of our favorites each year. It was given to us as a gift and comes with the actual "PEEF" bear. I recommend it to all looking for a great Christmas book to ahre with their family.

K. Lou said...

You are such a good mom! How creative and fun! My kids will want to come live at your house if they read this post. I need some inspiration to get into the Christmas mood--and your post is helping! Thanks!

Mandy said...

That is a great idea! I need more good ideas for my kids. I wonder if I could somehow incorporate it into school, having to read the clues or something. . .Spencer is not wanting to read these days. Apparently he knows everything about reading, and doesn't need any more practice. or not.

sariah said...

That sounds like a fun reading idea- turning it into a scavenger hunt with clues! And maybe if you don't ask him to read anything except for things he thinks are important (maybe something to do with Thomas, or a letter FROM Santa to Spencer, or recipe directions while you cook together, etc. and try to not let him know you are having him read those things because he is PRACTISING), then maybe by January or February he will be in a more cooperative mood. He is really so young that I would think you wouldn't need to have him DO school except for reading to him and doing afternoon projects sometimes, and helping him find out that exploring the world is fun. We probably won't see you guys before Christmas because we are visiting Joel's parents- but hopefully we can see you soon after!

MisoMama said...

You are such a fun mom! The kids will definitely remember Christmas.
We did a scavenger hunt one and it was so much fun but took lots of time to put together. Maybe I could do a shorter one or incorporate "Do the dishes for the next clue." Do you think my kids would like that?

sariah said...

Okay MisoMama, how did you get so smart? I will be doing that dishes idea the next time I make something up! "All right kids, after you clean the basement you will receive your next clue....."