The 12 Days of I'm running out of ideas already

I am making an effort to do a 12 Days of Christmas type thing with my kids where we do something kind of special or Christmasy for the 12 days leading up to Christmas.  Friday we went to the drive-in to see Frozen, because, well, it was finally cold enough to go!  My parents came along and we enjoyed the movie sitting in camp chairs in front of the car. Which made us able to hear the 17 passing trains extra good.  But once the trains stopped and the obnoxious man in the muscle car actually turned off his 120 decibel-rumbling engine, the movie was great! Bonus- Grandpa even bought us all hot chocolate from the concession stand.  And I ate half a family-sized bag of pretzel M&Ms. Without my family. I am so ashamed.  And I am also ashamed because I didn't take a picture.  Do'h!  

(imagine my family at the drive-in here)

Saturday I decided we could make cookies and do gingerbread houses.  I normally never really bake a lot of goodies anymore. Mostly because I will eat ALL of said goodies.  I have zero self control.  But I decided to give it a whirl, mostly because I found this recipe on Pinterest for Turtle Cookies.  It comes from the Bed, Bath and Beyond Blog.  Because that makes sense.  Here is how mine came out:

I just took a picture of my food.  The world is ending.

They were very delicious, but I already know what I will do next year to make them even more amazing. Yes, they will not be made until next year because I ate like 13 of these things already....

In a continuing effort to use up all the misfit Halloween candy that has been in my freezer since 2009, we made some gingerbread houses. Luke and Cindy loved every second of it and once that special frosting dried, it was hard enough to repair the actual walls in my house.  I even re-caulked my tub with it.  

Luke is such a funny kid because the whole time he was making his house he kept telling me the reason why he was designing it like he was.  And most every time it was because "that is the way Brian and Kelly did it last year."  Seriously, this kid has attention to detail that astounds me sometimes.  

He even made a Starburst/gobstopper Santa, complete with eyes and mouth and the big gumball is Santa's bag.  That is SO Luke ;)

Saturday night was also the Ward Christmas party, in which the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas was acted out.  My Dad was the Mayor of Whoville and my mom played, his wife, of all things.  They were great!  It was great to hear my dad talking in his "road show voice" again. I miss that.

And finally, Sunday night we all sat down together and actually watched the animated version of the Grinch.  Luke pays close attention, because today he told me, "You know what the creepiest part of the Grinch is? When he has spiders in his brain."  I am going to go with arsenic sauce on this one.