Christmas Countdown 2023
To maximize and spread out our fun in December, I made a Christmas countdown for Jac and I to do from the 1st to 25th. It took some work to get it all set up and ready. I decorated a simple cardboard advent box from Hobby Lobby (got really into it, to be honest) and filled it with little papers saying what we will do each day.
Then
I gathered all the materials we would need, put them in numbered
Christmas gift bags, and put them on the table behind the Countdown
box. (In
future years, this is where our *third* Christmas tree will go, with
presents below it. This year it’s tucked too far back in the shed to
bother digging it out and putting it up.)
December 1st: Decorate the Christmas Trees
I decorated for Christmas a week ago, but I held off on putting the ornaments on the tree, knowing that was our December 1st activity.
Unfortunately though… it didn’t even happen, at least not on the 1st. I fell asleep on the couch while Jac was outside trying to coax a stalled beef brisket to finish smoking. So our first day of the countdown was kind of a bust. BUT, we did decorate the trees the next day–close enough–and both trees turned out super cute.
Here they are, our two mini trees, to go with our mini house. 😊
December 2nd: Donate to a Good Cause
On Saturday, December 2nd, we bought items to donate to The Road Home, a homeless shelter that serves men, women and children in Salt Lake County. We bought items off their Amazon wish list and had it sent directly to them. Easy peasy.
December 3rd: Listen to Christmas Music
Jac worked hard on the shed all day on Sunday, December 3rd, so we did a super chill countdown activity for the evening…Christmas music! We dimmed the lights, relaxed with some mindless computer games, and listened to a little Christmas music.
December 4th: Make Gingerbread Houses
On Monday, December 4th, we made this adorable gingerbread village. We watched a movie while doing it, and got so into it that we only got two done and had to finish the rest the next day!
December 5th: Watch a Christmas Movie
On Tuesday, December 5th, we finished our remaining gingerbread houses while watching Jac’s favorite Christmas movie—The Family Stone. It’s a good movie, and the little village turned out so cute!
December 6th: Buy Van’s Christmas Present
On Wednesday, Jac talked to Michael and found out what we should give Van for Christmas — motorcycle gear! (We looked for it online but couldn’t find the right thing, so we’re hoping maybe Michael can help.)
December 7th: Start a Memories Tree Tradition
On Thursday, December 7th, I told Jac about a new tradition I want to start. Each year I will make an ornament with a picture of us on one of the year’s adventures. And I bought a cute little mini tree that we will hang them on. It’ll be our Memories tree.😊
For this first year of the tradition, I made three ornaments for our first three years together. Here they are. For now, they are just on the regular tree, but next year…the special, dedicated “Memories Tree” tradition will happen!
December 8th: Make a Christmas Cocktail
Since Friday’s our “drinkin’ night,” for our countdown activity Jac made a Christmas cocktail — Hot Buttered Rum with Tin Roof Ice Cream. (Look, Santa wants a sip.😁 )
December 9th: Make Christmas presents for family and friends
On Saturday evening, we gathered all the yummy treats we’d bought, set up our factory production line, and set to work making treat boxes for our family and friends. And it was actually pretty fun!
We made 16 big bins and three little tins. And it didn’t take long. We were done two-thirds of the way through Die Hard, and were able to just relax and watch the ending.
Look how pretty it ended up. And it was substantial! That thing was heavy!!!
We made a cute little cover, with an area for us to write a little note to the recipient.
And on the inside there’s a grid that tells exactly what each yummy treat is!
December 10th: Make some Christmas ribs 🙂
On Sunday, December 10th, Jac made his delicious Chinese Northern Ribs for me to take the work for our Christmas buffet. It’s gonna blow some socks off!
December 11th: Wear new Christmas pajamas
On Monday, December 11th, we got some new Christmas pjs. Look how cute our legs look now, lol. 🙂
December 12th: Make some Christmas string art
On Tuesday, December 12th, we flashed back to the 1970s and made two pine tree ‘string art’ pieces. Jac’s pine tree is decorated for Christmas, so we’ll display that one each December. Mine isn’t, it’s just a regular pine tree, so we’ll display that each January (with our winter theme).
It was actually pretty fun but also time consuming. In fact, we had to finish them a different day. Jac still needs to finish his, but here’s how mine turned out:
December 13th: Do some Christmas dreaming
On Wednesday, December 13th, we brainstormed about fun ways to spend our future Christmases, and here’s what we decided we’d like to do sometime in the next decade or so…
- visit NYC during the Christmas season
- travel around New England during the Christmas season to see Hallmark movie type towns
- have all of Jac’s kids over for Christmas at least one year (maybe even rent a huge cabin in the mountains to entice them to come)
- adopt an entire family for Christmas one year through IRC
- spend Christmas in a snowy cabin setting
On Thursday, December 14th, we drove to Salt Lake to check out the Christmas lights at Tracy Aviary. It was pretty. Not amazing, but pretty. Here are a few shots:
Before seeing the lights, we stopped for dinner at a hole-in-the-wall place that specializes in papusas. Jac saw the sign, said “Papusas are good. Let’s go there.” And that’s how we stumbled across La Oaxaqueno, a cute and cheap little place that we’ll need to visit again! Here’s Jac with the papusas. (Cute decor, eh?)
In all, it was a fun night! Perhaps we need to get out more during the week, not just on weekends. 🙂
December 15th: Have some eggnog
Friday night is our ‘drinkin night’ so we had a drinkin’ activity for the countdown. We had eggnog, the ‘loaded’ kind. And, of course, I didn’t like it. I liked the sweet part but not the alcohol part. I could taste the rum, and I never like it when I can taste the alcohol in drinks. Jac, on the other hand, liked the rum part but the eggnog part not so much. Oh well, now I know what real eggnog tasted like.
December 16th: Christmas in Australia
The country dates are back!!! On Saturday, December 16th, we traveled to Australia and celebrated Christmas the way the Aussies do! And, we’re going to do something like this every December, turning our country dates into Christmas Around the World dates (ie: Christmas in Germany, Christmas in Brazil…) Such fun!
I picked Australia because I love the idea of a beachy Christmas! December is the middle of summer in Australia, so Aussies celebrate the holiday at the beach, a local park, or camping. We went for beachy:
We dressed the part too. Check us out in our ‘bathing suits.’ Look at this buff “bloke”:
To see lots of pictures and read about our time in Australia, click here.
December 17th: Play Coupon Doubles
On Sunday, December 17th, we played a game I invented for just this occasion. 🙂 It’s called “coupon doubles.” Before playing, I made a bunch of standard coupons (ie: breakfast in bed, wash my car, nice letter, etc) plus some odd non-standard ones (ie: put on a magic show for me.) At the top was BOTH of our names, with a box to check off who the coupon would be given to (meaning who would have to do that thing.)
Then, we both rolled two dice over and over — at the same time — until someone got doubles and said “stop.” Then that person got to pick a coupon and check the other person’s name at the top. Then the game commenced until all coupons were gone.
In the end, Jac ended up with 8 coupons (that I have to do for him) and I only got 4 (that he has to do for me)! And I’m the one who has to do a magic show, damn it. 🙂 The coupons can be redeemed anytime in 2024, so….it’ll go on here when it happens. I think it’s gonna make for some fun times!! [We have since put the coupons up on the wall in the office so we remember to redeem them throughout the coming year!]
December 18th: Play Hallmark Movie Bingo
On Monday, December 18th, we watched a cliche Hallmark Christmas movie called “Christmas Town” AND during it we played Hallmark Christmas Movie Bingo. Actually, we played it with a twist….we had three boards side by side and two different colored game markers. Anytime we saw something on ANY of the boards, we covered it with our color marker. The winner was the one who covered the most squares.
Jac won. He had 28 squares covered. I had 24. Oooh, so close! (Despite what his face looks like in this picture, he got really into it!) And actually, it was a pretty cute movie, cliches and all.
December 19th: Make a snowglobe of our home
On Tuesday, December 19th, we made this adorable little snowglobe of our little house. It’s not perfect, but it’s still cute. 🙂
December 20th: Tell some Christmas jokes
On Wednesday 20th, I shared some silly Christmas jokes with Jac. It was a quick one and not all that memorable. They can’t all be winners, lol.
December 21st: See Ogden’s “Christmas Houses”
On Thursday, December 21st, we visited a park in Ogden to see dozens of little ‘cottages’ decorated in different Christmas themes.
The scenes in some of the cottages were super adorable, like this one…
The plan for Friday, December 22nd, was to watch the movie Elf. However, we didn’t do it. We forgot to check the countdown box until AFTER we had just watched a different movie, Ready Player One. And at that point, we weren’t in the mood for yet another movie. So, we passed on this one.
Whoops, another day skipped. The plan for Saturday, December 23rd, was to play some board games by the “fireplace” (on the tv), but we were both very busy all day Saturday, and just were too tired. Oh well, we’ll surely play games many more times in our lives.
December 24th: Celebrate Christmas Eve with my family
We spent the day on Sunday, December 24th, prepping for my family’s Christmas Eve get-together. I planned party games and Jac cooked the food:
And then at night, we headed over to Cindy’s to celebrate with my family. We had Jac’s delicious appetizers
and then we played the “gift card game”, a new game I just invented. It was so fun! We loved it so much we plan to make it a Christmas party tradition. 🙂
After the game, we had Jac’s amazing dinner. It was all super delicious, but everyone was particularly blown away by the vegetables. (So much so that we now have a plan for a future vegetable cooking class so that they can learn some of his tricks. I’m excited for that one!)
Once done with the meal, it was time for game #2 — the ‘gambling game’ that we play each year. As usual, it was a blast! This year’s winner was mom. But, she’s so kind that she decided to give all the money to Ben ($120!)
Next, it was time for food again! For dessert, we had a brownie bar, with ice cream, hot fudge, caramel, whipped cream, and other toppings. Super yummy, super filling!
And the last activity was to play “No L” (a play on Noel). It’s a new game I found on the internet, and it was SO FUN!
In all, the night was a blast! And WE did it — Jac and I put on a really, really, really great party. (It wasn’t at our house because our house is too small, but we did all the planning and work.) Jac and Betsy, party planners extraordinaire!
December 25th: Open Presents
On Christmas Day, our activity was, of course, to open presents. Here’s what we gave each other:
And that’s the countdown. It really did end up being a lot of fun. However, we won’t be doing this every year. Well, except for the Christmas-Around-the-World one. I’m excited to make that a yearly event.