Christmas is coming (OMG)

Last year's Costco wreath

Do you remember my Christmas Bucket List from a few weeks ago? Christmas is fast approaching & I've still got quite a few things to check off... Like three quarters of the list. It's been a crazy week, but most of the craziness is over with, so I think we can get down to some more of this stuff. Though some of them--#1 in particular--might just have to wait until next year. :

1. Making a felt board advent calendar for Sprout. I've bought the felt & have a design in mind, just need to get started...
2. Riding the Bright Nights Christmas Train at Stanley Park. This year we will book tickets & go early to avoid the disappointment we had last year.
3. Using my Inspiration Pass! Sadly, due to people ahead of me on the list reserving it from multiple libraries, my pass came two weeks earlier than expected, so we won't be able to go to the Vancouver Opera's Pirates of Penzance for free. :( Looking forward to seeing the Beaty Biodiversity Museum for the first time, however.
4. Visiting Yaletown's new Christmas festival: Candy Town. I just completely forgot about it on the day of & we missed it!
5. A photo with Santa, possibly at Kingsgate Mall again. No lineup, & they're very relaxed about taking photos with your own camera.
6. Getting & decorating our Christmas tree. I think this is going to happen tonight! Stay tuned for photos...
7. Making a fresh evergreen wreath for the front door. I've already scoped out all the cedar, holly & juniper hedges in our area that need a tiny bit of pruning...
8. Seeing the Trinity Street Light Festival. I'm waiting for a dry evening to bike over there so we can see all the houses, lawns & trees covered in lights.
9. Making some Xmas cards--I'm planning to do a few 'real' ones for about a dozen people, then sending a digital version to the rest. This is not going to be easy, given that I just broke my netbook screen, so will be sharing a computer with Oliver until I get a replacement screen. :P
10. Making gifts for my nieces & nephew (I'm going to make them pyjama eaters)
11. Baking some cookies & decorating them with Sprout. A great excuse to pull out our rarely used cookie cutters & try out some family recipes for the first time.
12. Watching some classing Christmas movies: Rudolph, White Christmas, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, etc.
13. Visiting the VanDusen Festival of Lights. I'm a bit worried now that it's relatively close to Christmas. Will it be insanely busy? Anyone?
14. Going tobogganing if it snows. I wish this weren't an IF, but a when. I miss the white Christmases of my childhood in the East Kootenays. We could try going up the ski hills on the North Shore, but Sprout wasn't really into it last year & I think he may still be a bit small for the big tubing runs that they have on Seymour & Cypress.
15. Visiting the Peak of Christmas (Grouse Mountain) if we can get a deal on it somehow--it is kind of expensive for a whole family.
16. Making hand-printed wrapping paper with Sprout. I've saved up some white newsprint from parcels we've received & I'm going to get Sprout to stamp or fingerpaint it for his cousins, since ripping into paper gifts is so much more satisfying than unzipping a flannel bag. :)
17. Wrapping the rest of the Christmas gifts with my gift bags/wraps.
18. Reading some new Christmas-themed books with Sprout to get him excited about the holiday.
19. Putting together a gingerbread house. Notice I didn't say making, as I prefer to just buy a kit. It's really the prefab construction that appeals to me, rather than starting from flour... I've bought one, so we just need to set aside a couple hours & dive in!
20. Listening to Christmas songs & teaching Sprout to sing some.
21. Going to a Christmas musical: we've got tickets to The Magic of Santa We're looking forward to this one on Friday. Are you going? It's a great show for little kids!
22. Planning & cooking our family Christmas dinner--we're having my parents over this year. It's been about a decade since we had the family dinner, though this one won't be a big affair. Quite possibly just the five of us.
23. Seeing the rest of my extended family at least once: sisters & brothers-in-law, aunt & uncle, cousins & cousins-in-law, nieces, nephew & baby Malik... I think he's my first cousin once removed? Hopefully we'll see most of them on Boxing Day at my sister's annual get-together.

Have you got a list of fun things you want to do this holiday season? How do you fit it all in? Let me know in the comments below!
 


Nothing says “best gift ever” like a caribou!
 

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