Riot and Frolic

a mostly ballroom dance, but also a bunch of other stuff, blog

recent posts

about

I own and rock people’s faces off teaching ballroom dancing at Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN. My husband and I compete professionally in American style and wrangle eight children in our spare time. I’ve been teaching and competing in ballroom dancing for over 25 years and have lots of opinions on it. I am an expert by any means, but there are quite a few dancers who are better than me and I have a solid knowledge of basic technique, so suck it.

Holiday Cheer : Day 1 – 4

Same bat time, same bat channel?

NO!

By God, it's Christmas time (see what I did there?) and sorry to get all Christian on your asses, but I'm going to share my Advent adventures with you.

Christmas_Bokeh_by_SublimeBudd

 

In 2012, with the ladies being able to sort of kind of sometimes understand what Christmas is about, we found this advent calendar, but I wanted to do something MORE.  More meaningful, more memorable, more work, more complicated, more fun.  Right around December 27th of last year, I saw this and bought this and …

Homer-doh

On the bright side, I was ahead of the game for this year.  Here's what I came up…

Advent Adventures

Activity/treat bag for each day (minus days 1 and 2) : 

IMG_7895

Day 1: Hindered by our cross-country drive home from an East Coast wedding, I thought small.  Unleash the Christmas carols!

Day 2: Driving, still, I had planned ahead and used some of our precious cargo space to pack our collection of Christmas books.  Adorable holiday themed book-a-thon commence!

Unknown

512GxHp6TbL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_

9780060278670

Mooseltoe

Day 3 : Our first day back at home in two weeks, we celebrated with holiday gel clings, or window cookies, as Mae Cake calls them.  

MaDLAvr2QTw9fu9MqWORzCw

Day 4 : A coincidental precipation and V and Mae Cake being sick made "snow dough" a fortunate indoor, low-key plan.  That addicting, tactile-sensation combination of cornstarch and shaving cream was good for at least an hour of play.

I was immediately wary of its huge mess factor since the cornstarch basically exploded when I opened the package.  The combo starts out as a sticky, overwhelming glop, but after kneading the ingredients together for a minute or so, it becomes a manageable, weird sandy, foamish, dough-like something.  

snow dough

sick children agree : it's weirdly fun

 

snow dough

zoo was awful dainty about it at first, but dug in with gusto after a few minutes

 

snow dough

V built "sea castles"

 

snow dough

as you can see by the terrible white balance, the lights are now on and they're still playing strong

Note : Zoo is in a stage where she can dress herself entirely, but puts every item of clothing on backwards.  I cannot help but sing "Kris Kross'll make ya… daddy mac'll make ya…" every time I see her.

What do you do for the holidays?  How do you spell the Jewish holiday that's going on right now?  Are you cooking, baking, hosting, and shopping like mad or eschewing the hustle and bustle and hiding in a corner?

220px-James_Caan_-_tribune

One year ago: Garbage Challenge – Winning, in which I make a lot of bad jokes.

Posted in

4 responses to “Holiday Cheer : Day 1 – 4”

  1. CharlieAsh Avatar
    CharlieAsh

    I am making presents because I am irritated by Christmas shopping (not because I have a HUGE stash of stuff…)
    I am also taking note of the many Advent and Elf things to do should I ever decide to create a tiny human. Parenting at the holidays seems daunting.

    Like

    Reply
  2. warren Avatar
    warren

    We ordered 100% of our presents online so as to avoid human interaction. It sort of helps maintain my remaining faith in humanity. We haven’t set up a tree yet but I think that is happening this weekend. I don’t know, the kids are at an age now where they don’t want anything really…some books, some video games, etc. It’s pretty easy honestly so we get to really enjoy it in a simple way. If only Christmas didn’t mean cold and snow…it might be perfect!

    Like

    Reply
  3. Riot and Frolic Avatar
    Riot and Frolic

    As I get older, I think the “making” route is so much cooler. I don’t REALLY want anything (except a few coffee making accessories) that are realistic as gifts (I mean, I want a new ballroom dress, but it’s probably out of everyone’s gifting budget). I got tea towels last year and I was soooo excited about them. It also helps me avoid the horrid malls and stores where people seem to be losing their sense of giving AND the holidays (Black Friday leaking into Thanksgiving? how much irony can we handle?).
    I agree. Looking at Pinterest and some other blogs, I’m like “WTH?!” Where do these people find the time? On the plus side, some things only take A LITTLE bit of extra effort and holy smokes, do the kids enjoy it. Bringing out the Christmas books? 2 HOURS OF ENJOYMENT. That’s like 5 days in my book.

    Like

    Reply
  4. Riot and Frolic Avatar
    Riot and Frolic

    I LOVE SHOPPING ONLINE. Mostly because I end up thinking of the MOST random gifts to get people and can’t find them in stores. Plus, missing the driving and traffic and angry people and all that? WINNING!
    I must say, knowing your kids don’t want anything is a testament to your good parenting. At your kids ages, I would actually think they would want a TON of stuff. Teenagers = peer pressure = want stuff. I don’t know. I love a simple Christmas and we’re trying not to spend a ton of money. We’re going to get the girls a session of gymnastics for their “big gift” and a couple little things for stockings. So they’re not focused on STUFF, but on the fun and celebrating.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to warren Cancel reply