Christmas Countdown (3, 2, 1)...

We rounded out our Christmas Countdown with some of our favorite things...

Only 3 days until Christmas - School's Done - Kid's choice for tons of fun!

The kids had school alllll the way until the 22nd so we started off the weekend before Christmas was a few class parties! These classes know how to party - cookies, tacos, tamales, donuts, and all the sugary drinks you can imagine! But the sweetest things there that day were definitely the #Wee3Kings

And if we hadn't partied enough, Emmy headed over to a friend's house after school for a cookie decorating party and the rest of us headed across the street from THAT house to decorate some cookies of our own!

 The amount of sprinkles on that counter and floor far out numbered the amount that made it onto the cookies. 

Their kids choice item was a sushi picnic with one of their favorite movies. By the time I snapped this picture and returned to make myself a plate more than half of those rolls were gone. 

The night ended with just us girls in front of the fire while Radley went out for laser tag with a buddy from class. 

The perfect ending to a pretty near perfect day!

Only 2 days until Christmas - Pick your favorite movie, grab your Christmas jammies, let's sleep under the tree as a King family!

Favorite night of the season each and every year!

Only 1 day until Christmas - Let's bake some cookies for Santa!

Since Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, we had Ryan home allllllll day long as an added treat to the already awesome day!

And MaMaw even got to join in the fun!

After all that cookie baking we got down to the real business of making meatballs!

After a day full of cooking and baking, they were more than ready for the big guy to come for a visit! 

Stay tuned... 

Christmas Countdown (6, 5, 4)...

Only 6 more days until Christmas... Buddy up... it's GAME NIGHT!

Emersyn and Anna have art on Tuesday afternoons so we have been able to see the Munsons lots and lots during the week this fall. We all love it - especially the kiddos, so it was only fitting that we made them part of our Christmas countdown fun! We pregamed with some day-before-winter snowcones and I have to admit, I love that all 6 were in red. #notevenplanned

They picked out games, buddy-upped and it was GAME ON!

Caroline and Radley won 3 games

Emmy and Anna won 1 game

Landry and Millie won 1 game (and truth: I rigged it because they were so pitifully sad that they kept losing). 

The big winners got... NOTHING!

HA!

Merry Christmas from these Royal Hot Messes!

(The end of the night is always sad because we won't see them for a whole week!)

Only 5 days until Christmas - Let's grab some dinner and go shopping for someone special

(Don't tell Daddy!)

We had the most fun afternoon starting with play dates for the girls. Landry's first time to have a friend over to our house and she was in heaven. I wish you could bottle up the giggles of kindergarten girls - there is just something so sweet about it. Everything is funny or silly or awesome. They are so encouraging to each other "Oh that looks so pretty, Landry... I love the way you did that Ev-a-wyn (Eveyln)" .... just.the.BEST!

Emmy's friend, Hudsyn, got to come over too (and Radley headed straight to the neighbors). From Barbies to school to painting some canvases - they all packed a TON in their two hours. 

We had planned a fancy dinner out (HAHAHA - kidding, we went to McAlister's for $.99 kid meals) and they convinced three more families to come with us! So I don't have one picture of all the amazingly awesome things that they picked out for Ryan... but we had the best night out on that 5th day before Christmas! 

Only 4 days until Christmas - Now that we have all those presents, let's do some wrapping!

One of my most favorite things to do in the whole wide world is wrap gifts. I love it so much that every year I consider doing a little side gig and wrapping gifts for people and then I don't because who doesn't love to wrap gifts?!? 

It's actually pretty hard for me to "let go" and let them wrap but they did the majority of this allllll by themselves. I instructed them on where to cut so we wouldn't waste a bunch of paper, but they got those gifts all wrapped up and ready for Christmas morning!

Only three days to go.... 

Christmas Countdown (9, 8, 7)...

The countdown continues and so does the fun... 

Only 9 days until Christmas... the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for ALL to hear! 

We have done some iteration of this every single year. Some years, it means we stick in Elf and have a movie night. Last year we went to see Sing with the Munsons, but this year.... y'all. We sang... and it was so much fun... even in the cold, pouring rain. 

We got all bundled up.... sent a few texts to people to make sure they were home... practiced our caroling and headed out to spread some cheer. 

This may be my favorite thing we've done ever at Christmas time. 

We really were spreading cheer - regardless of how well anyone sang, or if they knew the words or if you could even hear the song over all the giggling... 

every single door that opened was greeted with genuine cheer... 

and in return we saw genuine gratitude... 

and lots of joy!

And if you can believe it - we already started scheming on what we would do NEXT year! 

Only 8 days until Christmas, it's a WONDERful day to see a movie!

Like lots and lots of families and schools - we bought into the wonder of Wonder. The story of a remarkable kid named Auggie that taught everyone around him the importance of being kind. We actually started reading it a lot later than I had planned but we finished the book in under three weeks... 

And celebrated with a Sunday morning matinee post church and Sunday school. This story deserves so much more than an item checked off on a Christmas countdown. The lessons taught in the pages of this book are relevant and important to everyone from 5 to (almost) 40 and beyond. We all laughed, we all cried and we all left a little more convinced that we can all offer kindness. 

Only 7 days until Christmas, Let's go see some lights!

Once again we headed out to "never before seen" neighborhoods for a stroll through some lights. Ryan treated us to some fun finds he has discovered delivering all that happiness to people this season. 

Landry fell asleep within 20 minutes of driving... 

And the real miracle is that she stayed asleep through all the singing, dancing and selfie-taking from the rest of us!

And just like that, we are a week away from Christmas... the countdown continues and the best is yet to come... 

Christmas Countdown (12, 11, 10)...

Our annual Christmas countdown is underway and the first three days were a hit!

Only TWELVE days until Christmas, the countdown has begun

Let's eat DESSERT first for dinner and a have a little fun!

New family tradition - backwards dinner. 

If you can believe it, not one single complaint about what we were having!

And the real miracle was that they were still hungry and ate a full dinner after - maybe we should do this more often!

Only 11 days until Christmas - Tis the season to thank our teachers! 

We set up our annual assembly line to spoil the best teachers in the world. 

This year, we went a little crazy and steered away from our usual popcorn and m&ms treat and went for a "real" gift instead. 

We're "SOAPIN'" they have a happy holiday!

Their main teachers got an extra treat and I literally can't stop laughing over this notepad. The ribbon cuts it off but after the "I will nots" it simply says "I am the teacher!" 

HAHAHA

Only 10 days until Christmas - Get ready for some fun - you're going to the Bailey's!!!

I don't have one single picture from this evening but I know it was a huge hit. Simply because they love the Bailey's and also because I had an amazingly quiet night allllll to myself. 

Favorite takeout.

Favorite wine.

Favorite movie.
Favorite spot on the couch. 

I even managed to wrap lots of gifts which is my ultimate favorite - right after friends that give me the gift of time during this season!! 

And here's a peek into our Christmas Countdown the last several years:

Christmas Countdown 2016

Christmas Countdown 2015

Christmas Countdown 2014

Christmas Countdown 2013

Christmas Countdown 2012