Christmas in July...I Mean, August

What is it about time and how quickly it fleets from us? Our traditional “Christmas in July” was postponed one month later, to August. It’s a “good thing” that we set the “rules” and calendar for this mock holiday and don’t have pressure from stores, church, gift exchanges, holiday parties, and other outside commitments!

Today, the kids woke to Christmas music filling the air, our small tree up, and the smell of peppermint cocoa. You should have seen their mile-wide smiles. Merry Christmas! We began our day with a small devotional over breakfast of Christmas tree Belgium waffles then pulled names for our gift exchange.
After praising Him at church, with a name in one hand and $1.08 clung in the other, we each walked the isles of the local dollar store in search for the “perfect” gift for our loved one. It’s quite comical the things we can come find at that store. Upon arriving home, we had individual wrapping parties then proudly placed the gifts under the tree for the evening’s gift exchange.
(This silly eye glass/straw gift was to Jon from Baylee) (Baylee loves Root beer so I found Root beer Popsicle treats for her gift.) (Jon actually found a "keeper" for my gift. He gave me a poem on prayer!) (Nathan and Owen picked each others names! Nathan gave Owen a pirate set which he was ecstatic about and Owen gave Nathan a foam hammer.)
We took advantage of the hot outdoor temperatures and decided that it would be a great family fun adventure if we headed to Mesquite Groves pool in Chandler where high dives, twisty slides, a lazy river, water vortex, competitive lanes, an in-water play yard, and much more awaited us. I had looked forward to finding an excuse to explore this new pool.

Later, we had a traditional Christmas dinner, baked sugar cookies and decorated them, dipped strawberries, sang Christmas carols, watched Elf, and exchanged our gifts.

Fun times were throughout the day and night. We look forward to four months passing from now when we’ll be bundled up in much cooler temperatures, celebrating our Savior’s birth, once again.

Christmas in July...We Had a Sizzlin' Time

Stores do it this time of year, so why not the Kempiaks? But to give credit where credit is due…it was our dear close friends the Kellers where the inspiration for this family fun day/night activity was birthed!

On Monday, as many of you know, we celebrated Christmas in July! We discussed it in a family meeting a few weeks ago and the kids couldn’t help contain themselves! They were full of great ideas that we put into the “plan”, however Jon and I kept the actual “date” a secret. We even swapped names for a gift exchange, where as a family we headed to the local dollar store, Dollar Tree, with $1.08 in hand per person, picking out those “can’t resist” gifts, days ahead. Owen bought Baylee a patriotic ceramic duck. Jon bought Nathan a Spiderman inner tube for the pool. Baylee bought Owen Batman socks, Nathan bought me a frame and put a photo of him and me in it, and I bought Jon a box of Little Debbie Snack cakes.


We all woke to Christmas music playing, early Monday morning and quickly began to decorate the small tree we brought in from storage with homemade paper ornaments from the day. We made and decorated Christmas cookies while sucking on left over candy canes, cooked a traditional turkey dinner feast, and exchanged gifts, unveiling our “Secret Santa’s”.






From year's back, I purchased a Reindeer piñata that’s been perched on a high shelf in the garage, so we thought this was the time to use it. We filled it with school supplies (markers, Chapstick, pencils, erasers, etc.). The kids LOVED it!


The plans were to sing Christmas songs by the outdoor campfire, but an electric and dust storm swept through, so we had to set that plan aside and watched a Christmas dvd instead. While eating our cookies we had “not-so-hot cocoa”, had a wonderful discussion, and then decided to end our Sizzlin’ Christmas night with a (late) big splash, in the pool. I’m sure the neighbors (and even you who logged onto our blog) hearing Christmas music, thought for sure this was the last straw and that the Kempiak Party of Five had totally lost it! Lost it…NO, we gained a lot…tons of smiles, laughs, and memories (and possibly a few calories). We now have a new family tradition, Christmas in July!

Merry Christmas (in July) From Our Family to Your's

We're unable to blog today...we're off celebrating Christmas in July, the Kempiak Party of Five style. More details will apprear later, Tuesday. Merry Christmas!