The holidays are by far my favorite time of year and this year I feel the need to make these days even more special for my family. Twenty-Twenty has been a year like no other, but you all know that already. I want them to remember being home (non-stop) as a time where life slowed down a bit and family became even more important. Some days feel like an eternity, but the months keep flying by. I know they are only this little for a moment in time, so I try to soak them in.
While my oldest is virtually learning upstairs, again 2020, I need to do my best to keep my littlest two occupied and semi-quiet: enter the "Christmas Smell Challenge." My girls pretty much live for challenges. They made my husband do the "drive-thru challenge" a few weeks ago. He had to order from a drive-thru restaurant "whatever the car before him ordered." They came home with several burgers that no one wanted to eat, but their laughter filled the the house.
This challenge was less hilarious, but fun and festive. I gathered all the items from my pantry and around the house that embody Christmas or the holiday season for me. You can play around with what the holidays mean to you. I, naturally, had to make most things edible, because as you can see further down the eating of the items took precedent over the smells by the end.
I found little paper cups that the kids use for rinsing their mouths and scoured the pantry. These are the items I had on hand: {Clockwise from top} Hershey kiss sugar cookie edition, marshmallows, cinnamon, wax from a pine candle, syrup, chocolate chips, clementines, pumpkin spice wax, candy canes, and a cotton ball soaked in vanilla extract. One tip, peel the orange last; otherwise, every cup will smell like orange and throw the whole challenge off.
Ribbon that I had lying around from decorating and gift wrapping made the perfect merry blindfold. As you can see, they took this game very seriously and I could not believe how accurate they were! My littlest two rocked them all, except for the syrup, which no one could get except for my oldest who did it later. I think as it warmed up the scent became more powerful. She guessed it immediately.
In the end, they decided to taste test all the items, (yes, the syrup was sipped too) so we had to refill for big sister when she was done with school. This was a super easy, entertaining, festive challenge that the whole family enjoyed, even my husband got in on the fun. Just another memory to be made this holiday season when being home is the place to be.