I absolutely love Christmas! It's so much fun to think about what gifts people will like, I love listening to favorite Christmas carols and reading books that only come out for a short time each year. When Steve and I were growing up, Mom would work really hard (I realize now; at the time it seemed effortless and magical) to make sure that the month of December was full of fun, excitement and magic. One of the daily activities we looked forward to the most was to see what activity was awaiting us in that day's pocket on the advent calendar that my mom made. Last year mom gave it to us to use with our kids, which really means a lot to me! Last year I wasn't thinking far enough ahead, so we just did Hershey's kisses in each pocket, which Nathan certainly did not complain about!
This year I made a point to create activity cards, trying to make them pretty timeless so I will hopefully be able to get a couple years' use out of them, with just a little refresh/tweaking. I created more than 25 activities, because I got a little carried away, and also because sometimes there just isn't snow on the ground when it's the "make a snowman" day!
Here's my list (in no particular order):
- paint a Christmas tree picture
- make a Santa hat and beard
- bake Christmas cookies get a Christmas tree
- decorate Christmas tree
- Christmas carol dance party
- special treat after dinner
- pick out a Toys for Tots toy and donate it
- decorate Christmas cards for Grandparents
- Go to the movies!
- make a Christmas ornament
- breakfast for dinner!
- drive around looking at Christmas lights
- visit/write a letter to Santa
- Color a Christmas picture
- Blanket fort
- Nathan's birthday celebration
- make construction paper garland
- build a snowman
- go for a winter hike in the woods
- wrap Christmas presents
- special treat after dinner
- Uncle Jordan's birthday celebration
- put out cookies & milk for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph
- drink hot chocolate
- go sledding
- watch a Christmas movie
- read the Christmas story
- make and hang up paper snowflakes
- make play dough
We took our annual trip out to Wamhoff Farms to pick out a Christmas tree. The last few years it has been extremely cold, windy and snowy, so it was a little odd this year that it was 40 degrees. It's been such a warm fall/early winter. We picked out a beautiful Fraser Fir.
Nathan ran around like a madman, checking out all the options.
Daddy and Natalie kept a more leisurely pace.
Debating the options.
Sweet baby girl peeking at the world.
Back at home, Nathan checked out the Christmas books that came out of storage for the season.
Natalie supervising the tree trimming.
Putting the star on the top of the tree (see Elvis, our Elf on the Shelf?).
Nathan really loved hanging ornaments this year, and was really pretty good at it.
Finished!
Thanks to an outing with Hillary to get the remaining fabric pieces and letters, I was able to finish Natalie's stocking for her first Christmas.
I finally added names to Nathan's, Todd's and mine as well.
Display on top of the bookshelf
1 comment:
I am super impressed with your advent activities. I need some of your holiday cheer to rub off on me. I used to love Christmas, but I feel like every year I like it less and less.
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