Trying Some New Things

There's an idea floating around the internet this year that I really loved and wanted to try. It's a different type of advent calendar. Each day you do some kind of activity with your kids to count down the days until Christmas. We are going to watch movies, decorate cookies, see Santa, let the kids sleep under the tree, drive around looking at lights, etc. etc. etc. We have some really fun things planned. (At least I think we do)

I decided to make these cards to give to them each morning with a clue to what we are doing that night. I was behind schedule though so they didn't get their clue until after school. They didn't seem very excited about it but they also don't really know what is going on. We thought it might be more fun to keep them in the dark. I hope as we get further into this they will get more an more excited and anxiously await their clues and activities.  

Tonight we were suppose to decorate for Christmas. We had some conflicts and only got to decorate our tree. That's okay, it's a good start. We will work on adding the rest over the next few days. 

I hope to have a good mix of fun and spirituality throughout this process. I was hoping that the kids would answer my question above with the nativity. Emma did. Andrew said the Kneeling Santa which was really good too. I just want them to think about Jesus throughout the season.

Andrew got emotional seeing some of his favorite ornaments and remember all the memories that go along with them. He can be so sweet. 

Emma was excited to see my cheese from Oregon. 

I had fun putting up the new ornaments that we collected over the last year. I love my Lobstah's that we got in Maine. They were so cute I "needed" two.

My Boston ornament.

My pink Hollywood star. LOL!

We also have one from New Buffalo, Michigan that I didn't get a picture of yet. Something else we are doing that is new this year...a smaller tree. I was so tired of having a gigantic tree in our tiny living space.  We had to put our coffee table in storage, move couches and feel cramped in years past. This year we only used the top two sections of the tree and put it up on boxes. The kids were a little sad that it was smaller and that we couldn't use all of our ornaments but I sort of love it. Nothing had to move. 

 This is the card they will get tomorrow morning. I have Merry Madagascar and the Kung Fu Panda holiday specials recorded. Paul will be gone so we will all get in my bed and veg out for an hour.