November 29: Advent activities

The Christmas season is one of my favorite times of the year.  If the weather were a little warmer, it would probably be my most favorite time of the year.  (However, temps here are going to be in the 60s for the next few days, which is very exciting!).  I love all the festivities that go along with the season, both religious and secular.

One of the traditions we have in our family is to read The Advent Book together.  Beginning December 1, we add a new page each night until we are reading the whole Christmas story.  It's a great book, and we highly recommend it.

We also do an advent countdown.  Right now, we use some boxes that I bought from Stampin Up a few years ago.  In each box is four pieces of candy (one for each of us) along with a Christmas activity to complete that day.  Here is our plan of activities for this year:

1:  Go to the Christmas parade downtown (with temps in the 60s, it should be a perfect parade day!)
2:  Wrap presents
3:  Write a letter to Santa
4:  Have a picnic dinner by the Christmas tree
5:  Buy a gift for the Angel Tree at school
6:  Make a Christmas craft
7:  Eat a candy cane
8:  Visit Santa at Scheels
9:  Decorate icing Christmas trees
10:  Ride the train at the mall
11:  Put money in a Salvation Army kettle
12:  Journey to Bethlehem field trip at school
13:  Drink hot chocolate
14:  Snowflake Day!  (snowflake crafts, snacks, etc.)
15:  Make Christmas cookies and deliver to friends
16:  Christmas Pageant at church
17:  Drive around and look at Christmas lights
18:  Audrey's Preschool Christmas program AND Christmas concert with my piano students
19:  Make ornaments to give to grandparents
20:  PJ and popcorn movie night
21:  Go to Mimi and Papaw's house
22:  Eat a reindeer food snack
23:  Open presents with Mimi and Papaw and family
24:  Open presents with Aunt Nancy and go to Nana's house
25:  Open presents with Nana and Poppa and family

Last year, we did a fairly good job of sticking with our schedule.  The good thing is that the girls can't read yet.  So if we want to change our plans at the last minute, it is easy to change to a different activity when we open the box.