Our Advent calendar

Tomorrow we begin the "25 days of Christmas". Last week, Bebe and I prepared our Advent countdown. I had seen this idea in Parents Magazine and Bebe was eager to help me duplicate it.
Here was the process: We bought "treat cups" from the $1 spot at Target for 70% off. They were 30 cents for 10. They are the same width as normal drinking cups but only about 2" deep. We traced 25 circles onto green tissue paper and numbered each circle. Then came the tedious task of cutting out each circle. Once the circles were cut, I place a piece of paper with a pre-determined activity on the back of each circle. (So the circle was number-side down.) We then used a glue stick around the rims of the cups and placed them open-side down onto the tissue paper circles, therefore trapping the paper inside of the cup. Once they dried, we used Elmer's glue (although I'd recommend a glue gun, which we don't have) to glue them to a foam core board.

Here was the result:

Bebe has been asking daily when she can start "punching out" each day on the calendar. Tomorrow I can actually say, "TODAY you can!"

I'm hoping as Advent happens, I can post daily about what we're up to. I love this season!

Anticipating Advent.

Chaos is starting to set in--I thought we had another week between this week and Thanksgiving. NO! Thanksgiving is in 9 days! In 9 days my mother-in-law arrives. I'm excited, but WE'RE NOT READY! And once she gets here, a whirlwind begins... my sister-in-law's wedding, D and I's 9th anniversary, Dois' 2nd birthday.... Then follows the usual hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

I absolutely love Christmas. With families so far away from us, spending some Christmases away from home and some at home, I wanted to make some traditions for Bebe (and now Dois) that we could carry on no matter where we will be. Four years ago I struck gold:

The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas!

I am seeing it on other blogs, but I didn't know much about blogs then. I came up with this all on my own. What I did was created a giant calendar on poster board. Some days had activities already filled in (for example, if we were attending a party or a Christmas concert). Then I had a bag full of papers with activities on them in a bag. Bebe would pick one on any day when it was blank, and we would do that activity. At the end of the day I would write the date on the slip of paper, take a pic of it, and Photoshop it on to a pic of what we did that day.

Here was our first ever 24 days of Christmas activity, back in 2008:

I try to find a balance between fun Christmas (the Santa-and-Reindeer side of it) activities, charitable activities, and the religious aspect of Christmas.

This year I'm taking a SLIGHTLY different approach. With 2 kids to juggle last year, I struggled to keep up. Bebe would choose, "Bake Christmas cookies" and I would come home that night and realize that we didn't have the ingredients to do so. What a bummer. Knowing things will be a bit chaotic with my mother-in-law staying with us, I decided my best approach would be to pre-plan every single day of the 24 days, and have the activities be a surprise to Bebe and Dois.

I can't wait. I really, really love Christmas. I just love this time of the year.

This year I am also hoping to institute a new tradition at home: having an Advent wreath to light during dinner every day.

How do you celebrate Advent? How do you prepare for Christmas in your home?