Christmas Activity Advent

I love this {somewhat} new tradition in our family. We attempted it last year, but since we headed out of town half way through the month, it made it very difficult to finish this out. So this year we're trying it again, and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

It's a Christmas Countdown, but every day, instead of getting a piece of candy or something, we do some sort of Christmas Activity. Some days it's something big and some days it's something small, but it's always something fun we can do together.

The girls start each day by moving the star 'bookmark' into that days' mitten and taking out the paper inside.

We read the paper and then add it to our growing Christmas tree on the fridge. :)

And then at some point during the day, we do what is written on the paper.
So far we've gotten our Christmas tree and decorated it...

...made Rice Krispie Wreaths to eat while watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional (we watched the devotional online on the computer-- in case you were wondering why we were doing this in the office) :)...

...made snowman pizzas to eat for dinner...

...we've made Christmas Cookies...

...we've read Christmas books I checked out from the library while enjoying some yummy hot chocolate...
...played candy cane games (we played 'Spoons' but used candy canes instead of spoons and spelled "C-A-N-E")...
...we went to visit Gree-Gree and PawPaw to go to Christmas at the Square with them (a bit more of a disappointment this year as opposed to last, but it was still fun to at least be with the grandparents)...
...made Christmas goodies to give away...
...watched some fun Christmas movies...
and there is still so much more fun in store! :)

The trick is to have everything planned well in advance (and do the shopping for any of the needed items in advance as well) and to incorporate things you would need to do anyway so that it's not just adding extra stress to an already busy time of year. Instead it is adding to the fun of the season and it's helping me to enjoy the time with my kids a little more this year. :)

I'm excited to have this be an annual family tradition. Tons of fun! LOVES!!