our countdown to Christmas

normally,

 the girls would be given an advent calendar...you know the paper ones with all the little doors and behind each one is a stale, plastic tasting piece of chocolate.  "yay, a wreath...this really does taste like the 14th of December"...u know what i'm talking about. ;)

but this year, i decided to be more proactive in planning activities for them to remember,

instead of stale chocolate.

Alot of these are activities/foods/crafts we kind of do anyway during this time of year,

but we did add some new ones

and they're all CHEAP, SIMPLE, and EASY.

It's more about just spending the time together that they'll remember the most.

Already Piper said, "I can't wait to see what we're doing tomorrow for day 2!!"

so i think we're onto something folks...

 I listed 24 things to do together for Dec 1st- Christmas Eve (24th)

printed them out, and cut them into strips.

I cut the bottom off of holiday gift bags cuz once cut, they bottom looked like an envelope and it folded over perfectly to create a festive one to insert the activity which was printed out.

i simply hole-punched each one and tied them onto ribbon..with ribbon.

i'm easy like that. ;)

each envelope has the number of the date on it and they just choose one each day.

inside is the day's activity/treat, etc!

today's was "paint clay ornament"

which was a simple, white clay christmas ornament that they each got to paint their own.

Day 1: Paint Clay Ornaments

i got them at Michael's- no i did not bake my own

this is supposed to fun, not stressful remember? haha!

fyi...a plastic tablecloth and paper towels under said projects

does make it easier to stomach any messes that can occur with such activities.

helps keep a mommy sane, ahem.

we blasted the Christmas music and they all got to suffering for their art.

the finished products were pretty cute!

Piper's (6yr):

Lily's (9yr):

Presley's (2yr):

 Belle's (3.5yr):

they immediately hung them on the tree and they were all so proud of their lil' ornaments!

like i said

these activities are simple, but it gets them in the Christmas spirit

and they're excited for the next day, just knowing we're all going to do something together to celebrate all the "holi"days leading up to Christmas! :)

a few examples of other ones we'll be doing are:

driving to see the lights

watching Christmas movie

family Christmas party

handprint Santa card

frozen no bake peppermint cheesecake

take toys/clothes to kids in need

cookies for Santa

so basically, just breaking down things you would be doing perhaps anyway, but setting aside a specific day and time to do them makes it feel extra special

and of course picking it out of a holiday envelope makes anything feel neat...

i could say brush your teeth with minty toothpaste and they'd be all WOOHOO!

ya know?

also, 24 things is kind of a lot to come up with, so this would be a perfect "12" days of Christmas type of celebrating to do.

so anyway,

i'm excited we started this tradition this year, i suppose Bewtcut being gone for the majority of it makes me switch into overdrive to compensate for his absence

but i really think this is a fun, simple way to enjoy the holiday season

and fill it with memories...filling it with chocolate is good, but i'm pretty sure they'll remember the moments more. :D

**remember I have to use my cellphone for pictures since Bewtcut has my camera, so sorry this month will be lame-o quality pics. **