It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

and I'm so ready! I created a family activity advent this year. Here's my list of family activities:

• Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn.

• Take a bubble bath.

• Have an indoor picnic.

• Bedtime story with puppets.

• Color a Christmas picture.

• Make a paper chain.

• Make a marshmallow snowman.

• Make a Christmas puppet.

• Drink hot chocolate with a candy cane.

• Play “Pin the Nose on Frosty.”

• Make a shape wreath.

• Play “Christmas Tree Snowball Toss” game. (Basically a cardboard tree with holes cut in it that the kids will throw bean bags at)
  

• Decorate a door in our house.

• Eat dessert first tonight!

• Open a gift tonight.

• Make gift tags for our presents.

• Dance to Christmas music.

• Fancy dress for dinner.

• Make paper snowflakes for the windows.

• Scavenger hunt for a treat!

• Make a gingerbread house.

• Read an extra book tonight.

• Watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

• Leave cookies out for Santa, reindeer tonight.

And the Christmas day "big one":

• Think of a way that you can show your family that you love them. Remember you are surrounded by people that love you and that is the best gift of all.
  

I couldn't decide how to present the advent for awhile, but I ran across some envelopes left over from my mom's wedding. (Yeah, it was 40 years ago. Don't judge....) I printed these onto labels and stuck them on ornament shaped vinyl I cut with my Cricut. I would have loved to have another color other than black, but I have self imposed a moratorium on craft spending right now. My plan is to take a picture of the family doing each activity, stick the picture down on a sheet using the vinyl sticker and create a book of our family advent activities that will be fun for the kids to look at this year and next year. That's my plan. We'll see how it goes.

Oh yeah, wanna know a secret? I don't put the activity in the envelope until the night before. That way I can make sure that it doesn't conflict with our schedule and that we have all of the necessary materials to make the activity work. Shh... don't tell my kids. ;)