Advent Activities

I have been pinning for an advent calendar for years now. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted, but when I saw this one with the embroidered family name on the bottom I felt this was pretty close.

Each day we pulled out a slip of paper from the numbered pocket to find a Christmas activity written on it.

A couple of the activities was unwrapping a Christmas book to read by the tree. I wrapped books we checked out from the library and also ones we already owned. I also got lazy and didn't wrap some :) I didn't buy a single new book this Christmas though, I really want to own Christmas Day in the Morning. Very inspiring! After reading this book Azure attempted to make Charlie a lunch for work as soon as she got up the next morning. So sweet.

Gingerbread houses for Family Home Evening made with leftover Halloween candy. Genius! My first attempt at making "royal icing."

Vince is already experiencing the woes of being a 2nd child. We didn't even let him "help" make one because I knew he'd just shove a bunch of candy into his mouth. So, he sat watching eating only graham crackers. Though, at this age we of course let Azure "build" one. Don't worry Vince- next year.

Making more gingerbread houses at the Hyatt on the Savannah River. Emily made real gingerbread. Tastes so much better than graham crackers. It turned out to be 75 degrees that day. So lovely!

We got to see a huge barge go down the river right in front of us.

 And a tugboat. 

 Preschool Pals: Azure, Evie, and Quentin. (Missing Tyla)

A woman from church got admitted to the hospital in December. I told Azure about it and asked if she would like to draw her a picture and go visit her. She seemed very excited to do so. It really brightened up Carol's day I'm sure.

We painted dreidels on the 1st night of Hanukkah.

Then played the game the next night.

We made Christmas crafts including edible snowflakes made out of tortillas and mini-marshmallow men.

Also on the list was making Christmas treats for our neighbors which we didn't get around to doing until Christmas Eve and then all our neighbors left. We ended up only passing out one plate of goodies the day after Christmas to our neighbor across the street.

Christmas this year really felt focused on the Savior and not so much on gifts. The advent calendar helped me plan in advance simple activities that were also rich in meaning and symbolism. (And also just fun and frivolous.)

One of the nights after returning from our New Orleans trip I bought Azure a small string of white Christmas lights for her to hang up in her bedroom window. Before opening the gift we read about 5 scriptures referencing how Jesus is the light of the world. Then I hung them up for her and she used it as her nightlight every night until Christmas. I hope to make it into a tradition now.