Christmas Activity Advent Calendar

The holidays have been crazy for us so far!  We took a last minute trip to Utah to be with family and to celebrate my grandma's life after her passing.  It was wonderful to be with family during such a time, and during the holidays, especially since we hadn't planned on going home at all this year.  So, I'm really glad we made the trek back to the states, and luckily most of our Christmas shopping was done before we left, but it's been a pretty hectic few weeks.

One thing that has been put on the back burner has been my blog!  And, although we're only just over a week away from Christmas, I wanted to share our family's Christmas activities that have filled our advent calendar this year.  Last year, I made a simple, retro-inspired advent calendar for our family.  And, last year, we filled it with small treats and trinkets.  But I just didn't love it.  I felt like the kids were getting plenty of sweets and gifts during this time of year, so I didn't feel like we needed to add to all of that by giving them more each day.  So, this year, instead of treats, I filled our advent calendar with Christmastime activities!  And, so far, I love it so much more!  Plus, I think the kids enjoy it more as well.  It makes each day's surprise last longer and is more meaningful.

If you're interested in creating a Christmas activity advent calendar, or if you're just looking for some new ideas of things to do over the next week to get into the Christmas spirit, here's the list of activities that we've been doing!  (There's not quite 24 on this list because a few, like "reading Christmas books" and "Christmas movie night" were repeated a couple of times!)

Christmas Activities

-Read a Christmas book

-Have a Christmas movie night

-Decorate Daddy's office

-Make a Christmas ornament

-Make gingerbread houses

-Drive around looking at Christmas lights

-Go see the lights at Temple Square

-Make gingerbread nativity scenes

-Do a service project 

-Make cookies and deliver them to neighbors

-Visit Santa Claus

-Make a Christmas scene out of Legos

-Light candles, drink hot chocolate, and sing Christmas songs

-String popcorn garland for the tree
-Make Christmas aprons

-Light candles, drink hot chocolate, and read a Christmas book

-Build a snowman (and if there's no snow, build it out of marshmallows or cotton balls!)

-Dress up in Santa hats and go take pictures in a photo booth at the mall (or on your computer!)
-Make Christmas cards to send to grandmas and cousins
-Deliver neighbor gifts
-Wear Santa hats and go bowling

-Read the account from Luke 2 in the Bible (save this one for Christmas Eve!)

Have a fun and very merry Christmas season!

Christmas Time Happenings

With December flying by, I feel like I just haven't had a chance to document what we've been up to . . . but trust me, we've been doing a lot!!! So here's a quick recap of our Christmas time happenings:

I've been doing lots of sewing! I tried to get our Christmas advent calendar done right at the beginning of the month. I was going for kind of an old-school look, and I wanted to Will to be apart of the process, so I let him choose some of the fabric for the pockets (ahem, goofy-looking reindeer wouldn't have been my first option, but he loved it, so we went with it!). And to make it easier for myself, I just bought stick on felt, pre-cut letters and numbers from Hobby Lobby. It's been fun for the kids to look for little treasures each day this month, although many of the pockets were prematurely emptied by a mischievous little 20 month old . . . :)

I also whipped up a little Bimaa top for Clara, which I absolutely LOVE!!!! That cowl neck just kills me. I'll definitely be making a few more :)

Please ignore the candy-filled mouth and runny nose!

I've also been working on some spiderman Christmas jammies for Will, a little buckle-purse for Clara (that Santa will deliver on Christmas morning), a couple of fleece scarves for both kids, and another Christmasy top for Clara! I'll be sure to share those projects after Christmas :)

Putting up our tree! When we went to pick it up, Will immediately decided on a particular tree and really wanted it to be "the one". So, we went with it, and it turned out to be the perfect little tree! He has an eye for Christmas tree hunting I guess :)

Here Will and Clara are admiring their tree-trimming work. 

We've been doing lots of Christmas cookie-making! In this first two photos, Will and Peter are working on Peter's mom's candy cane cookies that they make every year. And in the next two, Will's whipping up some good ol' sugar cookies (with some help ;)).

Visiting Santa. We've actually visited four Santas this season! First at the mall with a fun playgroup, then at Bass Pro Shop (their pictures are free!), at the zoo, and then at our Church Christmas party! It's been quite funny to see the kids' progression with becoming more comfortable with Santa Claus. At the mall, Clara was screaming bloody murder and I could hardly calm her down, and Will wouldn't sit on Santa's lap; he was content just to stand close enough for him to hear what he was hoping to get for Christmas :) But, then here, by our Church's Christmas party, both kids happily sat on Santa's knee! Success!

And, when we haven't been out shopping, sending Christmas cards, and wrapping presents, we've managed to see the lights and enjoy the festivities at the San Antonio Zoo and Sea World!

We hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season as well! On Saturday we're off to continue the celebrations of the season with Peter's family in Utah (brrrr)! If I get a chance, I'll try and post a couple more projects before we leave, but if not, Happy Holidays and I'll see you in the new year!!