Christmas Countdown

To add to the excitement of Christmas we have 2 things that we do daily around here. One is our Advent calender. Each day we open a new door and the kids get a little piece of candy. (Did you know a mini York Peppermint Pattie is only 1pt?) Our 2nd thing is new to us this year, but I think it will become a tradition as well. We made a simple paper chain, with one link for each day from now until Christmas. On each link we wrote something special that we want to do. Here is a small example of what our December holds for us.

• Learn a new Christmas song
• Color a picture
• Bake cookies
• Make Christmas cards for someone that is lonely (we chose to deliver them to a near by nursing home)
• Watch a Christmas movie while drinking hot chocolate and eating popcorn

Sorry, that blinding flash. This one says "take a drive to look at lights".

And this one says "watch home movies of Christmas' past".

Our list goes on, and it has some repeats but it has been a lot of fun so far. I can't take credit for this idea. I found it on another blog. Sorry fellow blogger, I don't remember who you are. But I thank you. Want to join in? The kids are excited to see what each day holds. Josephs nightly question of "what is tomorrow?" no longer means "What day is it?" or "Is it a church day?" He wants to know what special Christmas activity are we going to do! :)

And I thought I should just add this one. Hannah ran to get into this picture with Joseph. Heaven forbid the camera be out and Hannah not get her picture taken! Apparently her presence was enough and there was no need to smile. I took 3, and not only is she not smiling in any of them but she isn't looking at me either.


What special things do you do for the Christmas countdown?