A lot of my friends are doing the Christmas Elf with their children and I wanted to come up with something special for my kids as we count down the days until Christmas. I though about buying the Elf, but honestly, the thing just creeped me out. But then I saw this nifty little advent train in a Regal catalogue and an idea took shape.
Each day the kids open up a door on the train and take out a special note. We started a bit late since we arrived back to Faro on the 2nd and have been overwhelmed with the Faro Plague since then. The kids haven't asked who wrote the note yet, and I am not sure how I will answer that when they do ask.
Each note with either be something that we will do that day as a family or it will be a special act of kindness that we will perform. Yesterday's note was letting the kids know it was the day to write their letter to Santa. It was a fun family activity even with both kids sick. Today, we will be doing some baking to share with friends of their choosing. I am looking forward to putting a new task in each night and keeping this new tradition going each Christmas season.
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| Naked thanks to a high fever, but look at that writing! He knows how to make almost every letter on his own now. |
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| Side two of his note to Santa. |
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| Looking through the Sears catalogue to find the perfect present request for Santa. |
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| Our advent train and notes so far. And the stack of Christmas cards all ready to be mailed out today! |
3 comments:
I love your advent train! What a great idea. I've been reading a lot about advent on the blogs I follow, and think it might be a nice tradition to start once Aedan is a little older.
You're very organized with your cards! I've been putting it off and putting it off...soon it will be too late to mail them!
What an absolutely fantastic idea! I will mention it to friends of mine with small children and a wish to de-commercialize Christmas.
Things to do together as a family, a special act of kindness and "chores" preparing for Christmas - brilliant!
Kara, you are inspiring in so many ways. This year, Dave and I decided to get gifts for others that are either recycled (aka previously loved), gifts made from recycled materials, or things made by local artists. For each other, other than a few stocking stuffers, we will give to the local food bank as we already have everything we need or want. However, with a new little munchkin, I have been wondering what kind of special family traditions I'd like to start, especially since Dave and I have very different ones. This is such a wonderful idea. Much better than candy and chocolates, though those are yummy too! Lol
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