Christmas Advents

Last year I started a picture book advent with Riley and Asher. Each night between Thanksgiving and Christmas night I would read a Christmas book to them. A couple of the books I already had, considerate gifts received over the years from family members. I purchased a couple more that season, but mostly we checked books out from the library. I think the kids enjoyed our book countdown as much as I did.

Since last Christmas I've purchased a few of last year's favorites, just in case I couldn't get them this year. The kids have loved it just as much this year, and it's usually Tyson who pops up right after bedtime prayers and reminds me, "book, book!"

We've also started an activity countdown this year. We kicked it off on December first by going to our local high school's community winter celebration. We started the party with photos with Santa. Then each club had a booth set up with activities for the kids. They decorated cookies, did a bean bag toss, each won a cupcake at the cake walk, made Rudolph crafts, stockings, and snowman necklaces.

Since then we've had a Christmas-related activity each day. Sometimes it's a simple game or an art project. We've watched The Muppet's Christmas Carol and the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. We've baked together and delivered gifts to friends and neighbors, and driven around to see Christmas lights in nearby neighborhoods. We had cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for dinner last week, and are going to try making egg nog soon. 

Unfortunately, I've had to rearrange the schedule to skip activities that require snow, as we've only had one storm since the beginning of the month, and even that was melted quite a bit by the time Riley was home from morning kindergarten. This Sunday we'll be doing some Christmas caroling via FaceTime. If you'd like a call, send me your email address and a time range that would work for you and we'll try to make it happen.

This is definitely a tradition that I would like to continue. Next year I would like to focus more activities on serving others. I've realized that's it's also a great opportunity to learn about Christmas traditions in other cultures, and other winter holidays as well. St. Nicholas Day is December 6th, so the night before we read a book about the legend of St. Nicholas. The next morning the kids woke up to find chocolate coins in their shoes. Next year I'd love for us to learn more about the festival of lights together, and maybe have tamales for dinner one night, in honor of Riley and Asher's Mexican heritage.

What about you? Have you done anything this year that you hope might become a tradition?