Adventing

I'd always heard of advent calendars and read about other people using them, but we hadn't done one before. Well, yesterday as I was making my way through the list of blogs I follow I noticed that so many of the bloggers were preparing their advent calendars and sharing tips and ideas. As I read each one I started to get excited thinking of the prospect of doing one with my family. I think my kids are old enough this year to understand and get excited about it too. So as soon as the kids were in bed (Chad is at Nutcracker rehearsal every night this week - do you remember that from last year? No? Check it out here.)

Anyway, so the kids were in bed and I started researching ideas for the Newman family advent calendar. Some ideas were very elaborate and expensive and others were well, ugly. Then I happened upon one that I thought was cute and very doable. Doable was a must since I would be starting to put it together on Nov. 30. :-) Then I began brainstorming the activities (not candy) that would accompany each day of December. That was the most fun part. This time of year is magical and I'm excited to share that magic with my wonderful family. Whether it's the magic of singing Christmas carols by the tree or taking homemade cookies to friends, I can't wait to do all of it with my family. That's what the season is all about anyway, isn't it?

Here's a look at our calendar and how I did it. (I'm sure you could figure it out on your own, but here it is anyway.)

It's nothing fancy but I love it!

Using my fabulous Cricut I cut out some tags in brown card stock. Then in alternating red and green paper I cut out the numbers 1 - 25. I glued the numbers to the front of the tag and just handwrote the activity for the day on the back.

I then strung them as a garland using twine and little clothes pins.

They are nicely displayed on our mantle.

Can't wait for tomorrow when we get to see what the first activity is!!

Merry Christmasing, everyone!!