Making Memories

I decided this month I would blog about the things we are doing to celebrate Christmas. It will help me remember this short precious time, and give me motivation to find new interesting things to do, and take pictures! I'll start with our new countdown tradition.

One of my favorite things as a kid was getting those cardboard advent calendars that had chocolate inside. Of us 3 kids, we took turns getting the chocolate each day. I loved it because my birthday was in December, so we always worked it out so I got the candy on my birthday. Jeff and I bought a wooden "advent calendar" that we fill with candy. We always make sure the other one gets it on their birthday. And Lucy really loves it too, but I thought I'd do something a little different too this year.

I actually go the idea from Pinterest. (If you are not on this, get on it, get obsessed. It's worse than Facebook) We found a Christmas/Winter book for each day until Christmas and wrapped it up, and put it under the tree.

(Actually, I got bored of wrapping, so I've only done 1/2...I'm kinda lazy)

And each night, Lucy gets on her PJ's, brushes her teeth and then she finds the day's date (She's actually got it right a few times...she's a genius), and opens the present. Then we take it in her bedroom and read it before bed. She loves it.

This is so easy to do as a Teacher's kid. She has so many books. I didn't buy a single one, I just pulled them from her shelves. Some are about winter, some about Santa, some about the REAL Christmas story. She loves it. It's nice to have a tradition. And I feel like it's teaching her to open one present and be thankful for it, to learn restraint by not opening them during the day. Although maybe I'm just teaching her to expect a present every night...