I LOVE this time of year and am a big traditions kind of girl. We hung up our Christmas advent calendar that Amy made me last year. It's so cute. Each day has an activity on the back of things to do. The kids all take turns reading the activity for the day. Here are some of the things we've done.
We have the tradition of getting in our jammies and the kids gets to open one present out of the basket. They are all Christmas books. Now that the boys are such good readers we rotate readers everynite and Becca always opens the book. Then we say prayers and they each get to pick one Christmas stuffed animal to sleep with. They LOVE it. If they get out of bed, then they have to put their toy back. It has only ever taken one time of losing their toy to make it work.
We made a gingerbread village, have watched some Christmas specials on t.v. and went to see Christmas lights. There is this really neat neighborhood that's a circle and every home on the street is decked out. You park across the street at a park and walk in. It was a lot of fun. There was such a huge variety of decorations. We loved it.
Each year I take the kids out one on one for a Christmas shopping date. They get to pick out a gift for everybody and then we go out for dinner or icecream. Its a lot of fun. When we get home they wrap their gifts, sign the tag and put it under the tree. I have loved seeing them grow and watch their gifts become more meaningful over the years.
Every year we let the kids decorate their own small tree. They get to keep in their room and we have an understanding. I won't touch their tree and they don't touch mine. :)
Its been a good, busy and exciting time of year. I love that the boys totally get the reason why we Celebrate. I have all of my shopping done and most of the gifts wrapped. Now I am planning on taking this week before Christmas to focus on our Savior and the true spirit of Christmas.
