December 1st

Today is December 1st and that means it is also the very first day of advent. I have always wanted to do an advent calendar but never got around to it. This year with the help of pintrest I got one done. Now it isn't all glamorous and such...I simply made 25 envelopes out of green construction paper, then placed a red slip of paper in each envelope that said what fun activity we would be doing. I also wrote one name for Jesus on the back with a scripture that coordinates with that name. I haven't decided where I want to place these envelopes yet. I originally wanted to hang them from the mantle but that would be too cluttered with my stockings up there also. Then I thought about on the tree but I it would be too cluttered also. So for now they are just in a stack on the counter and Rascal gets to open the envelope every morning and Scooter reads what we will be doing that night. At bed time we will read the scripture and talk about the name of Jesus.

We are doing all this for several reasons...... we love spending time and doing fun things together as a family but most importantly to bring a daily reminder of exactly why we celebrate Christmas. We aren't big on Santa, elves, and all that made up stuff, so this is just one way to bring in some fun family time and celebrate our Savior's birth.

This morning we opened envelope 1 and found out that we will be making paper snowflakes to hang in our kitchen window. Then we will read Revelation 22:13 and talk about Jesus being the Alpha and Omega.

My boys were super excited about this which thrills me to no end. I will try to post what special activity we will be doing each night. Some of the things are really big, some are what we always do each year, and some are very simple things to fit into those nights where we are already so busy and late getting home. All of them are a total surprise to the boys which makes it super fun for me and Tim.