Family Advent Calendar

I caught myself humming Christmas tunes yesterday. (Is it way too early for that?)

Typically I am not a rush the holidays sort of girl.  I like to enjoy each one as they come.  However, this year, we have already had several rounds of snow and it is just feeling more like Christmas than Thanksgiving here in Iowa.  It's not my fault.  Mother Nature is doing it.

                             

I love Christmas!  I love the smells and the festivities and I love the excitement that my children bring to the season.  Seeing the holiday through their eyes is MAGIC!   

A little more "Magic" can happen if I plan ahead and feel prepared.  Me in last minute rushing mode is not pretty and anything but magical. There is crying, pacing, tantrums and lets not even talk about the kids. ;) 

This being said, we are 2 weeks away from December and I have decided to embrace the cold and start getting some of my holiday preparations done.  Sure, I should be planning Thanksgiving dinner because I am hosting.  But... I can't help it!  My mind is on advent calendars today!  Cleaning can wait. Who needs food? 

While our children think that Christmas just happens, we know that isn't true.  Parents everywhere are behind the scenes working to pre-load the holiday magic.

I once read an excerpt from the book "Loving My Actual Christmas" written by Alexandra Kuykendall.  In this book she basically says that Mary gave Birth to Jesus two millennia ago and we rebirth Christmas every year with our grand ideas of what Christmas should be.  She calls those of us that do that the "orchestrator of Christmas."  I orchestrate Christmas.  I plan our activities, get them on the calendar and make sure we actually go experience things.  I decide on the gifts and make sure they are purchased and wrapped.  I schedule the photos to be taken, get Christmas cards printed, write the letter to go in the cards and send them out.  I make sure the letters are written to Santa and the Santa visit runs smoothly.  I coordinate outfits and decorate the house.  I run around like a Who from Whoville sprinkling Christmas cheer on anything that will stand still long enough.  I am not complaining.  It is my jam and those tiny faces make it so worth every fight with tape and missing bulb search.

I am a planner so having things in place and organized helps me enjoy the moments more so I can stay a Who and not become The Grinch.  I don't like to be scrambling last minute. 
I always walk a fine line of fun and magic and remembering the true meaning of Christmas.   

One way I walk this tight rope is with our family advent calendar.  Each year I look at all of the activities we have going on around us and pick the must-do events and traditions.  I make a second list of all the other options.  If we need something to do, we have options but I don't stress about getting to the secondary list.  It is just a backup.  I find this process makes me really consider what is important and helps center our holiday. 

                                                                             

After I have this list and have started plugging these events in the calendar, I get a clear picture of what our holiday will look like.  I use this calendar to plan our activities, advent and my foundation pages for my December Daily Album.  (I look forward to sharing these pages with you in the next few days.

This year I am taking our event and tradition calendar and sprinkling in some treats and goodies and we are focusing on random acts of kindness.  Here is the calendar! This is not meant to be fancy.  It is my master plan. 

You can make the calendar as simple or complex as you wish.  We have a large felt tree with numbered pockets I bought when my daughter was born and we reuse it each year.  I make cards for each day and slide them in the pockets.  Here is the photo of the completed project.  

To simplify, you can use paper envelopes or numbered bags and string them together on a clothesline.  You could number the bags or envelopes and toss them in a basket.  If you want really simple, take this print out and blow it up to letter size.  Put post-it notes on top to cover the days and pull one off each day.  Be as simple or complex as you choose.  I am posting this as an editable file, I hope.  I am new at this so let me know if there are any issues.  Feel free to change the activities to suit your needs and schedule.

Have fun!  Make it yours. Make a Merry Mess!

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Here are a few other extra free pintables we will be using to complete some of the advent tasks for this year’s calendar.  They are all linked below:  

Jingle Printable Sheet

Holiday Joke Ideas 

There are so many of these pre-made as free pintables out there.  My kids are obsessed with corny jokes!  I will be cutting up an extra set of these to put in their lunch boxes through December.

Random Act of Kindness Cards 

As an additional project, we are also going to follow the stories of the Jessie Tree this year.  We will be reading from The Jesus Storybook Bible.  We will read one story each day of Advent. Check out that Blog Post here.

Amazon Links below! 
Jesus Storybook Bible Gift Edition
Jesus Storybook Bible

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