News Taffy

It's not too late for an Advent calendar, you know. Sometimes, I have ideas of things I'd like to do, but I think it's too late if the time has already started and miss out. All that to say, we made an Advent calendar and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite traditions. I made mine about 2 a.m. on Dec. 1, ahem...out of a gift wrapping box, wrapping paper and hot glue. I cut out a small green Christmas tree out of construction paper and glued it to a popsicle stick to move each day that would give the girls a visual. My favorite part of the calendar, however, are the pieces of paper inside each pocket. I made small rectangle boxes on Microsoft Word with a green outline, and with a red font, I typed up some Christmas time activities to do each day. It's fun to go each morning and move the Christmas tree, then pull out the activity.

If you're wanting some fun ideas for things, some of our ideas are:

*Write a letter to Santa
*Send Christmas cards
*Have dinner in front of the Christmas tree
*Bake cookies for the mailman
*Hot chocolate for breakfast!
*Read the Christmas story
*Bake a treat for friends/neighbors
*Go look for Christmas lights
*Lights of the Delta in Blytheville
*Winter Wonderland (Downtown Jonesboro)
*Deck the Halls!
*Go see Santa
*Leave Christmas presents for the animals! (we have many squirrel and bunny families around our house)
*Make Christmas gifts for family

Those are most of the activities we have, and we have repeated a couple as well. Why would you not want to have dinner in the floor by the Christmas tree and read the story of Christmas more than once? I love the reminder each day of taking time out to celebrate Christmas daily with my children even if it's just where we eat dinner that night. In a world where we live every moment as quickly as possible already, it's nice to be forced to slow. You can tailor your activities to the size, age, and lifestyle of your family. Our first week is pretty calm with smaller activities because it's my finals week, but after that, I have more time at night to enjoy with my girls and husband. Hope you're finding ways to stop daily and take in these days. Children will be a whole year older the next time this special season draws near. So, let's slow our pace a bit, even if just for moments, and look into faces so full of magic all because of one very special day.

Until next time,
Heather