december daily, day 1

So yesterday was December 1, the day I started on my December Daily project with Ali Edwards. Today my focus was on traditions. I may focus on that again, since I’ll be doing this project for 25 days :) (I thought about calling it decorations, but I’ll save that for another day.) The letter “t” is from the Ali Edwards 2010 Alpha Tabs. Unfortunately, they won’t be much good after January 1, but that’s okay. All of the supplies on this page (except the Basic Grey paper) are listed here on Ali’s blog.

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And speaking of traditions…We have four advent “calendars” this year: the Christmas Countdown magnet board I made, our new book tradition, our chocolate Trader Joe’s calendar, and the loop one Brandon made (above).

(yes, I noticed the “n” at the end of countdown is missing…of course not until I saw the photo of course!)

Brenda designed the Christmas Countdown calendar for Green Tangerines a couple of years ago. Hers has photos on it; I haven’t done that (no real reason except I didn’t have any of Abbie last year when I made it & I forgot to get them printed for this year). However, I do have fun activities on the backs of each magnet.

My activities were chosen so that (for the most part) they could be done regardless of whether it was a school night, knowing that we don’t have school the week before Christmas. I also made an excel document that lists each activity, the day, and a checkbox to remind me to take a picture. This year I’m adding initials by each day so I know who pulled a magnet & who opened a book (last year Abbie was only one so she didn’t participate).

Here’s my list of activities:

1: Find Elfie & tell her what you'd like for Christmas




2: Pick out a Christmas movie, snuggle under a blanket, & watch it together




3: Read "Twas the Night before Christmas" (need to change that one!)




4: Look at the ornaments on the Christmas tree, then have some hot chocolate. (Last year I told them it said, “put the ornaments on the Christmas tree.” It’s so nice when they can’t read!)




5: Make a yummy Christmas cake




6: Sing some Christmas carols--loudly!




7: Let's make a gingerbread house! (Hmmm…maybe I need to change the day of this one! Tuesday is our “crazy” day.)




8: Roast marshmallows in the fireplace. Yummy!




9: Drive around & look at Christmas lights in your pajamas--snuggle up with your favorite blanket. (since it’s a school night, we’ll drive around the block only)




10: Have some Christmas candy! Enjoy!




11: Watch a Christmas movie & laugh together. Have some popcorn too.




12: Make Christmas popcorn (either popcorn balls or red & green M&Ms mixed in to popcorn)
13: Read Christmas stories together




14: Make some Christmas cookies. (for this & the cake on day 5, boxed or pre-packaged are fine! Fun is all that matters!)




15: Have a peppermint stick




16: Put on some Christmas music & dance




17: Take pictures in front of the Christmas tree




18: Make hot chocolate with marshmallows




19: Wish Daddy a Happy Birthday & give him a big HUG!




20: Watch "The Santa Clause" & eat some popcorn




21Let's go look at Christmas lights!




22: Can you find the pickle? Find it 1st to open a special present!




23: Make a birthday cake for Jesus (aka, dessert for Christmas Eve)




24: Open one present




25: Merry Christmas!