A few years ago, I purchased this lovely Advent calendar from a local scrapbooking store.  It was a completely unnecessary purchase, but that little box got in my head and wouldn’t go away.  Originally, it was blank, and I covered it with the lovely seasonal paper you see here.  And, you know what, I love it!  I’m thankful every year that I allowed myself the small indulgence.

This year, we decided to do a few different things with it.  Last year, it was full of chocolates for Mom and Dad.  This year, we scrapped the chocolate, and filled each box with an advent activity  (thanks to member, Kristin @ GypsyJunk for the idea).  We wrote things like: go skating, take a family walk in the woods, make cookies to share, donate some toys!, and, my personal favourite, Dylan’s own: “Christmas fun!”  We’ll see what that looks like… When I placed them in the box, I scrambled them, so we have no idea what is coming each day.  I can hardly wait for tomorrow!

The other thing we added today is a rock collection.  What?!  Yep, that’s right.  We spent the afternoon picking beautiful river rocks at one of our favourite parks.  We’ll be adding one to our Advent display every day of December.  A new rock a day!  Doesn’t quite beat chocolate, but it does create a meaningful family tradition – which I’m all for

As with the past three years, we’ll also be using Dylan’s Playmobil Advent calendar.  Santa comes to the woodland animals every year delivering carrots, berries and the like.  This year was the first that Dylan was able to really help me place all of the animals into their boxes.  It was a fantastic counting and number recognition activity, because he was enchanting, and therefore, extremely motivated.  It’s fun that he loves opening each and every box, and adding them to the scene, even though he knows what’s inside.

Finally, I’ve gathered all of our Christmas and winter books, and placed them in an “Advent book box.”  We’ll pick from the box everyday, and give ourselves the liberty to read more than one (sometimes many more!), as our wills dictate.  I’ve seen others who’ve wrapped their books, and opened one each day, but I didn’t think we could stick with it.  There are just too many good ones to read and re-read!  Still, a little formalization of our Christmas reading should be fun, and add a bit of reverence, too!

So, tomorrow begins our Advent activities. I’m interested to know how it will all go over.  Will we stick with it?  Will it be fun?  Will I find time to make all of the gifts I have planned, too?

Advent Inspiration: How did you kick off the season of Advent?

Link up your Advent posts. Calendars, tables, lights, celebrations, activities. Link up through the Advent season.

Blessings.

Enjoy!

We are linking up with:

Natural Suburbia for Creative Friday

The Magic Onions for Friday’s Nature Table

Ordinary Life Magic for Saturday’s Artist

All are fantastic link parties.  Take a few minutes to peruse for the myriad of beautiful ideas!