Advent Activity Calendar
This another new addition to our celebration this year. Thanks so much to all who helped me brainstorm this idea.
Arielle and I took this project over. We planned out 25 (32) activities we wanted to do. We checked the calendar and did our best to put easy things on busy days etc. I'm sure we'll be flexible with this.
I experiemented with various sizes and paper (constrcution, wrapping paper, scrapbook paper)...and finally this is what we did.
Make a 5 in template from cardstock.
Fold paper in 1/2....
and 1/2 again.
Trim about 1/2 in off the edge (this size gave us 4 per sheet).
Fold corners up...rotate view to the right....
Fold third corner over
Write activity on paper
Jared helped us hang the line...which became MUCH longer than I expected...I'm glad we didn't go with the original size we tried. LOL
We finally ended up hanging them around the top of the entertainment center.
We're happy....I'm really happy to think that the things we WANT to do stand a better chance of not being lost in the busy-ness of the chapel/base schedule this year.
We finally ended up hanging them around the top of the entertainment center.
We're happy....I'm really happy to think that the things we WANT to do stand a better chance of not being lost in the busy-ness of the chapel/base schedule this year.
Every family will have a unique list. This is what we hope to do in the next month. (Yeah, the masterlist is for ME in case I lose the scrap paper.)
Today: Put Advent candles in wreath, begin our Family Inductive Advent Study, top the tree.
- Attend the Base Christmas Tree Lighting and enjoy hot chocolate and cookies afterwards.
- Make snowflakes and decorate the windows.
- Go to Eggemeyers and buy fudge. This is a HUGE treat around here.
- Make truffles and favors for the PWOC "Delight in the Light" Tea.
- Go to Christmas at FT. Concho.
- Play tickle little kids, host the PWOC Christmas tea.
- Attend the Nutcracker: Go Nolan, Erik, Emma and Ellie....and everyone else. Enjoy ice cream Sundaes...the Nutcracker is over.
- Take a walk and enjoy the Christmas lights.
- Start work on our Christmas Puzzle (make sure we have opened this from the calendar).
- Take toys to Toys for Tots.
- String Popcorn and cranberries.
- Decorate an outside tree for the animals and read Night Tree by Eve Bunting.
- Dance like crazy.
- Take a walk to see the deer.
- Watch a Christmas movie.
- Have an indoor picnic to Christmas music.
- Prepare the staff and chapel gifts.
- Bake Christmas goodies for neighbors.
- Pick up BreAnne and David at the airport!
- Make a gingerbread house.
- Act out the Christmas story.
- Have a picnic at the lake (indoors if need be).
- Meet Krista at the airport. Family game night with hot chocolate and appetizers.
- Visit the living nativity downtown and attend the Base Candlelight Service.
- Have a birthday party for Jesus and open our "Jesus stocking".
- Have a family scavenger hunt - would other famlies be brave enough to join us? What would the town think if a zillion mini-vans and 15 pass vans were zipping around town taking photos while oodles and oodles of kids spilled out????
- Go see the light show on the Concho river.
- Sing Christmas carols - who cares if we are late - maybe we can do that with the scavenger hunt.
- Take a candle-lit bath, paint our toes, go paintballing...to each his own.
- Family game night - dance like crazy.
- Play charades, attack someone with silly string and sparklers.
©2008 D.R.G.
11 comments:
Sounds fun!
If we lived closer, we'd so join you on the 26th with a Yukon full of crazy Hemphills. Some day...
Your ideas sound like a lot of fun! We have a few of them on our list as well. Only, I wasn't organized and I sealed all of my boxes without making a master list. Yes, I wrote them on the fly and will live to regret it. :) Hopefully my kid can be flexible. At least I put the big things (making a gingerbread house!) on the weekends!
Sounds wonderful! Enjoy!
I LOVE this, DeEtta! And all the meaning behind your ornaments. I am going to email myself a link to these detailed instructions for the Advent activities and try to make it happen next year when we'll hopefully be home the entire time. This trip has made the celebration of Advent more difficult this year!
Great job! I now I've mentioned this before, but Arielle has just grown up overnight.
Sis: WHOOPIE!!! We'll be getting to see a lot of foto's each day! :):) What fun!
Tell Arielle she is SO CUTE with her hair hanging down. Looks so grown up.
l/p Mpm T
Yes, Debbie and Mom, Arielle has grown up "over night". We always SAYS this but I have blog photos to prove that it really did seem to happen over night with ARielle. I still occassionaly say "four little ones" but honestly she's pushed right into the older category. LOL
oh my word! it just dawned on me that we get to do some of these things with ya'all! YAY! just 15 more days!
Bre G
I'm so far behind, I'll need to read your blog backwards.
Such fun ideas and cute way to display them!
Great ideas, DeEtta. Now for the big question... Maybe I missed this somewhere, but do you plan to keep these and do the same things or at least some of the same things each year or make an entirely new set each year?
Cindy, I'm brainstorming lots of way to use this idea year round. We are really enjoying it. I KNOW that this week (which is BUSY) I would NOT have taken time to do several of things we've done as a family, if we'd not had a card instructing us to take time to play together. LOL
However, I am NOT saving these cards. ARielle and I made them in about an hour. It was a fun project. We'll adjust the activities as what is considered fun for our family changes. LOL
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