1) I told y'all about Taylor last week. She moves to a different spot overnight when she returns from the North Pole...Kayci looks for her first thing each morning. :)
2) Advent Calendar: ours is a box thing from Target with a door for each day...I put a small index card in each day with a note of something Christmas-y we'll do that day. I have to be very honest here: for the past 2 years, I really worked hard on this, sitting down with our December calendar and trying to coordinate the activities with what we had going on, and match the books (see #3) the activity to our calendar...and it was really overkill. Does Kayci care if the day has a theme? Not so much...so this year I stopped, and we're winging it! So far, we've had:
1. Brainstorm (she told me things we've done in the past that she wanted to do again--first on her list, make SNOW!) and Dress for the season (she'd been waiting to wear her Christmas t-shirt and I made her wait until the Monday after Thanksgiving for the first day back to school, and we also bought a pair of fun socks to match that we put in the 1 box for her to find that morning. Definitely helped ease that transition...)
2. Visit Miss Lou-Lou at the Library! (we do this most Tuesdays, but it seemed silly to try to plan something on top of it...where would we have time, with homework, etc.? Besides, Miss Lou-Lou does Christmas stories and songs in December, so it was totally a Christmas activity! BTW, Noble danced to Miss Lou-Lou's banjo version of "Jingle Bells"--too cute!)
3. Work on the float! We went up to Germania so Kayci could help Daddy & the committee work on the float for Saturday's parade. :) She asked to stay for the last hour after I took Noble home to feed him, so she got some bonus Daddy time. Awesome!
4. Snow! Today after school we'll make Ivory soap snow...in her book bag this morning (see #3, again), I included a bar of soap, our art grater (an old cheese grater we use solely for crayons, soap and other art stuff) and a roll of toilet paper.
In the coming days, the cards will be for tomorrow's Stroll, Saturday's Parade, visiting the Book Fair at school, buying a gift for the Angel Tree (see #4), the PTO Christmas program, making/buying/wrapping gifts and our various family Christmas celebrations with the different sets of grandparents. This year we're not focusing so much on having a product/craft every day as much as just emphasizing what we're already doing to celebrate Christmas.
3) Book a Day--When Kayci was 3, Family Fun or some other magazine published a suggestion about wrapping a different Christmas-related book to open each day in December. The past 2 years, I would work ahead of time to coordinate our daily Advent activity with the book selection so there was a theme...and then wrap the books ahead of time and number them 1-25 so she'd have to identify the correct number to open the gift. We'd put the 25 books/gifts under the tree in her room, which was really fun for her. This year, the first day I wasn't able to wrap the stuff, so I just put out a gift bag with Kayci's traditional first story (From a Stable so Small, a Hallmark ornament set and book for the button tree) and also a board book of The Christmas Story for Noble. We always start the first day with The Christmas Story and emphasize that Christmas is to celebrate Jesus' birth...then on the 2nd day, we'll do a Santa story and talk about how Santa makes it fun, but he's not WHY we have Christmas.
Kayci really liked that the gift bag was right with her Advent box, and so I did it again the 2nd day, with a fun box, and she asked if we could keep doing that instead of unwrapping presents in her room every day. Fine by me! This way, I save time and wrapping, and I can tailor the books to Kayci's interests, activities...like on Tuesday at the library, she looked at How the Grinch Stole Christmas and wanted to read it, so I told her we had it at home. Wednesday morning, that was the book she found in the bag (it's Nana's from 1957, and Daddy wrote his name in it in green marker when he was around Kayci's age...kinda fun!). We include a board book for Noble each day, and yesterday for the FIRST TIME EVER he read a book with Daddy (he won't read with me, just not interested)--he loved, loved The 12 Dogs of Christmas (Daddy played the song and read it/sang it to him). Noble stared at that book--I snapped a picture to prove it, otherwise nobody would believe me that Mr. Busy slowed down long enough to read!
4) We also talk a lot in November and December about people who maybe don't have basic needs, like food and clothing, and about kids whose parents don't have money/extra money to buy Christmas gifts. So each year since she turned 3, Kayci has helped me go through her toys and select good ones to give away. The first year we filled up a big U-Haul box as she'd outgrown most of her "2 year old toys," and last year she filled up a bag and then yes, I went in when she was at preschool and took out some things she never played with (Easy Bake oven, a dollhouse set, the Dora doll she HAD to have the year before for Christmas...good stuff, to share with MOPS Moms who needed gifts for their kiddos). This year Kayci filled up a black trash bag, and she did so well that I won't even go in and sneak anything out...also, she's old enough now that I am trying to respect that she's keeping some things for a reason, even if it's not a "good" reason to me. I myself am a pack rat, so I let her do it to an extent. Note: don't ever open her drawers or armoire. :)
This year, Kayci's monkey bank just happened to be full, so Tuesday night on their date she and Daddy went to CoinStar and turned in the $$. She has almost $70! ($31 in bills, thanks to the $20 bill Jhido gave her a couple of weeks ago...she didn't even say anything to us, just went and put it in the bank...good girl!). We'll go today to deposit it in her credit union account, where we have her college money and also the money she's saved through the coins & bills she suckers out of Grandma, Grandpa & Jhido. Once a year, we take money out to go to the circus--she uses her money to buy souvenirs. Other than that, we leave it alone.
Anyway, today's the day to deposit the money, and I have asked her to consider using her money to buy a gift for the Angel Tree at her school...I explained how some kids at her school won't get any gifts at all unless people like us buy nice toys for them. I left it up to her--I'm curious to see if she volunteers any of her money. I've never asked her to give any of HER money away before, in years past we've shopped for different kids, charities etc. as part of our Advent activities but always with Mommy & Daddy's money. One last story: the first year we lived here, she really, really wanted an ironing board for Christmas and Nana wanted to buy it for her, but couldn't find it at a Wal-Mart in Houston. So I said I'd pick it up for her. The day we went to Wal-Mart with our list of gifts to buy for the State School & foster kiddos, I had Kayci pick out the toys that were on the list and I told her that one little girl wanted the same ironing board Kayci wanted. She didn't say a word, just put it in the basket. I was so proud of her for giving away the one thing she really wanted for herself...I thought for sure the green-eyed monster would come out, but it didn't. Not that's she's perfect and always giving, because she can be downright selfish...but moments like that show me that we're doing the right thing to keep pushing charity and sharing our many blessings.
Alrighty...this was going to be a quick one, but it's for you Mommys out there who've asked. :) And no, Boy, I'm not morphing into a Mommyblogger. I hope. Hope you guys have fun, and would love to hear what YOU do! This doesn't even touch our family traditions, but we'll do that another day...I'm off to shower before Noble wakes up. He's slept well this morning...between what I got done early this morning and since he's been down, I'm doing great in all 3 jobs today! That doesn't happen often, so I'll cherish this a bit...crap, he's up. Oh, well!
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