It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Christmas is my all time favorite time of year! The smells, the sounds, the sights...everything about it gets me excited. Since it's my favorite time of year, I want to make it fun for Weston. I want him to look back when he's older and think about how much fun Christmas time was for him as a child. I want to instill in him traditions that he can later use with his childrenbut I also want to instill within him the true meaning of Christmas. That Christmas isn't about presents or Santa. It's about the birth of Christ and helping others (that's a post for a different day).

Anyways, since Weston is older this year, I wanted to start some new traditions. One tradition we started this year is the advent calendar. I searched Pinterest for the perfect advent calendar to fit our family and Weston's age. Nothing caught my eye. So I made my own.

Materials used:
- 24 pocket shoe holder with clear pockets (Walmart has them for $5)
- green & red cardstock (I got mine at Hobby Lobby)
- Sharpie
- list of activities and stories (Pinterest to the rescue)

I cut 12 green and 12 red card stock pages to fit the opening of the shoe holder pockets. I alternated colors and labeled each with Day (whatever) at the top, Activity, and Story/ Book.

The activities I used were (not in order by day):
1. Decorate his own Christmas tree. 
2. Christmas light-looking & scavenger hunt
3. Make a bird feeder.
4. Christmas caroling with our church
5. Open Christmas Eve box & leave Santa cookies
6. Picnic under the Christmas tree.
7. Red Train Nights of Lights in St. Augustine
8. Christmas Craft
9. Make an ornament for the Christmas tree.
10. Mail a card to a military person.
11. Watch a Christmas movie.
12. Build a gingerbread train.
13. Craft for grandparents.
14. Write a letter to Santa.
15. Make something for Weston's 2 daycare teachers.
16. Make homemade hot chocolate.
17. Make paper snowflakes.
18. Decorate a Christmas plate.
19. Color a Christmas coloring sheet.
20. Christmas activity sheets/ bake Christmas cookies
21. Visit Bostwick light show.
22. Make cookies for daddy's work.
23. Visit Lake May Farm (Live Nativity & Santa)
24. Hang up the Christmas clings.

The books we're using this year are: A Very Merry Christmas, Little Blue Truck Christmas, The Christmas Story, 'Twas the Night before Christmas, Santa is coming to Florida, Tractor Mac; as well as stories from A Story A Day Til Christmas 1, 2, & 3 (these were books my parents used to read to me when I was little).

I'm so excited to take pictures and watch Weston participate and enjoy each of the activities and stories.

I'll do a blog post half way through and then after Christmas of our activities and Weston's reaction.