The 25 Days of Christmas

Two years ago we decided to add activities to our advent calendar. I know a lot of people do this, but I had never heard of it before so I was pretty excited. It turned out to be one of our favorite parts of Christmas that year so we have continued to do it. Many of the activities were things that we would do anyway, but somehow having it in the calendar made it more fun for them. I was really bad at remembering to take pictures but I thought I'd still jot down a few of the ones that were a little different and that the kids especially enjoyed...

• Getting a new REALLY soft blanket to watch movies in and then watching a Christmas movie as a family.  I got a really good deal on the blankets during my black Friday shopping. It was fun to give that gift early since it spread things out a bit. The kids were excited to open something and I know having the blankets that early made them more special since they weren't competing with Barbies and Legos. 
• Getting a new board game to play as a family. Paul is really getting into board games so it was a great activity and one we have done many times since.
• Making graham cracker houses. Although not too original, my kids had a great time. The last few years I have bought kits right after Christmas to use the following year. That has meant that my kids had to share. They both preferred the graham crackers since they each got to do their own. (The pictures are not great)

On a side note, notice the shirt? It was Adam's when he was little and is now Paul's favorite. Also, Paul insists on having ALL his buttons buttoned on every shirt. Nice huh?

• One thing we didn't actually get around to doing but I thought sounded like a lot of fun was writing a Christmas story as a family. Each person would say a sentence or two and then "pass" it to someone else. I was planning on writing it down, having the kids illustrate it and then adding it to our Christmas book collection. Oh well, there's always next year.
• Making candy. My great Aunt Shirley taught me how to make DELICIOUS chocolates. They are a lot of work and each time I do them I swear that I am not doing it again, but they turn out so great that I seem to keep doing it the next year. The kids had fun helping with the centers, but I wouldn't let them help dip.

There were a lot of other activities (like hot chocolate bar, making cookies for Santa, etc.) but these were our favorites of 2011.