I am so excited that December has started, for this year, thanks to Andrea from a peek inside the fishbowl, we will be celebrating the countdown to Christmas with a month full of family friendly, holiday themed activities!!  If you click on the picture above, it will take you to Andrea’s post, where she talks the 25 days of Christmas that her family has been doing for four years.  The idea is a twist on the modern tradition of candy or toy filled advent calendars.  I loved the idea as soon as I read the post, and knew that we had to do it.  Planning to start our countdown is what helped push me through November.

For me, December is typically a really busy month.   I know that I have fallen guilty to losing sight of the big picture, and getting caught up in the frantic prep to the holidays pretty much every year of my adult life.  Now that we have children, I want the holidays to be more than just a race to the finish line.  I hope that this will help us all to slow down and enjoy the times, and reflect on what Christmas really means to us.  I also hope that it becomes a new tradition for the family.

We are very thankful for our happiness, health, and home.  We also know that others are not as fortunate, so we have tried to incorporate a number of activities that can both help out those less fortunate in our community, and teach the children about helping those in need, and giving back to their community. I think these are the activities that excite me the most about this process.

I am woefully ill-prepared for the unveiling of each day’s activity.  Sadly, there is no advent-type calendar for us, or even a master list that can tell us where we are going and when.  We know what was on for today, and what we’ll be doing for the next few days.  By the weekend, I hope to be more organized, but if not, we’ll roll with it.   Suffice to say that there will be letters to Santa, Christmas Carols and Stories, decorating, baking, viewing Christmas lights, indoor and outdoor fun, and lots of quality time spent together.

Today is day one.  When the lils got home from gymnastics tonight we turned the outdoor Christmas lights on.  It was cold and rainy and they were hungry, so it didn’t go over as well as it could have.  They do like the lights, and I know that they will enjoy turning them on every day now, so we will build from this!!

Anyone else celebrating the 25 days of Christmas?