ADVENTures in Advent - Preparation

I spent some time deciding what all I wanted to remember to do on our Advent calendar this year. You know, following the standard Christmas traditions we've established while adding in a few new things this year for the boys to experience this year were key.

I also wanted to make sure that we focused on remembering exactly what it was that we celebrate this time of year, and why.

I also wanted to make sure we got in our favorite Christmas movies, books and wow, that sure makes for a lot of planning.

What to do?

I grabbed a blank December calendar and plugged in the commitments that were already on our calendar. Then I started second guessing myself because -- well, frankly, that's what I do best! Ha! Seriously, there wasn't enough ROOM on the calendar to write in all I wanted to write in and keep it to one page. I did keep the calendar handy becuase it helped me see which dates fell on which days. That was imperative to keeping the more time-intensive activites on Friday and Saturdays when we logically had more time.

So then the list started. I made a list of all the Christmas movies I wanted us to be sure to watch.

I put all the Christmas books from our bookshelf in a big basket and inserted into each one a bookmark with a number on it (1-25).

I made a list of activites.

I looked for a way to bring out their creative side daily.

I researched ways to be sure we brought CHRIST into our Christmas.

I went shopping for candies and small crafts.

Then, I sat down and started banging away at the keyboard... and what I came with is going to be a great ADVENTure into ADVENT. Each day I'll list what the boys will be doing, reading, writing, and experiencing... I'll be capturing it on film, as well, because, well, that's what scrapbookers do!

If anyone is interested in the planning pages, I'm going to post another page on the blog for everyone to have access to them.