Enjoying Christmas

Because I love Christmas so much, I really want to savor the month leading up to it. See, I'm the kind of girl who doesn't generally like surprises because for me, half the fun of an event is the anticipation. I love to plan, and I love to do fun things with my family. Before we moved in June, I got rid of a bunch of my Christmas decorations. I am tired of having every corner of my house full of clutter--albeit cute clutter--during the month of December. So I ended up keeping what is really meaningful to our family, and I sold/donated the rest. The freedom from clutter has given me much more time and energy, and a general sense of peace. I put some of that time and energy into our advent calendar. The focus of the calendar is to spend time with the family during what can be a very crazy month. During our morning devotions and dinnertime readings, we are focusing on Jesus, the true reason for the season.

Day 1: Make a paper chain to help us count down to Christmas! 

We ended up not doing this activity on December 1st because we were getting ready for our trip to Snapper's meet. So the kids made their chain on Tuesday with the babysitter while Matt and I were at our last foster/adoption class. I don't have a photo of it, so I'll post a picture of the advent calendar itself. I made it myself and thoroughly enjoyed the process. Before you get too amazed by my creativity, remember that this is not an original idea. I found it on www.pinterest.com, and though the colors and some of the design on mine are uniquely mine, by no means did I come up with this on my own. I am very good at being a copycat! I plan to store it very carefully so we can use it for many years.