Finished Advent Calendar.

I know I showed you an almost identical picture a week or so ago, but I've since painted my clothespins and added numbers. Those numbers, man. It was impossible to find something locally that I liked that was in the right colors that wasn't going to break my wallet. So I bought those kraft tags for $3 and wrote numbers on them. It's not the awesomest, but you know what? I'm happy with them. I first painted the pins with hot pink spray paint, let them dry, then sprayed them with silver glitter spray. (And they look awesome.)

I purchased a new ornament for everyone in the family, and we started off advent by hanging them on our tree. I had a bear of a time deciding on twenty-four activities that were relatively inexpensive yet still relevant for two toddlers that taught them service and kindness but also allowed them to have fun and didn't require being outside in the cold too often. But the list is made, and we'll see how this year goes. (If you have a really awesome idea up your sleeve, please leave me a comment and share it with me!)

Happy December 1st!

Edit: Barbara asked me to share my list, and why didn't I think of that? Here is my list of activities for Advent. We are also reading a portion of the Nativity story each morning. This is in no particular order, and we will be recycling a few throughout advent. I should also mention that we aren't doing Santa with our kidlets, so that rules out a number of choices or makes them more difficult than I'd like.

• Hang up a new ornament
• Make red and green play dough
• Ride the carousel at the mall
• Read Christmas books
• Watch a Charlie Brown Christmas
• Sing and dance to Christmas carols
• Draw/Color Pictures for our friends and family
• Make Christmas cookies
• Decorate Christmas cookies
• Deliver Christmas cookies (yes, three days of cookies)
• Participate in a toy drive
• Have a visit with a special friend
• Visit Daddy at work and take a coffee break
• Drink hot cocoa
• Wrap brother's Christmas gift
• Go look at Christmas lights
• Fingerpainting
• Make a gingerbread house
• Ride the Christmas train at the mall
• Help Daddy make a fire
• Spend special time with Daddy
• Take a bike ride with Daddy (depends on the weather--will be replaced by snow activities if it snows)
• Write a thankful letter
• Take canned food and other non-perishables to the food pantry

So that's our list. I'm assuming it will snow at least twice, providing extra snow activities. I'm sure we'll read Christmas books more than just once. Ditto Christmas carols. I wrote down all of my ideas, and then used this list from Adriel Booker when I got stuck and couldn't think of anything else. When the kids get older (my oldest isn't yet four) we'll venture into new territory, but for now, watching the boys get all giggly about hanging their new car ornaments made me smile.