A Fun New Tradition

So, this year I needed to go easy on myself-due to the fact my cold doesn't seem to be leaving me, so I combined two traditions into one new big one. This is our new family advent calendar. Every year we buy all our kids their own little chocolate advent calendar to count down the days. We also plan out the month of December going out on activity days every single day until the 24th(the kids are off track the whole month). This year I have decided to do only 12 days of activities and the other 12 days we will open up a small family present. I took 24 socks and hung them on some ribbon and placed 24 pieces of paper in them( 12 say activity and 12 say present). The days that say activity the kids will pick off a list and we will do that activity. The days that say present they pick which present we open(just small things like books, socks, pencils, etc.). When I presented this idea to the kids they jumped for joy and thought it sounded like tons of fun! I can't wait to start it and see how it goes. The socks also have a small piece of candy in them for each kid too. Who doesn't like more chocolate at Christmas! I'm excited to watch them all pick and choose what we do and what present we open. The kids have seen the presents all wrapped up and they are excited because there are really big ones(I tricked them with wrapping in bigger boxes)and can't wait to pick those ones first. We are going in turns so that each child gets to pick down a sock and choose. Each kid will get four turns and they figured this out and thought it was so awesome-Kaleigh's words. We'll take pictures of each day and hope this becomes a new tradition-it would make things a little easier each year. Have a good weekend and Happy Holidays!