Christmas Countdown, Days 1-12

With our limited budget, I was feeling bad that we probably couldn't do much for Christmas this year. Then I thought, That's stupid because Christmas isn't about presents anyway. I don't know what I was thinking. Besides that, the kids don't even know what Christmas is and don't expect anything and don't need more toys, etc., etc. So I wanted to make this season about more than just one day of opening presents. I wanted to re-focus. I wanted to do things together as a family and make memories, at least for myself if for no one else.

Well, last year on Good Things Utah, they showed how to make a Christmas countdown with a jewelry organizer. I bought the organizer (at Wal-Mart) and spray paint then and never got around to making it. So I put it together this year. It includes 24 little jars (perfect!) and a case. So I sprayed the jars red, wrote numbers on them, and then put little pieces of paper in each jar with an activity to do that day. I also decorated the case a little.

Emersen loves to open the jars and look at the paper. She also loves all the activities. At first, I had a hard time coming up with all the activities that Emersen would be able to do. But I did include things that we would be doing anyway, like going to the Ward Christmas Party. I assigned the activities strategically and reserved the right to change things if I felt like it. I have to admit we have missed 2 or 3 days, but overall, everything's been fun and easy and memorable. I took pictures of some of our activities. So here's what we did for the first 12 days:

1. Make paper snowflakes - She didn't know how to use scissors so it was pretty funny to hear her say, "Open. Push."

2. Play a Christmas game - I found some free printables online for a Christmas tree puzzle, a matching game, and a snowman with different parts to put on it.

3. Read holiday stories - A long time ago, my mom compiled a binder for me with different Christmas stories so we read a few of them.

4. Collect pine cones - We found so many along the sidewalk in Oak City. We got a full bag and E didn't want to stop. Ignore the "No Trespassing" sign - we did.

5. Learn a Christmas song - We taught her "Once There Was a Snowman" and "Up on the Housetop"

6. Make paper trees and decorate - She put a few decorations on her tree but then became enthralled with filling the gluestick lid with pasta and pouring it back and forth.

7. Make gingerbread houses - As you can guess, it didn't take long for her to just eat the candy instead of help.

8. Have a candlelight dinner (didn't do this one)

9. Make an ornament - I painted her hand white and put her handprint on a red bulb ornament. We made the fingers into snowmen using colored pens. But while it was drying, it tipped over and broke and I just didn't want to do it again.

10. Visit Temple Square - This was done in conjunction with the Lyman Marriott overnighter.

11. Watch a holiday movie and eat popcorn - We got a big tin of popcorn and watched "White Christmas."

12. Make paper plate snowman/santa (didn't do this one)

More to come...