Advent Activities 2015

So I painted this canvas two Christmas' ago for an advent activity....

I've made my list each year... but never actually finished putting it into calendar form.  Maybe this year will be different :-P  Here's my list for this year...

1. Christmas Playdough (Still trying to find a good recipe :))

2. Felt Christmas Tree

3. Mail letter to Relative

4. Toilet Paper tube Nativity

5. Christmas Letter Match

6. Family Craft Night

7. Pick out our Christmas Tree

8. Bulb Name Lights Craft

9. Mail Christmas Card to Injured Soldier

10. Santa Slime

11. School Christmas Program

12. Take neighbors a gift

13. Donate Toy to Toys for Tots

14. Church Christmas Program

15. Make Christmas Cookies

16. Take Cookies to Fire/Police

17. Ribbon Tree Craft
18. Handprint/Footprint Craft (Still need to figure out what I want to do for this one) 

19. Cookies with Cousins

20. Jingle Bell Sticks

21. Family Game Night

22. Random Act of Kindness

23. Look at Christmas Lights (write letter to the best we see)

24. Christmas at Grandma & Grandpas

 


I'm hoping to get it into business card size format soon and then laminate it... but I still have to figure out how to arrange the clothespins... Maybe I should go buy smaller clothespins...

On the upside, my boys can't read yet so if it doesn't work out, I can change it if needed :)  I have two back up ideas -- Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses and Dance Party: Christmas Music Style

I also really like this idea of a Blessings Advent Jar, but I'm not sure the boys will quite get it yet.  So maybe we'll do this in future years also :)

Do you do anything annually for the Christmas season?  I better get finished organizing this -- December starts next week!

Tis the Season.... for seasonal work :-P

I am working part-time seasonally at JoAnn Fabric this year.  I am excited for it, but nervous too :-P  I am just starting tonight and probably the busiest weekend is next weekend! :-o  Plus figuring out scheduling and coordinating all the different Christmas activities... a little nerve-wracking to hope I don't miss asking for something off... 
 I am glad I decided to apply to JoAnn's - it makes me think of my mom.  We went to JoAnn's quite a bit - Black Friday deals, fabric for sewing, I even have a few totes from JoAnn's that I took from my mom's house.  She would probably love me working there!  Speaking of my mom - the two year anniversary of her death came and went this week with the only acknowledgement of it was me commenting on my sisters facebook status....This makes me sad, but I also am not sure what I should do to honor her memory on that day.  I obviously think of her throughout the year and definitely try to honor her with certain activities,  still eating Black Eyed Peas on New Year's Day for example :-P  (She was adamant that we had to eat at least one black eyed pea on New Year's Day... a southern tradition about prosperity or something?  I don't know - but it was/is a tradition, which Tim humors me and eats ONE black eyed pea :-P  At least until this past year, it didn't happen in 2014-- they were bought, but just didn't get fixed :-/  We'll make sure to do it in 2015 though.)  I'll have to think about what I could do on November 18th to honor her memory.  Maybe do a Random Act of Kindness on that day.... maybe related to crafting/sewing?  I'm not sure, I'll have to think about this and what I could do. 
Back to my original thought of today being my first day working at JoAnn's -- I have to chuckle at myself because I am wearing the exact same "uniform" as my first job 14 years ago :-P  (Obviously not the same clothes, but the same thing - if that makes sense.)  My first job was at Kessel's and was black pants and a white polo shirt... I have to wear a white collared shirt at JoAnn's and I bought a white polo (since it was cheaper :-P) and either khaki's, navy blue or black pants, or nice jeans... I will probably wear jeans quite a bit but I figured for my first day I would wear black pants.  After I made the decision of black pants and the white polo - I had a flashback to my Kessel days and chuckled.   I wonder if I still have any pics from my Kessel's days, I'm sure I do somewhere - maybe I will have to dig those up (or maybe my friend Tara still has some around somewhere :-P)  I was going to have Andrew take a picture, but my little photographers (both Andrew and David tried) were not getting flattering angles :-P