The bigger they are...

the harder they fall, right? That is how I feel about my most recent experiment. I undertook a seemingly simple project of creating and decorating 24 paper trees, one for each day until Christmas. The whole thing almost fell flat because it has been so time consuming that my children lost interest and here I am finishing it up alone.

I really do enjoy crafting and look forward to using the finished project to celebrate the Christmas season with the kiddos. But I certainly won’t attempt such a project until the boys have a greater attention span to help me out.

I'll place their six trees and my eighteen trees on the mantle and then place a treat and scripture reading under each. The last step is to attach a number to each, one for each day of December 1-24.

Our First Advent Calendar

In a previous post I shared our plans for a simple home made Advent calendar. Each day the kids open the calendar to find out what activity we have planned and to read the next segment of the Christmas story from Luke. Here are some of the activities and scripture verses that we will enjoy in December:

Christmas movie night with popcorn and hot cocoa
Decorate the Christmas tree
Bake cookies and listen to Christmas music
Visit Santa Clause
See the Nutcracker
Make Christmas cards for neighbors and family
Make Snowman Soup for Cub Scout friends
Attend Cub Scout Christmas party
Make Christmas gifts- bath bombs for friends
Personally deliver or mail cards to neighbors and family
Build a Ginger bread house
Christmas shopping for Papa
Take a drive to see the decorated houses
Deliver cookies and cards to the community fire station
Celebrate Las Posadas
Make pine cone bird feeders
Roast marshmallows in the fire place and have a slumber party by the tree
PJ Night...everyone gets new ones on Christmas Eve

I took the Christmas story from this website and divided it into 24 segments. Each day we'll read the new one in addition to all of those that came before, so by Christmas Day we'll be able to read the whole story through.

December 1
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

December 19
When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.