Aidan's Advent, Day 1

We have a lot of fun stuff planned for this Christmas season. Aidan has had a lot of questions - where does Santa live, what's he doing, when will he be here, where is the snow, how tall is Jesus...you name it.

This year, we are starting several new traditions. First, the advent calendar:


I got this idea from a blog I love and love the way it turned out. It's made from a hanging shoe organizer. Instead of putting treats or toys in it, I've put a fun activity or experience on the back of each card. We can keep mementos or other items from the day's activities in the pockets, and I've left enough room to add a picture each day - hello, instant scrapbook!

Today's activity got Aidan really excited - he got to put up a Christmas tree in his room! He loved seeing it light up and we're looking forward to adding ornaments to it over the next few weeks.

Our next fun tradition is that I've wrapped 25 Christmas books and put them in a basket.

Aidan can choose one each day to unwrap. I'll leave the unwrapped ones in the basket so he can read them over and over if he'd like. They're not sorted in any particular order, but we made sure he opened this one first:


Elf on the Shelf!

He had a lot of questions about the elf, but loved reading the story and decided to name his elf Sally. We're looking forward to seeing all of the places Sally decides to hide this December, and hoping that it curbs some not-so-flattering behaviors along the way!

I hope to keep up with the blogging this month (and beyond!), so bear with me - and Merry Christmas!