This years advent activities went off beautifully! Many of them were tons of fun and we started some new traditions that I am excited about as well. The kids had a blast getting to open the card for each day and finding out what kind of adventure we were going on. My favorite thing about doing the advent activities is the memories we get to make as a family. All those incredible, collectable, stories that start with “Do you remember when….”
Here are some highlights and I added the links where applicable.
Dec 1st: Christmas Movie with Caramel Popcorn
For this activity I actually ended up using this recipe: Honey Vanilla Caramel Popcorn from PineappleandCoconut.com
It includes no corn syrup and uses honey instead. It was SO tasty! I don’t think I will ever go back to the corn syrup version again, even if we only make it twice a year.
Dec 2nd: Pomander Oranges
Dec 3rd: Dreidel for Hanukkah with friends
Dec 4th: Paper Snowflakes and Stars Crafts
Dec 5th: Journey to Bethlehem
Dec 6th: St Nickolas day
The kids laid their shoes out the night before and I got to treat them with a chocolate coins and a neat little trinket. It’s a fun tradition considering Santa Claus coming down the chimney is a ‘fun’ thing at our house and not a ‘real’ thing. I read the story of the real St Nick and we celebrate his life, completely separately from the Christmas holiday. (That's where the chocolate coins come in… if you want to read about the real St Nick check this out!)
Dec 7th: Breakfast with Santa at the Station
Dec 8th: Family Game Night!
I WISH I had pictures of this. This was one of those memory nights. Highlight:
Playing Taboo w ILs and family. Boys vs girls...
Carlos says "um... Ah... I love this?"
Don says "beer!"
Carlos "yes!"
This game is rigged.
Dec 9th: Get Christmas Tree
Dec 10th: Teasel Hedgehog Crafts (Never got to this… teasels are still on the nature table… maybe after break?)
Dec 11th: Going to see Santa scuba diving with some sharks at Zoo Lights
Seriously… how cool is that??
Dec 12th: Cards and Gifts for Friends
Dec 13th: Going to see Paradosi Ballet Company
Dec 14th: St Lucia Day (make St Lucia Bread) (Technically it was the 13th, but we ended up making it for Christmas brunch.)
Dec 15th: Go find some snow at Mt Rainier!
This was Ember’s (our 4 mo old puppy) first outing and she was so excited! It was adorable watching her run around in the snow. Luckily, we had had some snow just last week, so she wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with it. She just jumped in and had a blast!
Dec 16th: Shopping for Mommy with Daddy
Dec 17th: Chocolate dipped treats
Dec 18th: Make peg doll nativities
Dec 19th: Make gifts for our feathered friends
Dec 20th: Christmas Cookies for Neighbors
Dec 21st: Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt with fresh hot cider
Dec 22nd: Ice Skating!!
23rd: Fantasy lights at Sprinker Park
Dec 24th: Light a fire and roast s’mores
Haha! Joke was on us, burn ban started today! So we had some boxed chocolates and watched It’s a Wonderful Life together instead. I cried. I always do.
And that was it for this year. It was on to Christmas!
Advent Activities 2009
Advent Activities 2010
Advent Activities 2011
Advent Activities 2012