Advent - Day One

Recently I have been reading other blogs and looking for Christmas advent ideas. I did not want to give the kids a little toy (just more clutter) or candy (Catherine would not appreciate it) every day for 24 days. But, I wanted to get them excited about Christmas and anticipate the coming holiday.

So, I found an idea of Advent Activity Envelopes. Every day the kids open one envelope and we do the activity which is listed inside. I tried to choose only activities which would take ten minutes or less (in case that day turned out to be way too busy) and activities which were free or fairly cheap.

So far I have invested very little money in this project. I bought decorative clothespins at Michael's and a huge holiday coloring book which included large stickers at the dollar store. I used leftover envelopes from my wedding and scrapbook paper. Robby hung a bright red string and we had a home-made Advent calendar:

Catherine told me she saw a pattern: the numbers were in order. So when we came home from church last night (that is why they are still in coats) we let Catherine pick the first envelope:

The first activity:

I let the girls use some leftover Christmas stationery and write their letters. Sabrina dictated hers to me, while Catherine actually wrote hers. It is fairly illegible because the paper was unlined and she is a beginning writer. Catherine asked for a Tiana costume, a Snow White costume, and a Rosetta costume. Sabrina asked for a ball and a pool.