Start Building Your Advent On Thanksgiving

I’ve been enamored with the beautiful

advent calendars that have been showing up on Pinterest.

But what to do with each day’s treasure? Won’t everyone just get tired of the same, old chcolcate candy coin or candy cane by December 13?  I think so.  And, do I really want to buy a bunch of junk just for Advent?

So, I googled advent calendar ideas, and found a whole slew of ideas. Of things to do — like go ice skating,

build a snowman, make hot chocolate, take a walk in the snow. Sounds good, and armed with the list, I began imposing the activities onto our Advent Calendar, and hence, onto my family.

However… I’m learning that with four boys (five, including my husband), what I think is a great idea, may not be!

So, at Thanksgiving this year, we will each write down four “Christmas activities”

to be incorporated into our advent calendars. Four times 6 is 24 — so that should cover all the days.

If someone picks the same thing twice — so be it — we must really enjoy that activity. Half the fun will be seeing what someone else picked — especially with all the varying age groups here. 8, 9, 14, 16, 45 and 49!

So, after the Turkey is put back to bed into the refrigerator, and you are full of pie, sit down with your family and make a list of what you’d like to do this year, together for Advent… and fill your calendar!