Advent 2016 planner

One of the traditions my girls love most about this time of year is Advent. For us, Advent starts on December 1st, and ends December 25th. What we do each year varies depending on how ambitious I am.  This year, I have decided to try and plan a different craft, activity, game, movie, etc for each day of December.  Thank you, Pinterest, for making this slightly easier on me!

To help me plan out our Advent activities, I created a little planning page to motivate me.

Would you like to use this simple page to help you plan your advent?  If you click below, the link will take you to google drive where you can download and print it for your own personal use.  I used graphics by HarperFinch designs, and I just love them!

Download Advent 2016

How do you celebrate Advent?  I'd love to hear in the comments below.  Feel free to share by linking to this blog post so your friends can get their own copy of the 2016 Advent planner!

Advent days 4-10

I decided a post a day for advent may be boring, so I'm consolidating!  

Day 4 was going to be an art project, but these awesome boxes from Lowe's arrived so we altered our plans and enjoyed them instead. 

On day 5, we went to see Santa arrive via helicopter and then watched the parade. Here he stopped to take a picture with the girls!  So exciting!

Saint Nick came on the 6th day. Here are the girls in their new mommy-made pj pants. We also put our tree up. 

The 7th, we made paper snowflakes, and they are now decorating the entire house...

Day 8, I'm going to have to come back to because I can't remember!  

Day 9 was family game night 

And today, day 10, the girls will be putting on a "fashion show" which is one of their favorite things to do!  

Trying to come up with something every day is hard!  But the girls love it so much, so I don't mind. 😊

Advent day 2

The girls enjoyed putting together the advent spiral last night and lighting our first candle. The first light of advent is the light of stones, so we put one of our crystals next to the spiral. It amazes me how in awe they were, I love this tradition.

 Then we listened to the sparkle story for day 1. Jujubee decided she does want to listen, so we will begin and see how it goes. 

Today is day 2, and Kevin and I decided on Rudolph and popcorn for after dinner tonight. I'm sure the girls will love it. 

I am no chalkboard artist!

Advent day 1

Each morning, I try to wake an hour or so before the kids and have some quiet time to pause, reflect on yesterday, plan today, to write, and just be still.  I am so grateful for this short period of time I gift myself.  Some days it is the only quiet time I have, alone, and it helps me get through the day.  

It is dark outside right now and almost 7:00.  I feel for my husband who leaves for work early and comes home after dark.  I cannot imagine not seeing the sun each day, but that is just how this season goes.  

Today is December 1st, and for my family it is the first day we celebrate of Advent.  Normally we listen to these wonderful Advent stories by Sparkle Stories, but since we have listened to the same ones for two years, Jujubee has requested we do something different.  I can’t blame her, but I did love that little pause at the end of the day where even I could listen to a story, instead of being the host.  

So, this year, I am trying something different.  I have dug a basket out of the boxes still in the basement and decided to put a note, activity, book, movie, etc in it each day for the kids to find.  Today, they will find our Advent spiral and candles.  They will build it on our plant window and we will light a candle for each day as we progress through Advent.  Now, I just need to plan the other 23 days…