Christmas Countdown with 25 Gifts

I got Instagram!  Did you know?  Are you following?

I am #addicted right now!  Why blog when I can just take pictures and share there?  Kidding... mostly!  I admit that I've been spending a lot of time there and neglecting a bit here!  I shall find the balance between both, hopefully!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope it was wonderful!  I am thankful for all you you my readers, and those who just pop in on occasion, or even once, never to return again!

December is next week!  I am so excited!  I've started decorating early this year, because I have more to decorate this year (6 trees!).  It has been good for me to get in the groove early because I've been able to plan some changes for this year.

In the past I have written about our favorite advent traditions.  We like to do something everyday the month of December.  It seems like last year a few days would go by before we would do our advent, it has lost a little steam.  That is A-OK, just means we need to change it up.

This year I am introducing two new traditions and I wanted to tell you about them now so you have some time to do them too if you want!

First, in place of our usual scripture advent (which you can find in that link above) we are trying this 25 Days of Christ.  

We will do this each night in place of our family scripture study.  It is studying, it's just focused all on Christ.  I am very excited!  I am painting all of the ornaments white and I think I'll hang them on our railing, upstairs.  I'll show that to you in a different post.  Again, just wanted to share so you have time to grab one for yourself!

Instead of pulling out of our drawer, something to do that day, this year I have wrapped up 25 things and we will open a gift each day leading up to Christmas.  We will start on the eve of December and end on Christmas Eve.

My friend Lynette does this with her family and she does cool things like learning about their heritage, something each day.  

It would be fun to learn about the traditions of this holiday.  It could be fun to theme each day, like service day, cookie day, elf day etc, maybe get a piece to a giant gift each day, maybe 25 books or stories to open each day.  Endless possibilities!

I am doing a combination of just fun things, combined with traditional things we do anyway.  We do a hot chocolate bar, for example, I will give that as a gift.  We make puzzles, that is a gift.  Make sense?  This doesn't have to be expensive, you can wrap up the things you do every year and give them at this time.  Have some favorite movies you always watch?  Wrap them up!

I will include my list, to give you some ideas.

Christmas puzzle, bed sheets = Target, nutcracker = Home Goods, wall clings = Hobby Lobby, foam village = Michaels, Christmas coloring book,  lego Temple, Santa suckers = Target, snow globe = Home Goods, Joy To the World DVD (if you are local I have 2 extras of this DVD, I'm happy to give you one!)

I'm excited to end with the Joy to the World DVD.  It is beautiful and a great reminder of the reason we celebrate this beautiful season!

I also wrapped them odd and even days.  I put the odd day gifts under our tree in the loft and the even day gifts under the tree in our entry way. 

I anticipate this being a great, fun year!  It is so much fun to open gifts, I hope that the magic of giving is felt every day!