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christmas traditions: book advent
i can’t believe how fast the time between thanksgiving and christmas went this year. i thought i’d have time for so many christmas activities and craft making with my daughter…but it’s all flown by and we’ve done so little.
we didn’t even get christmas cards out. i was designing them and collecting addresses before thanksgiving then lost track of time. now, it’s way too late. we’ve decided to send birth announcements in february instead to make up for my not being on top of it this year.
the one one thing we have done is an advent activity. well two actually.
i knew once we put up the tree mariah would be asking constantly if it was christmas day. so we made a paper chain to count down the days until christmas. i explained that every day we’d take off a ring, and when one was left it would time for santa to come. i wondered if she’d get it…she totally did!
the other activity i decided to do (thanks to pinterest) was read a christmas book every night. thanks to my mom, we already had 24 christmas books! most are from my childhood, others are ones she’s purchased for mariah the past two years. my plan is to slowly take out a few old ones and replace them with ones just for our family.
i LOVE this activity! every night after dinner, we take off a paper chain link and pull a story from a big christmas box. we sit on the couch and read it. twice. and then mariah reads it to us. mariah already loves to read, but having a new special christmas book every day is a treat for her.
i can’t believe how much she loves the nutcracker story. maybe it’s because we watched the ballet on pbs one night in our jammies by the light of the christmas tree. it thrills me to see how much she adores it. it’s my favorite christmas story, and my mom and i used to watch the ballet live every year. to watch mariah tell the story when looking at the pictures makes my heart melt.
my new book i bough this year is mortimer’s christmas manger. so adorable. and all about the story of Jesus’ birth – which is why we celebrate christmas in the first place. we’ve been doing a lot of talking and teaching with mariah about how Jesus is the true reason we celebrate. again, she totally gets it. her little mind amazes me.
i’m so glad that even though this month has flown by, we’ve been able to slow down each night and take in a christmas story together. this is a tradition i plan to continue for many many years.
anyone else have a special christmas family tradition they adore?
i’m still looking for a few more to incorporate as my girls grow.
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This is my favortite book that I read to all the preschool students each year at Christmas at school. The children can really identify with that sweet little mouse who just wants a warm home and what he gives up when he realizes who the baby Jesus really is. I am so happy Mariah is loving it as well. Guess I did not give you that one. love my girls way out there in MN! WISHING YOU WERE UNDER MY CHRISTMAS TREE RIGHT NOW.