Advent

I love to plan activities more than I love the activities themselves. And 'round this time of year, my head starts swirling with all kinds of fun stuff.

I'm excitedly preparing for our advent calendar. Each box is filled with a few small pieces of candy and a tag with instructions like "take a drive and look at Christmas lights" that you open each day. Amy gave this to me a couple years ago. I loved the idea and it amazes me how much the kids enjoy such simple activities.

I began making my list. Big plans I have...

Then today came.
I woke up late, chores were half done, a few quizzes took an hour instead of 15 minutes. Still, we managed to get all our baths in, everybody was fed 3 meals, and the house did get picked up (sorry you missed it.)
Everything on the "absolutely needs to get done" list was done, but there was no time for anything extra. Paige never did get around to practicing her flute, Courtney and I never got a chance to pull out the sewing machine, not once did I play a card game with the boys, or color with Grace.
And after my unproductive day was through, and I was putting the kids to bed, Grace got to goofing around, woke Joshua up, and they both started giggling at each other. I did not see the humor in it at all.

Oh, forget it! If I can't get the normal stuff taken care of in the course of a day, where do I think I will find the time for all this extra stuff? I can't possibly fit one more thing into my life right now.
So I took a deep breath and led Grace back into bed, and as I leaned down to kiss her goodnight, she gave me a big smile... and booped me on the nose.

(in case it's been a while since you've been booped, let me remind you how a good booping can change your attitude. First you have to remember just how cute that little face is when you are 3 inches away, and how time seems to stand still while their little hand lingers there gearing up for it. And as they bop you in the nose gently with just the tip of their finger, "boop" they whisper. And grin. You have no chose but to grin back. It's boopin law.)



That's when it hit me. The reason I plan activities like these.
Mothers often forget to have fun.
We get so wrapped up in making sure there's food in their tummies and clothes on their backs, preparing their education, tending to their health, that it's easy to forget to lighten up and have fun. And if I didn't open a box that told me to snuggle up under a blanket and tell childhood stories, I sure wouldn't do it.
I am not as spontaneous as I would like to be. I'm working on it. But in the meantime, prompts sure do help.

So without further ado, (drum roll) our advent list...

1 Read a Christmas book
2 Scavenger hunt: find something warm (reward the winners with hot chocolate)
3 EVERYONE sing a Christmas carol together
4 make a gingerbread house
5 Snuggle under a blanket and tell childhood stories
6 Eat dinner by candlelight
7 take a moonlit walk in the snow
8 Watch a Christmas show
9 Make cookies
10 decorate the tree
11 Scavenger hunt: something that shows joy
12 Take a drive and look at lights
13 read the Christmas story
14 Scavenger hunt: something fun (winner picks the evening board game)
15 Play outside all together
16 Cut out paper snowflakes
17 Write down your 5 best memories from the past year

In case you hadn't noticed, there are more days than prompts. This is because I ran out of ideas. ;)
Really, it's because I know that between working and school and other activities, we just wont be able to do something every day. Also, they are not in any set order. I am keeping the tags in one container and will choose the night before which one will be best for the following day and will slip it in there as if I had it planned the whole time. There will be a few that will simply say "enjoy a piece of candy and remember to thank your mother." ...or something like that. I will be taking a photo a day of our activities and I could say that I will post every day. But I wont. Really, who has the time for that? But I will share when I can.

Have a wonderful first of December!