Advent'ING

Advent'ING is my latest advent obsession, and latest word invention as well. I stumbled onto the idea last year when I realized the traditional basket didn't hold the same appeal for my daughter (then 10). As I mentioned on my blog, she she always wanted to be doing, going, or making. A storybook had become a three minute distraction and nothing more.

What she did love was mail. She was always asking if something came in the mailbox for her. I thought it would fun to make use of this love by installing a little mailbox outside her bedroom door, where I could deliver daily advent letters that provided activities we could do together, sometimes even a special package accompanied the letter. It was a HUGE success.

Some of you may be curious what type of mailbox we installed and for simplicity sake I used one of the wall file holders that doctors use. It worked brilliantly, was inexpensive to purchase and doesn't stand out in the hallway for the rest of the year, plus it's become a handy way to give my daughter little messages and to store her school work for filing. I do think a real mailbox would also be adorable, maybe somewhere central in the house if you have a larger family. Then you could use colors to see who gets to open the envelope that day...green for David, red for Melissa, yellow for Susie... there's no end to the ways you could personalize it.

AdventING was born and each day we tried to incorporate activities that would find us engaging in the kind of Christmas we wanted to have:

Monday: Cooking/Decorating

Tuesday: Making/Crafting

Wednesday: Reading

Thursday: Playing

Friday: Watching

Saturday: Going/Doing

Sunday: Spiritual Meaning

Here's a sample of what the first week of 'INGS looked like (digital kit was from Houseof3):

MAKING - the white shoe box was filled with chocolate wafers and chocolate lollipop molds. We had a mini candy making session in the kitchen and produced enough chocolate lollipops to keep us sugared up well into the New Year!READING - This is such a simple activity but it can fill an evening easily. It's also a great time of the month to hit the library for Christmas books as they often have a huge selection that hasn't been cleared out yet.
PLAYING - we are a family that loves playing games. This advent was a new puzzle - one that was bit too difficult for us, but we spent a few hours over the holidays working on it. Note to self: get a 250 piece puzzle for my family next time!
WATCHING - Friday nights are already family movie night in our house, so why mess with what works. It's a great time to fit in all those Christmas movies you love to watch every year.
DOING - Saturdays are busy days that find us out and about so why not go with it and make it seem like you've got it all planned out. Decorating the house and shopping for Christmas are things we have to do anyway, but adding into the advent it somehow makes it a bit more exciting. My daughter loved that the envelope also had money...what kid wouldn't love that?
SPIRITUAL MEANING AND SPECIAL DELIVERY - This kind of evolved as I needed more flexibility on Sundays - thus Special Delivery Sunday was born. It was a great day to send a little treat, wrap up the nativity, or take time to read a favorite story together.
BAKING - It's got to happen over the Christmas season and I found including it as part of the advent was a great way for us to really make the time to get it done. Gotta love 3 baking Monday's before Christmas.

There's a quick glimpse at our latest Advent tradition. Check out the list on the side for more 'ING's you could use. Enjoy!