DIY - Activity Advent

The Christmas season is by far my most favourite time of the year.  To be honest, I am one of those people who listens to carols year round and counts down to the big day starting Dec. 26th.  I know, I've got it BAD!  This year I wanted to do something fun for Marleigh since she is 2 years old and understands what's going on this year.  Also, with having a new addition to the family, I wanted to find something uniquely special just for Mommy and Marleigh.  And so the creation of "Marleigh's Activity Advent began.  My dear friend and craft guru Angie graciously opened her craft room to me one night and let me play.  I decided to make various Christmas bobbles to stick to the mirror in our kitchen.  I glued pre-cut cardstock circles to different craft paper...adding polka-dots, stripes, candy canes etc.  I decided not to write directly on the bobble so that I can reuse them next year and the year after and so on...  Thankfully I made this decision before starting, saving me time next year :)  So, each day I decide on a new fun Christmas activity to do with Marleigh Bear.  We call it our "special Christmas activity" - not a catchy title but she gets soooo excited about it.  I also decided that for the most part we would complete the daily activity after nap time - in order to ensure she still went down for a nap every day!  Sometimes I use it for behaviour management (ie. Marleigh, if you aren't going to listen to Mommy then that shows Mommy that you don't want to do your special Christmas activity).  Not sure what child psychologists would say about my approach but it works...for December, now what to do in January????
Another key element is that I decided what the activity is going to be based on what I have the energy for that day.  Having a growing family can be exhausting and I needed to make sure I wasn't adding any unnecessary "work". I write the activity on a sticky note and add it to the mirror underneath the bobble.  I was hoping to use cute star sticky notes or find xmas trees BUT...that would be making more work and it wasn't necessary.  I had to remind the type A teacher in me of this often.   This year we will only be doing 20 days (I think...we'll see) as we will be heading to Calgary on the 20th and from then on our days will be filled.  Here is the list of activities we've done so far...feel free to take this idea and revamp it to fit your family!

1: Stay in our jammies all day and drink hot cocoa
2: Eat a pink candycane
3: Get a picture taken with Santa
4: Watch Rudolph and snack on popcorn
5: Make a snowflake craft
6: Drive around the city and look at Christmas lights
7: Snuggle and watch a movie of your choice
8: Go for a coffee/hot chocolate date at Starbucks
9: Have breakfast in bed
10: Get a Christmas manicure (green & blue sparkles)
11: Eat red and green fish crackers for snack
12: Bake gingerbread cookies
13: Play outside in the snow
14: Paint a Christmas picture

*** other ideas ***
- build a snowman
- roast marshmallows inside
- go Christmas caroling
- make snow angels
- give a homemade Christmas card to a stranger
- go watch a school Christmas concert
- go see the zoo lights (Calgary)
- go ice skating
- go sledding
- go on a sleigh ride
- decorate a gingerbread house

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!