This year we went to get our Christmas tree in early December. This is earlier than we’ve gotten it in past years, and apparently too early for me. I was so ready to take it down the day after Christmas!!

We went to a local nursery to pick out our tree which was really fun. They even had free hot cocoa and popcorn! Sam loved finding the right tree and sniffing the branches.

When we got home, I used some of the extra branches to spruce up our stockings. I am so proud of the stockings I made this year, I just have to show them off! I saved a few pieces of the fabrics so that I can make one for Baby Sister next year!

I also have to show off our new advent calendar. I started this project last year but finally finished it in time for the holidays. It is an ornament calendar, so you pull an ornament off each day to hang on the tree. I still need about 10 more ornaments, but that worked out this year since we didn’t get around to hanging it up until mid way through December! My plan is to take off all the tags and use it as a bulletin board for the rest of the year. But right now it is still hanging up, mostly empty except for the one ornament that never got hung up! Here it is sitting in the basement before it got hung up.

Next year, or maybe the year after, I plan to copy my friend Betty’s idea. She does a Christmas Activity Advent Calendar. Each day her daughter picks a card to find out what activity they will do. The activities range from something as simple as reading a holiday book to a big activity like going to The Nutcracker. I am thinking I can combine this idea with my Ornament Advent Calendar and put the activity cards behind each ornament. Of course, that will require a lot more organization than I had this year, so we’ll see!