I'm linking up with Sugarplum Creations today. I originally was going to announce to all of Blogland about how I win Mother of the Year every year for my wonderful creativity each December, but it turns out I'm not so creative or ingenious. *sigh* Thanks for bursting my bubble y'all. However, I'm going to share anyways 'cause I still love December because it is the month that I spend the most time with my kids sitting down and just playing with them.
Instead of doing an Advent calendar I hang socks on my banister. (I bought all my socks a couple of years ago at The Dollar Tree) Each one is held to a string of yarn with a clothespin and has the numbers 1-25 on them for the first 25 days of December. I know that Advent actually started Nov. 29th this year, but I don't start my socks until Dec. 1st. Each sock holds a small gift or an activity for us to do as a family. (One sock holds new socks and this year the boys were talking about their new socks in November wondering what kind they'd get this year.)
As always- if you'd like to see the pictures up close and personal just click on them.
This is my banister with all the socks. I love all the silly socks with funny pictures.
Jakob and Nolan rotate days to open socks. Jakob got to open on Day 1- much to the dismay of Nolan.
I love that this year he is able to read what activity is on the paper. I draw pictures along with the activity so they can guess what we are doing if they don't read yet.
And Day 1 was Game Night! I pick a lot of our activities to go along with achievements in Jakob's Cub Scouts book so he can mark off things as we go along. So some of our activities may seem strange. We played 2 different marble games. The object of this one was to roll your marble between the cups and Liter bottle without hitting them. You get 1 point each time you manage to do that and each turn has 5 marbles. (This is not as easy as it sounds!) Nolan however, was very good at it!
Jakob is soooo competitive and can't stand to lose. Today was a good day for him to learn how to be a good loser because Nolan won every single game we played!
Here we are playing Trouble. I do all the activities with the boys, but since we do them before Chris gets home from work I'm not in any of the pictures.
Day 2The activity for Day 2 was making ornaments. My mom was trying to sell an ornament making kit at our garage sale recently and I snagged it (for free) before she could sell it. In hindsight I should have let the kids do more of the work of making them by themselves, but it involved a lot of cutting of small pictures and manipulating the paper inside the bulb. Jakob has fine motor skill difficulties and so out of habit I just did that small work for them. Live and learn.
These are their finished ornaments. I think they turned out good!
Day 3
Hmmm...I wonder what Day 3 will bring?
What is it?
It's lip balm in the shape of Pepsi cans! The boys loved them!
36 Validations To Make Me Feel Worthy:
I love the socks! Such a great idea. I'm never in any pictures either :)
What a fantastic idea!! I may have to steal it. ;)
what a great idea!
looks like they enjoy it a lot! :)
The sock look so cute on your banister! What a fun advent calendar...those socks can hold all kinds of goodies! I was excited that Henry could read our activities this year too...I even made sure to use words that he could sound out easily!
What a great, origianl, exciting Christmas countdown! I just posted how we countdown.
What a cute idea! I love that it's such a festive decoration, too.
I'm such a slacker...maybe I can do something like this next year.
Cute idea! It reminds me of the Who socks. Trouble is such a fun game and the ornaments are really cute!
What a great tradition!! That is very creative!
How lovely! LOVE the wild variety of socks. Love it.
Sorry to have took you back in time with my last comment. I didn't mean to cause you any pain. I obviously had no idea. I am sure your Father would want you to just smile and keep spunkin' on.
So glad to see Jakob seems to be doing so well after his surgery as well, too.
Hmm... Now where could I hang me some socks like that......
And, yes, THANK GOD, I did have a bra on during the restaurant fiasco. Forgot to mention that. I will try to sneak a pic of the Italian God (to which I am now going to call him thanks to you!) but I suck at sneaky pics. I once tried to take a picture of a guy that lookes JUST LIKE MckMama's Prince Charming with that silly little tobbagan thingy he always has on! Got caught! LOL
That is super cute! I don't think I've ever heard of an advent done in socks... well, I mean, I haven't. Great idea! :)
Don't sell yourself short! I love your ideas!
What an awesome fun idea. You are making super memories for your boys. How fun!
The socks on the banister is such a great idea! If only we had a banister....oh well...still love the idea!
What a great idea!!! How neat!!!
What an original idea to put sock on the banister! I love it!
And I loved reading about your week.
what an awesome idea. too bad i don't have stairs, but i do have a nice mantel. we had a nativity advent calendar, but lil' D opened all the doors, so it's moot now. your boys look super happy with all the surprises. great pictures. take care.
I love your blog... your kids stuff is interesting to me. It reminds me to keep it fun and not get caught up in all I have to do.
You think this stuff is boring?!! I think it's great!
I love your idea using the socks as the activity holder!
You win the Mother of the Year award in my books! Awesome, awesome idea!!!!
Ps....I finally posted your guest post :-)
I love the sock idea!
That's a GREAT idea! I can see my boys loving that ... well at least the older one. The baby loves everything that involved me and the toddler.
Okay, that is a cool idea! And now my advent calendar seems so boring in comparison. Good thing my kids don't read your blog. They would be jealous!
What a super cute idea! I never would have thought of socks!!
Jen
What a awesome countdown idea! I was intrigued when I saw the real socks hanging there! :)
That is a great idea! My boys would love something like that!
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing. You are ever so creative! Please post on some of the upcoming socks...I am very interested to see what is in them. When the boys get older this would be a great way to get them thinking about giving and doing for others. For example, one sock could involve an outing in which they pick out a toy for a needy child or take canned goods to the local food bank.
Anyways, about the towels...you just let me know what color and name you want on it and send me your address privately. For you, it's on the house!
I'm loving the sock idea. SO fun!
Such a great idea...and such a great mom! :) I love the game night theme - I bet that was a lot of fun. And the lip balm in the shape of Pepsi cans?!? Awesome!!!
Very cute. We do a similar stocking/mitten countdown but I've often thought it would be cuter with homey socks rather than store-bought ones like we use!
http://smallworldathome.blogspot.com/2009/11/advent-traditions.html
That is a great idea!
LOVE this idea! And why would you think it's boring? I mean, I'm validation #32... does that mean anything to you? :)
Would love to have done this with Itty Bit this year - but I'm SOOO behind on everything. Maybe we'll do a ten day countdown! :)
What a great idea... And, no matter where we live I can find socks!! Maybe string it along a wall..
Mind if I borrow your idea?
The ornaments turned out great!!!!
I am so stealing this idea next year. You don't fill all of them up at first, do you? Because my kids would totally cheat!
Love this idea!!!
~wifemomnurse :)
that is such an amazing idea ... and I am SO stealing it next year! Your bannister is adorable!
We do something SIMILAR ... but it's just a an advent calendar with drawers and little activities are written on tiny pieces of paper. I LOVE the socks.
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