we are ready!

i LOVE december.
i LOVE christmas.

every moment. every tradition. every day.

it's fun to have traditions in our own family. and kids old enough to remember them and look forward to them!

{i'm sharing 4 things we'll be doing all month long. i'm sharing it in case there is someone looking for ideas!}

this past sunday, we started our advent candles. we don't just do an advent devotion every sunday...we do it every night. why? well, there is SO much going on to distract us from the REAL meaning of Christmas! i definitely need to be reminded DAILY where our focus should be. and my kids need it too!

another tradition we've done for years now is the 24 gifts. the kids LOVE this one! i get a calendar out for the month of december and plan when we're going to do some of our fun activities (make cookies, gingerbread houses, drive around and look at lights) some of the gifts they open will symbolize those things. but most of the gifts are christmas books or cd's or movies that we own, and we will read or watch or listen to the day we open it! kids LOVE to open gifts, right??

{this picture isn't from this year. because i don't have them wrapped yet. working on it!}

i'm just going to link to the post from last year for this one. our gifts for Jesus. oh, how i LOVED this last year! i still think it's going to be my favorite tradition...

even though we are starting a new one this year!

{i know, i know. i shouldn't do ANYthing new. but, we ALL need to remember to think of OTHERS and not just ourselves. even {especially!} those new around here!}

i was able to do this in 1 day and with materials i already had - yay!!!

i glued ribbon to clothespins
{do you see my toes in flip flops?? it was 70 degrees here yesterday!}

and then wrote an "act of kindness" on a piece of paper to be clipped in each clothespin.

24 acts of kindness. i can't wait to start!!!