Thanksgiving -> Advent Calendar

One of my very favorite Thanksgiving traditions is making our advent calendar.  We started doing this years ago and the kids have enjoyed it at every age, from toddler to teen.  We adults are pretty fond of it, too.

We make a paper chain to count down to Christmas.

I cut pieces of 8.5" x 11" paper in half, hot dog style. Those strips will be folded in half again, long ways. But before we link them together, each family member gets a stack of paper strips. We each write strips about the other people in the family. We write what we like about them, or something we enjoy doing with them, or just something nice about them.

 
So each strip has something about one member of the family, written by someone else in the family.  Ideally each person can write about every other person in the family.  We've gotten a *little* bigger than that, so I usually assign who each kid will write about by writing a name at the top of each strip - that's who you're supposed to write about.  Even when the kids were little we did this, either writing down what they told us, or, as we do with David, guessing at what they would tell us if they could talk!

The the strips get folded so the message is hidden inside and given to me.  I assemble the chain, which is, of course, red/green/red/green in pattern, because a random placement would drive me crazy!  (I staple the links together.) Then each night we pick one kid to pull a link off and read it to the rest of the family.  It's an amazing feel good moment and my favorite holiday tradition!

We're connected again!

Our internet connection is back. Whew! I sure did miss it!

Things are settling down here at home with D. He's been healthy for about 2 weeks now. We're surviving spring break. (Well, kind of.)

Z is getting ready to celebrate his first communion. J is looking for a new job. H is struggling with some new anxieties, but doing well in therapy. T is off overtime!!! Hooray! G is just being G.

Right now the biggest thing at home is St. Patrick's day - or rather - Leprachauns! Leprachauns came to G's preschool on the last day before spring break last week. They turned over all the chairs in G's preschool room and turned the lights out! I talked to the kids about using their imaginations to make Leprachaun traps and they went wild! I had been planning to leave some leprachaun mayhem for them to find on Monday, but I didn't count on their imaginations providing it before then!

Ever since making the traps, the kids have been noticing their beds and toys are rearranged, and different than they left them. It has been so exciting here! The other night the leprachauns knocked G's pillow off her bed in the middle of the night! They messed up Z's trap, but weren't caught. All sorts of strange happenings. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens on the big day!