The 12 Days of Christmas 2012

I am so thrilled to finally pull together another post.  I miss blogging.  Although, I am just loving having a sweet little baby again!  I just can't get enough of her!  I am taking all the time I can to just sit and snuggle this sweet little angel of ours.  Which is why my posts are few and far between.  Such is the season of my life for now...

 

But I do have a post today!  Even if it is cutting into my sleep time a bit...hmmm...maybe not the wisest choice since I'm a sleep deprived momma!  So we will make this quick!

 

I have been contemplating our Christmas festivities for this year.  Simple is my mantra since having baby #4.  But at the same time I want to have some fun, memorable Christmas activities with my family.  For the past few years I have put together a Christmas Advent activity.  It was really cute!  Made from wedding tin favors and magnets.  I put it on our fridge each year and filled each tin with any event for the day.  You can see it here.

 

This year, however, I felt that 25 activities would be too much for me.  So I have decided to pare it down to just 12.  And since it's 2012, I thought it was a perfect idea!  I decided to forgo my magnetic tins this year.  And I came up with this print out to hang on the fridge instead. 

 

First, I filled in the calendar portion with all the events we already had scheduled...classes, Christmas parties, whatnot.  Then I came up with the 12 activities that I wanted to do this year - actually you can see from the pic above that I'm still lacking a few items, but I'll get them in there soon - I promise!  Then I plotted them out on my calendar.  The great thing about this is that I have more than twice as many days as activities, so I was able to pick and choose the days that worked best for us.  All while not overloading this Christmas season with lots of extra clutter - y'all know what I mean, right?

 

And in the spirit of giving...I created a blank copy for you!

And here are a few ideas for your 12 Days of Christmas 2012 activities:

Putting up Christmas decorations (if you haven't already done so)

Make cookies (could be a 2 parter - baking & decorating)

Christmas crafts

Making homemade gifts

Buy gifts for Samaritan's Purse (more info on that here)

Christmas caroling

Christmas shopping - make it a date night with each child, giving them an opportunity to shop for each other.

Christmas movie night - this year we are not able to make it to our local Barnes and Noble for the Polar Express night, so we are going to put together our own special night...rearrange the furniture and hang up a sheet to watch it with the projector, punch their tickets, and of course, serve some hot chocolate!  I'm looking forward to it!  Especially since it's a "stay in" activity - those are best with a little one!

 

There are so many more ideas that I am sure you can come up with...or better yet, ask your kiddos what types of things they'd like to do this year.  May your Christmas season be full of blessings!