Advent Activity Calendar

For Christmas this year I decided to do an advent calendar for Ellie. I remember doing these as a kid, but usually they were filled with chocolate. This idea I found on Pinterest (of course)! Its an activity based advent calendar. Perfect for a toddler who doesn't need candy and loves to spend time doing stuff with her mommy and daddy.

Immediately she was pretty interested in it. But now, every night when we get home, she asks "Can we do this (pointing at the advent calendar since she can't remember what its called)?"

24 days: Cut a Christmas Tree - we went out to Greenbluff and cut our very own Christmas tree from Deitz Farm.

23 days: Decorate the Christmas Tree - Ellie had fun on this one, but didn't keep her interest the entire time.

22 days: Write a letter to Santa - This would have been pretty hard for a 3 year old who doesn't have a strong grasp on writing letters - but I found a super cute form letter from Martha Stewart on Pinterest. She answered all these questions herself (even knew where we lived - Spokane). I had to help her with the house part and provide her with the names of reindeer (she picked the last one I said). I think the sweetest thing of all is that when I originally asked her what she wanted for Christmas most of all, her response was "Ryan wants a puzzle because..."

21 days: Wrap Christmas presents - we pulled out the gifts for her cousins and she got to pick the wrapping paper for each boy and then helped us cut and tape the paper. She then placed them all under the tree.

More activities and pictures to come.