This December we have several ways we are counting down the days until Christmas. For the most part Samuel gets the countdown and the anticipation is pretty exciting. Oliver on the other hand is completely confused. He'll randomly announce Christmas is over. He also thinks everytime we get in the car we're going to see Santa. Poor guy.
Ring Chain. We made a simple ring chain for each of the boys. They get to take a ring off every morning. This is proving to be a pretty fun morning task for them. Samuel routinely says he got up so he can take a ring off.
Chocolate Calendar: For $1.00 we got the calendars that have the windows that open and each contains a chocolate. Samuel enjoys finding the correct numbers and then taking time to see what picture is in the chocolate. Oliver opens any window and downs the chocolate without a second glance. Upon receiving the calendar and learning each door contained a chocolate, Oliver opened every window "just to check" he said. Guess he didn't believe us when we explained the process. This tradition is also proving a great way to get breakfast eaten in a timely manner.
Advent Tree Lighting. We have a tree that has a candle for each day of December. There is a rather cheesy book that we read when we light the candle. Kevin and I naively thought this year we could do this nightly as a family. Well, after getting over the arguements over who gets to light the match, once we light the candle Oliver begins a very loud version of Happy Birthday. After we get through the birthday song we have pretty much lost Samuel who repeatedly asks if we can blow the candle out. Usually in the midst of explaining to Samuel we can't blow the candle out until after we read the story, Oliver sneaks in and blows it out. Needless to say, we have abandoned this tradition for now.
Apparently chocolate and rings are the right speed for ages 4 and 2.
