Advent Calendar Crazy

Our original felt Advent Calendar
The Chairbacker Present we use for books
The Magnetic Cookie Tray Calendar

In addition to our Activity Advent Calendar (scroll down a few posts) we have several special ways to count-down to Christmas. We have a fairly elaborate first-thing-in-the-morning routine. As soon as Brady wakes up we walk through the house searching for Ernie, our Elf-on- the- Shelf. Then she heads over to the felt and magnetic Advent Calendars. She loves finding the little felt ornament to add to the tree. Adam was first to notice her linear arrangement. I wondered if she would stick with that and thus far, she has. Then she chooses a magnet cookie to place on the magnetic cookie sheet calendar (Thanks, Grams!) She often has a plan here, too- note the mittens placed side by side. Next up is our Activity Advent Calendar. She has to remember what date it is or go back to the "cookie sheet" and look under the last cookie. This has been a great and fun way to work on her number recognition for numbers higher than 10. I read her the activity. Finally, she heads to her dining room chair and grabs the book (or books) out of it. Last year I saw that several smart bloggy moms were wrapping their Christmas books and letting their children open one a day leading up to Christmas. I liked the idea, but didn't really like the labor or waste of wrapping that many books. So, I was hoping to find an alternate way to do this. Luckily, I found this little present chairbacker on clearance after Christmas at Pottery Barn Kids. This has been really fun. We have so many Christmas books that there are many days when she finds 2 or 3 books inside the present. Our little morning ritual has been a lot fun! And I'm already thinking we'll have to have some sort of countdown to Brady's Birthday (exactly one month after Christmas day) after Christmas.