Advent Calendar

We're doing an advent calendar for the first time this year. I've always wanted to do one and with the kids being a little older I thought this year would be the perfect year to start one. After scouring the internet for ideas for activities and different looks I finally settled on this one.

Saipan is a really small island and because we're so near the equator we really only have one season. That means we don't have The Nutcracker Ballet, or forests of trees to cut down. I had to get a little creative with a few of these but I'm really happy with what we have!

-Decorate Stockings. Our real stockings are in a storage unit in the States and though Tim's Christmas socks were cute last year they weren't quite big enough to put anything in. When I was growing up I remember making our stockings when I was about 4 or 5 and having my parents help me write my name in glue before dumping a bunch of glitter on it. It's one of my favorite memories and I still love that stocking. I found some Christmasy fabric here (hooray!) and I'm hoping to re-create that with our kids.

-Salt Dough Ornaments. They grow so fast I thought having one hand print a year would be a nice thing to have and see them grow.

-"Daddy Tree" I bought some green streamers and plan to let the kids wrap Tim from head to toe in it. I'm also going to make a star "hat" and paper ornaments for them to stick on him. Tim is a good sport and is, for the record, doing this willingly. :-)

-Christmas Package to Palau & Kaitlyn Copper. On our recent trip to Palau we made some amazing friends who we didn't get to properly thank. We also have a friend who is in her senior year of high school and had to return to the states to get treated for cancer. We'll be spending an evening picking up candy and trinkets to pack up and send to them along with hand drawn cards.

-Go to a Tree Lighting. I think there is only one here in Saipan so if we can't make it for some reason we may just do our own on the tree in our front yard. (the same one Tim carved our names in on our 5th wedding anniversary)

-Get Christmas donuts from Winchell's and then go behind the airport to watch the planes fly over. 

-Make a wish on the Hyatt's Wishing Tree. Every year the Hyatt (a big resort here) has a big tree that you can purchase paper to write your Christmas wishes on and then tie it to the tree. All proceeds go to charity.

-Lanterns from Mt. Tapachao. My friend recently went to China and brought back flying lanterns for us (like the ones on Tangled). We're going to climb the stairs to the highest point in Saipan and let them go.

-S'mores on the beach. 'Nuff said.

-Hand print Wreath. Can't get enough of those little hands!

-Christmas Cone Trees. Our kids don't have a long attention span or great building skills or Gingerbread Houses are out. Instead we're going to take waffle ice cream cones and turn them into Christmas Trees.

-Get involved in a Service Project.

-Lindor Chocolates. A celebration in and of itself.

-Red & Green themed dinner. I've been missing New Mexico red & green chile so we plan to do red sauce enchiladas and guacamole.

-Work Party. I'm going to borrow a bunch of Christmas books from the library for the kids babysitter to read to them that night.

-Decorate Sugar Cookies to give to our neighbors.

-Christmas Parade. We don't have a Christmas Parade so I decided to put together our own. I invited a bunch of friends to dress up as their favorite Christmas item or theme (Christmas pajamas, elves, snowmen, Surfer Santa) to walk our yard (which I plan to light with luminaria candles) and end with crockpot hot chocolate and donuts.

-The Christmas story simplified. We'll be pulling out our scriptures and reading it to the kids in terms they can understand.

-Holiday movie & caramel popcorn night.

-Play with "Shooting Stars." I'm making stars out of felt with ribbons attached to tell the story of Christ again and explain the star of Bethlehem. I figure they will pay better attention if they have something to play with.

-Christmas Caroling. Whether it be the traditional group caroling in public or e-caroling (where we will record us singing a song and send it to our friends & family).

-Attend our church Christmas party.

-"Snow Storm" our friends houses. Just like "Heart Attacks" where you stick paper hearts all over someones yard but with homemade snowflakes.

-Secret Santa for someone who needs some cheering up.

-Stay up watching, "The Muppet Christmas Carol," and open our new pajamas.

I'm insanely excited for December this year!