7 days: counting down

Our advent calendar is one of our favorite traditions. Each morning we open another door and add another figure to the nativity scene in the middle, and while we're at it Calvin usually takes the time to rearrange those figures. Today they are all flying. It's a fun way to start the day (with the advent calendar, not flying).

8 days: Staying in touch

We had decided not to send Christmas cards this year; we thought that cutting out this tradition would be a great way to save both money and time. Bah humbug.

It didn't take much to change our minds. As December marched on and we received a loving bounty of cards we started to realize how much the tradition really meant to us. Calvin loves going to the mailbox and opening the cards we receive and we love reading the messages and catching up with people. We feel very loved when we receive greetings from our friends and family, and we want to send them the same joy in an envelope as well. And then there's the decorating aspect—for as long as I can remember my mom has decorated her kitchen walls with the cards received in the mail that year, a tradition that I have continued now with my own family.

So our cards are late this year, but they're on their way.

9 days: picture (almost) perfect

The Christmas cards have not yet been sent, and as we were addressing them last nght we realized that we were without our annual family photo. Now how did we let that happen? So this morning, with breakfast in the toaster and sleep still in our eyes, we snapped a quick few before Jon left for work. Calvin is still wearing his pajamas, in fact, they're just under his photo-op clothes.

10 days: getting crafty

Christmas and crafts: if they don't go hand in hand, the stores sure seem to think that they do. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, as Christmas nears, we find ourselves more chained to indoor activities than we have been previously, and the store think tanks desire to help us spend our time productively. More likely, they just know how to make money. I, for one, was unable to pass by the mulititude of fun foam activities staring me in the face at our local store without buying at least two of them. Thankfully, they are affordable, and the fun they have provided was entirely worth the $3.75 spent.

11 days: the halls are decked

Most of our decorations were up before Sinterklaasavond, but a few stragglers were finally put up this past week. Now we're ready, bring on the holiday!