I Was Missing Out
YOU GUYS. I wish one of you had told me that Advent Calendars are the bomb diggity! Or, I guess you could have used slightly less archaic language and just encouraged me to give one a try. I HAD NO IDEA.
Poor Alexis survived the first 12 Christmases of her life without having some sort of means of counting down the days. Even Mila had to survive three years without, but then she became obsessed with "How many days until Christmas?" which is super fun coming from the kid who still thinks all points in the future are "tomorrow" while all points in the past are "yesterday." She desperately wants to understand time, but she's not about to put actual effort into understanding.
And, thus, I gave in. Well, actually I gave in because I happened to find a Hatchimals Advent Calendar sitting on a random end cap at Target for $15. Considering it promised a decent pile of tiny creatures, it was worth buying just for the toys.
But, I GET A COUNTDOWN, TOO! And a semi-cooperative kid! It's quite the great deal.
Mila has been infinitely better about getting out of bed every morning since we started the calendar. She's a giant pain in the butt to get moving every day, but that little bit of incentive seems to be enough to get her to lay off the cranky. And then she's so happy to figure out which "number is today!" Bonus! And then! And then she's even more happy to find a little prize inside! It's awesome dipped in great doused in fantastic.
Which just means I missed out by just now figuring this whole Advent Calendar thing out.
So, what else am I not doing that I should be because they're way more fun than they sound on the surface? FIX ME, INTERNET.
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Reader Comments (4)
I could've written this. All applicable here from Pain In The Butt To Get Out Of Bed to All Future Is Tomorrow And All Past is Yesterday (or as she says, Yesterdayd).
Every morning in December I get to say "there's chocolate downstairs" and she's UP. (FYI the Advent calendars with the small chocolates at Trader Joe's are $1)
I have failed you!!! I'm so sorry! Advent calendars are the BEST. We had two permanent ones as kids, one with little ornaments to hang each day, and the other was a nativity scene.
My mom and I also love nativity sets!! Kind of the way you do trees. My mom has dozens, and I have given her at least one each Christmas since at least high school. They are so fun as a kid to play with and set up. Kind of religious I guess, I'm not sure how religious your celebrating of Christmas is. But I'm not religious at all and I still love them. Cute ones. Not your local Yinzer Church standard haha.
I've been reading your blog for years and you never mention church or religion so I didn't think Advent would be something you'd be into. I've never seen an advent wreath or a nativity scene in any of your posts or Instagrams so I thought you were a secular Christmas celebrator.
We do one and I put little cards in with a fun activity, special treat, etc. On busy weeknights, it's goldfish WITH apple juice or fruit snacks for after school snack, but on the weekends it's bake cookies, snowball fight, etc.
Pro-tip: Even if you put up decorations earlier, DO NOT put the advent calendar up because then you end up doing a countdown until you can do a countdown and it will make you crazy.