Our Christmas Advent Tradition

When Bill and I got married and blended our two families together, I wanted to start a new tradition for Christmas. So I decided to do a fun advent calendar. This is what it looks like this year:

There are 24 wrapped presents that the kids open and count down to Christmas. Each day it is a different kids' turn and there is something inside each present for each of them. Plus there is always a treat, too. If there is something to choose from (like the color of an item) the person who opened that day gets to pick first, then we go in age order. If there is nothing to choose from because it is a DVD, then there are 4 different kind of treats that they get to choose first from. Each day the kids rotate who gets to open and each year we rotate who starts first.

The kids love it!

I forgot to take pictures of their present on the 24 and 23 days til Christmas but I have the kid opening that day in front of the advent calendar.

Here is Justin who started this year's advent. Inside were 4 Christmas hacky sacks and 4 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Here is Rebekah who opened the '23 days left' present. Inside were 4 Squirmies and 4 mini Twix.

Here is today's '22 days left' and it was Lily's turn.

Here are the kids holding their cool new calculators.
And that rectangle box on the floor are thin mint chocolates.

I am going to blog each day for you all to see what the kids unwrap. :-)