Advent: Week #1

I didn’t know if the girls would want to continue our Advent tradition.  They are getting older and busier, so it takes a lot to commit to making life a little more full.  But they reminded me about it about a month ahead of time, and so I worked at creating a calendar that would work with the other things going on.  Many of the traditions are the same, but I tried to mix them up and add a few new ones.  So, here is what happened (with probably less pictures than in the past):

Day 1: Cut out and bake cookies.  This one continues to become easier as the girls get older.  They know how to mix up the dough, roll it out, and cut it up … even take hot cookie sheets in and out of the oven. 

Day 2: Frost cookies.  Sometimes I invite friends for the girls.  This year, that was not the intent.  However, we had a surprise snow day!  They went sledding at the firehouse with the Combs girls who then came back to hang out and frost cookies. 

    

Day 3: Write a letter…. actually, I just want them to write the blurb about themselves in our Christmas letter.  So, they did. 

Day 4: Escape the (at home) escape room.  I found a free escape room online with the puzzles and clues to use.  It was fun to watch them work through them in excitement.  The final gift was a preview of Day 12 of Advent – a trip to Columbus to stay overnight with Greg and Maggie’s family!  They were very excited!

         

Day 5: Attend a festival.  We went to the Dalton local businesses open houses in the evening.  I forget how long this can take – all the different shops are open with various foods and fun things to look at.  We cut it short to go watch Paxon play basketball – a win against Wooster! 

The next day the festivities continued in Dalton with the Holiday parade.  We saw our friends the Treischs at one point.  They JHY from Salem also made a float and passed out candy.  I don’t have a picture of that, just video.

Day 6: A dramatic night out.  This was a new one this year.  I got tickets to the Ohio Shakespeare’s Christmas production – Every Christmas Story Ever Told.  It was on a small stage, and we were in the third row.  There were only 3 actors.  It was funny and fast and a good way to spend the night.