Advent and some simple holiday traditions.

I was asked about where I got my socks and what I filled them with…  Most of the socks came from Target $1 Spot, but Heather said she found some at the Dollar Store.  Had I been well prepared, I’d have had the socks contain little goodies that related to Christmas, Jesus, Snow etc… but… I was running behind and so I found some little chocolate "gold" coins with Dora and Diego stickers on them in the $1 Spot as well as a box of little santa chocolates.  So, a bunch of the socks have just a chocolate in them.  I also picked up a Sesame Street 24 piece puzzle, put it together and put 4 pieces (that are side by side) in each of 6 socks.  And, one has a matchbox car and one has a Brio train piece. 

Some other ideas I found that you could do with Advent calendars are:

• All candied up
• Ali Edwards’ Boxes
• Advent Calendar Chain
• And, prompts that you can put in your socks, boxes, drawers, envelopes etc etc..
• Advent prompts for warmer climates
• Zoe also told me about an Advent Handprint Wreath she was making. 
• Nativity Advent Calendar
• Christmas Advent Garland (skip the socks, just buy the garland pre-made!)
• Advent Tree
• Advent Houses with drawers
• This one was SO cute… pull out the bricks in the fireplace and watch Santa arrive down the chimney.
• Chocolate Advent Calendar (the kind I had as a child)
• Target actually has a pretty wooden one in the store like this mirrored one.  They can easily match your home’s decor without looking to "Christmasy"
• Noah’s Ark Advent Calendar

And, some links (thank you to Zoe and to Westwinds Church!)

• Advent Calendar at TeachingMOM
• Questions and Answers about Advent
• The Season of Advent

And, here are some simple holiday traditions that I thought were neat from the Parent Hack Blog… (check out the blog, it has some great stuff on there!)

• Lee’s family hides an almond in the rice pudding. Whoever finds the
  almond wins the prize, and has to provide the prize next year.
• Melvin the Elf creeps around Jill’s family’s house and reports back to Santa with updates on the kids’ behavior.
• Matt’s family plays an ingenious rhyming game to guess their presents.
• Adrienne and Jim eat an annual gas station hot dog.
• Jen’s family makes and delivers dog biscuits to the neighborhood canines.
• Toblerone’s family spends part of Christmas Eve delivering treats
  to those who have to work that night…nurses, firemen, airport
  personnel…
• Gina’s family plays "Hide the Pickle."