A December to Remember

Can you even believe that December is almost here?! Geez I seriously feel like someone hit the fast forward button the day that Nathan was born! Time is flying so much faster in my adult years then it ever did when I was a kid, or teenager. Didn't it seem like it took summer a life time to come as a kid, now you blink and it's come and gone!

Nathan is really hitting a fun age. He can carry on a full conversation with you, that combined with his 'do it myself' attitude makes for some really funny (and sometimes difficult) days! But, this fun age means that he is really starting to understand Holiday's, their meanings, and the traditions that come along with them. This year I've decided to start a new December tradition for our family. We have two advent calenders that we count down to Christmas with. One I made and one that is a beautiful keep sake that was gifted to us. Nathan gets to open the beautiful one each morning, and the momma made one each night with Dada. The morinng calender will have a note with an activity we will do that day. Some big, some small. Like 'make cookies' or 'go to grandmas house' and the second one, which he will open with dada after work will be a small piece of candy. But what I'm most excited about is my newest addition to the daily December traditions.

I've been collecting holiday themed books for a good two months now. I ordered a few off eBay, but mostly picked them all up at garage sales, estate sales, and the swap meet, and thrift stores. Our local Goodwill gives each child a book for free each visit, you better bet we got a few from there! I also rummaged through all the books we have to find a few. I was even able to unearth a book that my grandma gave my older sister and I on my first Christmas! So sweet, with a hand written note inside the cover!

There is also one of those recordable books in the mix, that my parents gave my kids last year, the story is read by my parents!

So anyway, I've collected 24 holiday themed books. My plan is to wrap each book up. Then each night after dinner, Nathan will get to pick one to unwrap (with Sydneys help) and we will read it together as a family. I will rig it so that the last book (December 24th) will be The Night Before Christmas!

I love that he will have something to look forward to for the whole family, it encourages reading, keeps the holiday magic alive in our house daily, and if I'm lucky it might encourage him to eat more then 3 bites at dinner!

Do you have any fun holiday traditions?