Christmas Advent Calendar, Day 1: Open a Present

This holiday season, I've come up with a list of Christmas advent calendar ideas for our family to do together. I oscillate between feelings of love for the way these advent calendar activities get me into the holiday spirit and fear of disappointment when things don't go as planned. This year, I planned activities around our December calendar and tried to mix in easy ideas (i.e.: open a Christmas present) with new, more exciting events (i.e.: visit the Macy's Santaland display in downtown Minneapolis).

Day 1's activity was "open a Christmas present" for which I'd washed and wrapped up new holiday pajamas for the kids. I'll toot my own horn for being fairly organized this year by ordering these monogrammed pi's in July ... yes JULY. Rockstar mama-ing takes planning, yo.

The kids were beyond thrilled to open a gift under the Christmas tree. Tory'd been anxiously waiting to open her gift all day so when I gave the go-ahead following dinner that evening, she ripped the package open in a matter of seconds. Aden glanced around the room like "what's all the hullabaloo?," but quickly followed Tory's lead. He's her #1 fan these days, so anything Tory's excited about seems like a pretty good idea to him too.

Is there anything more adorable than a big ol' toddler belly? Gah, so cute! Aden looked like he was straight outta the movie Elf in his green and white stripes. Standing next to Tory, he seemed more Christmas-y.

I'd pulled our collection of children's Christmas books out of storage earlier in the day, so the kids and I sat in the rocking chair and read stories before bedtime. Andi snapped this picture of us curled up together, and I love it. This is my life, and I'm so thankful.

Happy holiday season! It's going to be a great month of celebration.