The most wonderful time of the year

 I really do love this time of year, even though everyone is a little busier and the weather can be crazy.  I love the way people remember to be kind, think of others, and to spend time with family.  The traditions that we start help form memories for years to come.  Emilee loves the countdowns that we do.  Yes I said countdowns, we have 4 different countdowns. 

We have a chocolate chain, this is a tradition from my family.  As a Child I loved getting a little piece of chocolate each day.  Now it's Emilee who reminds us every morning that we need to eat a piece of chocolate. 

 We have an Advent Calendar that I love.   Adam bought it for our family a few years ago.  It's fun and sometimes hard to think of different activities to do each day.  Emilee loves opening the doors to find what we are doing for the day.  Some of the activities we do have become traditions.

I love books, I am very lucky because my Husband also loves books.  We buy Emilee a new Christmas book every year to read on Christmas Eve. Thanks to that tradition and the books that we bought before she came into our lives we have a lot of books.  Last year, thanks to pinterest, we started a new tradition.  We wrap the books we have, place them under Emilee's tree and unwrap one each night.  It's a great way to make sure you keep reading the books you have bought in previous years. 

 

This year we wanted to do more to keep reminding us of the True Reason for Christmas.  We decided that we would buy a large picture of Christ.  We covered the picture with 24 squares a card stock with a date on them.  Every night Emilee takes down a square eventually to uncover the whole picture.  We read a scripture, sing a song and then read a story to remind us of Christ and his kindness.  Emilee has been trying to guess what the picture is since day one.  I love the traditions we have in our family.  I know that the traditions will change and grow as our family gets older.  I hope that Emilee will always have fond memories, and maybe want to carry on at least one of these traditions when she is older.