"Advent"ures in Family Fun

I've been fairly lousy with establishing family traditions of any kind because I hate when things start in the middle. And since I didn't start anything special with Rachel as a baby, I always feel the "why bother" attitude (yes, I realize it's silly). Last year, Andy's school hosted a family night in which he and Rachel made an Advent calendar out of colored papers and foam board. And I thought "how cute is this" and then I put it aside and did nothing.

I pulled it out last week as I started getting the Christmas stuff out and decided to do something with it. Not so much in the spirit of family tradition as the spirit of family activities. Each day of Advent has one activity to do as a family (or at least the bulk of the family, as I still have a couple nights of work left this semester)...I'm rather proud of myself for pulling this off.

1st Day: Decorate the Xmas tree as a family. Just like last year, it was full of "why does Rachel have more ornaments than me?" and "don't touch my ornament" and "Mommmm! She's taking my ornaments!" This year had the added fun of "Paul, no. No, Paul. Paul, give Mommy the breakable ornament. No, Paul, don't hide behind the tree because I can't get you without knocking the tree over. Paul, stop it. No, Paul. NO!" Family bonding with the Christmas spirit (tee hee)!

Why are there no ornaments along the bottom of our tall, tall tree? It involves grubby hands, toddler disobedience and Mom's resignation of the facts at hand - Paul ain't listening.
2nd Day: Cut out paper snowflakes. Since I was at work, I instructed Rachel to take the lead and teach her brother the art of snowflake cutting. And to my utter joy and delight (and sheer shock), she did just that. They had a good time and arguments were minimal. Kevin even cut out a snowflake!