countdown.

The advents are up. The countdown is on. I added a few more to the mix this year thanks to a killer after Christmas sale last year. Bringing all of our Christmas stuff down from the attic was almost like Christmas morning for the kids. And me.

My love of advents started when I was a kid. We had a huge paper chain with nightly activities. We read a Christmas story every night as a family and burned down candles. I loved the feeling it created every night.

I made this matchbox tree a few years ago.

Avoided the m&m's this year. Too many spills.

I decided to try out the book advent this year. I wrapped up all the Christmas books we have plus a few from the library.

We open and read one each night. And burn our candles.

I scored this awesome bucket advent for less than $15 after Christmas last year.

The matchbox advent I made last year.

Another after Christmas sale find. We had a similar tree when I was a kid.

I made these stockings several years ago. They usually hang on a small tree, but I needed to get them out of Oliver's reach. I grabbed a tension rod I had and covered it with some Japanese washi tape. The stockings contain our activity for the day (watch a Christmas movie, go see lights, etc).

I have one more advent in the works, attempting to combine about four different things I saw on Pinterest...