The First Day of Advent

One of our favorite things about waiting in anticipation for Christmas, is having advent calendar windows to open each day. I'm sure most kids share this excitement, what could be more fun than opening a cutely decorated picture to find chocolate inside! We didn't know until the girls started going to school where they do, that this was a tradition started in Germany, often using marks of chalk on the ground to keep track of the days until Christmas. Well, advent calendars are very different now, and so much fun!!

 

We bought our calendars about a month ago, and I'm pretty sure not one single day has passed by since then that Emma hasn't asked me if today was the day she could open her first window. On Monday night, they went to bed reading Christmas stories all giddy, hoping that morning would come soon (sharing in another fun tradition of reading Christmas stories every night throughout the month of December.).

 

When Kahiwa took out her first chocolate, she wanted me to take a picture of it. It was a present.

 

All week long we have been taking out the Christmas decorations little by little, and with each new box we open, Kamele is so excited. She keeps running around saying, "This is going to be the best Christmas EVER!" She echoed that sentiment this morning when we were on our way home from the store and tiny snowflakes started to fall. The little house behind her on the sill is an advent calendar my mom got me for my birthday last year. Each day there is a door to open that has an animal or other piece of decor for the house in it. I'll have to remember to take a photo of it later, when we have a larger collection of cool stuff hanging on the house. The girls are almost as excited about the house as they are the chocolate.

 

Well guess what, December 2nd's piece of chocolate warranted a photo too. I can already tell we'll have to have the camera ready every morning :-)