Advent Day One - Decorate and the Galleria

The first year Kaeley was born I had a woman from church tell me she always made an advent calendar for her son. I can't remember if it started two weeks or if it was the month of December. I have since then experimented with the idea. The first year we did it I counted down two weeks before Christmas. We did all fun things that involved either the whole family or just the two of us. When it was all over I looked back and felt rather selfish. We had celebrated Christmas by celebrating by ourselves. I can't remember what I've done in the past years, but this year Kaeley and I sat down with the December calendar and filled it with fun ideas. We not only have cheap fun for the family, like Movie Night and Board Game Night. We also have a few that only the kids and I can enjoy, like First Day of Christmas Vacation (Yahoo!) and an I Love Lucy Day (Hurray!). However, this year I was sure to scatter about some days that are dedicated to blessing those around us. For example, we'll pass out cookies to our neighbors, we'll figure out a goodie for the local fire department, and maybe draw pictures of thanks for the army reserves building near us.

This gives us something fun to look forward to all month and it stretches out the season a bit better than counting down to the 25th, celebrating the day, and then it's all over until next year.

Yesterday's activity was decorating for Advent. In our house that means decorating with all things Christmas, which actually is a tablecloth, a manger, and a few pictures, but not the Christmas tree. Um... it didn't take us long. :)

Kaeley put the tablecloths on the table, Alynna walked around precariously with a snow globe, and Nathan played with the bowling game he had taken out earlier in the day. I tried to enlist his help, but I got tired of hearing, "Why, Mommy? Why?"

Then the two older ones set about clearing off one of our knick-knack shelves to place our lovely Play Mobile Manger in a safe, but accessible spot. At one time I heard, "Mommy, have you seen Baby Jesus?" When Kaeley couldn't find him right away she said, "Well, never mind. I'll just use the fairy that was left in here from last year." Thankfully she later found Baby Jesus, because I wasn't sure what I was going to do about Flora being in Baby Jesus' bed. It just didn't seem right.

Tuesday nights are Brad's game night at work, so he comes home later than usual. I used the night to go to the Galleria. I had a coupon to use every week of December. I was very excited, brought it over to the Customer Service desk, and found out that I had ripped off the essential part of the coupon. There's a bar code of the mail that verifies to whom the card was given. I had ripped all that section off in order to save space when I tucked it into the coupon folder. When I was told there was nothing she could do for me I just stood there... stricken. I waited for a few moments to hear an alternative, but there was none. I didn't get my $5.00 coupon. I was so disappointed!

I did, however, have a coupon for a free cheeseburger with the purchase of a Happy Meal and I had one for a free chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-a. I had also packed some applesauce, water, and crackers to help bump up the meal. The kids and I happily split the 200,000-some-odd calories.

This Tuesday happened to be Kids Club, so Kaeley happily did a craft while I chased Nathan around the area. Kaeley also volunteered to help with picking lottery tickets out of the bucket. When asked what her name was she announced into the microphone that it was Violet. She then looked at me and gave me a sly smile.

I so far had only spent $5.50 on our "free night at the mall", but then I went into Gymboree. I know, some of you moms are saying, "Ooooohh..." right now, but I did. I succumbed. I bought Kaeley a cute cotton skirt, a pair of leggings, and a pair of hot pink tights. With sales and coupons I only spent $13.50, but I still had buyer's remorse from the time I left the sales counter until the time I brought the bag home and showed Brad.

Too bad I threw away that precious bar code. I was planning on going to the Galleria every week of December to get my goodie. Too bad, because I now have the Galleria on next week's Advent Calendar. Great. Now what am I gonna do?