I feel like I was a bit cranky in my posts last week, so I just want to emphasize that I think this advent calendar of activities is great. I hope to do it again next year and I’d recommend it to any and all.

The kids are loving it — they rush to the calendar each morning to open the envelope. After the Captain labours hard to read the little strip of paper, he glues it to a collage he’s making of all the activity strips. At first I thought that was kind of silly, but now I like being able to look back at all the things we’ve done. Maybe I’ll let him have a few mementos of some events to add to his artwork.

I’m loving it, too. With the cold weather and all the shopping madness out there, we’re pretty much sticking to home these days, so it’s been wonderful to have a planned activity to do every day. Just a little something different, a little something special, to break up the day and give us something to look forward to.

And there’s more to it, too. Since I’m home with the kids all the time, I think it’s easy to fall into a pattern where I’m busy doing cooking or cleaning or laundry or emailing and not really taking the time to spend with them that I should. The kids really like the fact that no matter what other jobs I have on for the day, there will be a guaranteed time in the afternoon when I’m all theirs, concentrating just on them, spending time just with them. This imposed time to spend with them has made me realize that I could, and should, be doing this more often — setting aside the day-to-day chores, even for a short while every day, to just be a mom and enjoy my kids for a while.

I think it’s definitely made for a special December this year.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to prepare a massive bubble bath for the whole family.