The Activity Advent Calendar

I am all about making new family traditions. I feel, that when you become a parent, that it's part of your duty to create these ties that connect your children both to your family and to their heritage--and what better way than to create a tradition that the kids will cherish for years to come?

When her first son was born, my sister started the tradition of Christmas pyjamas. The kids all get new jammies on Christmas Eve, that they wear to bed that evening. When Brooke was born, I started the tradition of Christmas books. I add at least one to my collection every year. Brooke and I try to read one every evening during the Christmas season.

This year, I decided to adopt a new tradition in honour of Avie--it's a concept I read about on another blog. Basically, I've created an Activity Advent Calendar for the girls this year. Yes, B still has her chocolate calendar, but this year, I also decided to do something simple, but special, with the girls every day up until Christmas Eve.

I purchased two little treat buckets from WalMart (a buck each, notch!) to hang from the girls' doorknobs. The plan is that every day I will put in a chocolate treat (bag of foil-wrapped chocolates courtesy of Dollarama) and a hint as to what special Christmasy thing we are going to do that day.

For the most part, the activities are holiday things we have to do anyways--go pick up and decorate a Christmas tree, send out our Christmas cards, attend Christmas parties, wrap presents, etc. Other activities are just plain good fun: make Christmas ornaments, make our own gift wrap, create Christmas 'pizzas' for the birds, build a snowman (gotta wait for the snow on that one!), go for a sled ride, check out the Christmas lights on the Hill, etc.

I received some other great suggestions from friends, such as making popcorn garlands, building a gingerbread house, purchasing a gift for the Angel Tree at WalMart or dressing up for family dinner (think tiaras and meatloaf). And, I'm thinking of an impromptu Christmas dance contest, too, as well as a Christmas TV movie marathon. Other ideas I've come up with: making stockings for CHEO's kids (got the idea from last year's Christmas Day visit to the ER), eating breakfast for dinner (who doesn't like that?), and baking cookies for the nurses at the Medical Day Unit.

Anyways, yesterday I gave Brooke the buckets and explained what we were going to do with them. She was very excited to hang them up on the doorknobs. Didn't want the one I chose for and switched with Avie, but all's good. She hung them up last night while I was out Christmas shopping with Jax. When I got home, I went to put in her treat and clue and found the bucket hanging on the inside of her door. Cuckoo bird. Love that kid.

She completely forgot about the bucket this morning, so didn't notice the treat until I mentioned it to her. She was so excited. She looked at the photo I had printed off as her clue for what today's activity was and her face lit up.

"Look, Mom. It's a mission! It says 'Dear Princess Brooke, I can't wait to see you.' '' (It said nothing of the kind, as she is just three and cannot read anything beyond her own name. Besides, why would I write that? Still, very amusing to overhear her 'reading' her 'mission.')

What, in fact, was the photo? Well, it was a humdinger of an activity, and as Hubby noted, might be setting the bar a little high for Day 1 of the Advent, but I couldn't help it!

It was a photo from The Nutcracker Ballet, which will be performing tonight at the National Arts Centre. We received the tickets as part of the NAC's Share the Spirit program, which offers tickets for holiday events free of charge to families with sick children or families who cannot afford such luxuries.

The back story on the Nutcracker? It has always been my dream and that of my sister to one day take our daughters to that show. We've both seen it as girls (and I've seen it as an adult too!) and remember it as a very special event in our lives. It was the first time either of us got dressed up and went 'out' for an evening. The first time we got to hold our very own tickets and do something so 'grown-up' (even if the story is for children!) as attend a ballet performance. It was very special for us and we wanted it to be very special for our girls.

Jackie and I have been envisioning the night for years now, long before our daughters were born: we'd dress the girls up in fancy Christmas dresses and go for a special dinner, then to show where we would all be enchanted by the magic of this timeless story, the sparkly over-the-top costumes and scenery, the incredible music and cherography.

The Nutcracker dream is an important tradition we wanted to share with our girls. Months ago, we even considered taking the girls this year. (Grace just started ballet, so she is particularly 'into' the Nutcracker at the moment and Brooke is still enthralled with anything magical, princessy and fairy-like.) But, after checking out the prices for the event and considering schedules, we decided against it. Maybe the girls are still too young to fully appreciate a full-feature ballet, we thought. They might get bored and want to leave, they might fall asleep 10 minutes into the show--and at $60 a pop for a children's ticket, it might be better to wait a bit.

Then, last week, I received an e-mail from Tamsin, the program co-ordinator at Candlelighters. They had received a number of tickets to select holiday shows at the NAC and were offering them to any member family wishing to attend. At first, I hummed and hawed, was Brooke still too young? Was she too sick to attend? Would she enjoy it?

She has an incredible attention span for movies, so Hubby thinks she could handle it. I agreed, and after hearing that her numbers had gone back up this week, I decided to check with Tamsin to see if there were any tickets for opening night left. Sure enough, there was! Enough for Jax and Gracie to join us, in fact! Awesome!!!

I am so excited for tonight--and B is elated with the thought of seeing the show. The photo was a great idea on my part (pat your own back, Ginger) and B has been carrying it folded in her basket all morning.

Now, the only hitch tonight will be whether or not Jax and Grace will be attending. (Grace was not feeling well yesterday, so it is touch and go today. Jax doesn't want to chance Grace near Brooke, even if her numbers are high this week. She did just have chemo on Monday. So, perhaps Jax will come alone or take one of the boys.)

And, as for the Activity Advent Calendar? So far, so good. (Although B was a little disappointed that there were no chocolate treats in Avie's bucket for her to ''eat for my sister cause she's too little for chocolate--hey, Avie has nothing in her bucket!'' Note to self tomorrow: Put in Baby MumMums for Aviecakes.)