Advent

Last year I saw and idea on another blog where someone gave their kids a book for every day of advent. I thought it was a great idea and decided to do it this year. As soon as Christmas was over last year, I started buying Christmas books second hand. I won't stand on my soap box about this, but I love buying books second hand. They are a fraction of the price, like 90% off retail, and most of the children's books I buy second hand look brand new. And to be honest, my kids destroy books and at the rate that they do, it seems wasteful to spend $10+ a book. But back to Christmas...




So I started buying Christmas books as I came across them. By mid-summer, I had all the books I needed. I paid anywhere from $1 all the way down to free for the books. About the free one, apparently when you try to buy one Christmas book at a garage sale during the summer, the people will just give it to you! On average I paid about a quarter for each book, making this a pretty dang cheap activity. 

Tonight Connor was pretty excited to get a present, Isla could have cared less. As soon as Connor saw that it was a book, he dropped it. Isla picked it up and looked through it. I read it. Then Connor picked it up and "read" it out loud. I was impressed. He was paying more attention than I thought when I read it to them. It was fun and I look forward to doing this every night until Christmas. 

Now I realize this isn't something I can do every year, as my kids don't need that many Christmas books, but I like the idea and think I am going to run with it. Picking a different theme each year seems a lot more fun than buying a chocolate advent calendar...though I have to admit, getting a piece of candy every day was pretty dang exciting for Connor last year!