Happy Advent!

 Today is the beginning of Advent, the first of four Sundays before Christmas. It happens to coincide with December 1, which is quite handy for an Advent Calendar. A couple years ago we made our own Advent Calendar with old Christmas cards. This year I wanted something a little different, and after an Internet search settled on a family-themed Advent Calendar.

The first step was to cut 24 pieces of card stock into roughly the same size.

 Then Desert Girl affixed a Christmas sticker to each one.

 I showed Desert Boy the list of family activities from this blog, and he ran and got a pencil and started writing some of them on the back of the cards. He wanted to keep them a secret from me, as he added some of his own ideas.

 Desert Girl watched the progress of filling in all the spaces.

 Finally we put the Advent Calendar up on the refrigerator. Every day has a family activity. I wanted to add a prayer to each day, so I got some ideas from this website.

 The prayers are short, something Desert Boy can read.

What are the family activities for the first two days? I just had to take a peek (for blogging purposes, of course).  Here's what we're going to do the first two days of Advent!

Do you use an Advent Calendar? If so, what kind?