Advent Chain Highlights

Decorating the mailbox!

Taking our Christmas card picture!

Having breakfast with Santa Getting terrorized by Santa!

Soaking in the festivities of the Jackson Christmas parade!

At the Jackson Christmas parade, rocking a reindeer hat made by Mommy's friend, Christina

Making a holiday care package for soldiers serving in Afghanistan
(via www.anysoldier.com, we found a group of 10 soldiers from MO and sent them stockings and some toiletries)

Investigating shipping options for the care package.

 I consider the advent chain a success, though we didn't quite tackle every activity. I'll concede that it was a bit ambitious to commit to an activity every day in December, especially when we're at the mercy of the weather and a baby's nap needs and mood shifts. For example, we ended up taking our Christmas card picture much later than we had scheduled because of a long string of super rainy days (and we reallllly wanted a picture by the Mississippi River), which put us behind ordering our cards, which put us behind mailing our cards, which is why yours will probably arrive in your mailbox tomorrow. And, well, we were supposed to visit the microbrewery here for a seasonal pint, but the one free weekend afternoon we had to do this was the afternoon Arlo decided to take a monster nap. (We'd much prefer a thoroughly-napped bebe to a beer buzz any ol' day anyway.) So, though we left a few activities undone, the advent chain definitely stirred the holiday spirit 'round these parts and was totally worth the effort and $5 we spent to make it. 

One

I've watched the slideshow of Arlo's first year about, oh, a hundred times. I worked on it for a long time one night while Nick was at work, after Arlo had gone to bed. I fiddled with it for so long that my eyes were blurring. My heartstrings were completely taut, and I felt a bit disoriented from all the memories. When I slept that night I dreamed of Arlo as a little baby, and when he stirred in the bed next to me the following morning, I felt as though I awoke next to a giant. His toddler-ness seemed so much more pronounced. I showed Nick the rough draft of the slideshow that morning, too, and as we watched it together I fought a tidal wave of tears. There, in that little nutshell of a slideshow, was the essence of our son's first year of life. Our first year as parents together. A year of so very many firsts.

We decided to go with a woodsy, beary, camp-esque kind of theme for Arlo's first birthday. This was inspired by Arlo's affection for bears, and it also recalled, for us, memories of our first family vacation to Lake Tahoe.

Arlo's party invitation as part of the food table's centerpiece.
The table linens are burlap and flannel.

A paper mache letter I covered in moss,
as well as a black bear Nick free-handed and cut out of cardstock.
(These were my favorite decorations!)

Goodie bags filled with trail mix. The tag reads, Thank you for coming to my party...now take a hike!"

Another handsome black bear and some woodsy decorations.

Arlo's birthday throne! More bears and burlap!

Party nosh: 1)Campers in Sleeping Bags--'cause that's what bears eat (chicken sausages wrapped in puff pastry);
2)Evergreens (spinach salad with mushrooms and warm bacon vinaigrette)
3)Camp Beans (homemade baked beans)
4)Bear Claw Cookies and Acorn Cookies
5)S'mores cupcakes

A close-up of super cute confections! The bear claws are shortbread cookies dipped in melted bittersweet chocolate and studded with almond slivers. The acorns are chocolate kisses topped with nutter butter bites and a little chocolate chip stem.

Opening gifts!

Arlo and his patchwork bear made by Great Grandma Millie.

Time for cake! I made Arlo's birthday cake--it was a sugar-free, whole wheat carrot cake, sweetened with bananas and dates, iced with maple-syrup-spiked cream cheese.

Nom nom nom!

He digs it!

Makin' a merry mess!

Don we now our flannel apparel!

It was a great celebration of our cub's first year--relaxing and warm-spirited and fun. A happy birthday for our happy babe, indeed.

Arlo's First Year

Best year of our lives. Hands down. No competition.

Advent Chain

Though this Christmas is technically Arlo's second Christmas, in many ways it feels like our very first with him.  Last December was a flurry of baby preparation and birth planning. Visions of our soon-to-come sugar plum danced in our heads, and, well, Christmas paled in comparison. And when he arrived not quite a week before Christmas day, everything about him usurped everything else. New parenthood had Nick and I punch-drunk on new baby love and sleep deprivation. (Not much has changed in that department, really.) Last Christmas is a total blur to me, but I distinctly remember feeling exquisitely blessed. Just look at this sleepy, motley crew:

I feel a rekindling of holiday excitement this year, almost a child-like sort of joy about it all, and I know it has everything to do with Arlo. I feel a bubbly sort of eagerness about creating new holiday traditions with Arlo, about helping to craft really potent and lovely holiday memories for our family. I stumbled across the idea for a Christmas activity advent chain on a parenting blog I read, and I immediately loved the idea. I especially love that it's activity-focused and more about doing something together as a family. I've seen other advent activity calendars made into beautiful wreaths or trees, things that you would pull out year after year with your children, but I decided to keep this one simple because Arlo is still so little.

It's made from strips of scrapbook paper, some number stickers (to mark the days), and a little ribbon to display it. You simply pull off the link that corresponds with the date, and written on the inside of the link is a holiday activity to complete for the day. The chain becomes shorter and shorter as Christmas approaches.

The chain's beginning:

 And its end:

 Most of the advent chains I've seen are hung vertically, but if I were to hang ours that way Arlo would enthusiastically rip the whole thing down. I hung ours across our hearth.  

Most of the activities are pretty simple and inexpensive/free, like today's activity: Check out a Christmas book from the library. I've included many activities surrounding giving to others, like Collect items to donate to Goodwill, and Donate canned goods to the food bank, and Make a package to send to troops serving overseas. And others involve going somewhere, like taking a tour of the neighborhood's Christmas lights, watching the Christmas parade, and attending a free holiday concert at the university. I set all of the activities up on my Google calendar as well, so that I'm not surprised and scurrying off to the store when I pull something like Decorate gingerbread cookies off the chain.

It cost last than $5 to make and it was a snap to put together once I came up with 25 activities. I have visions of a more elaborate advent activity calendar for the future, but this one works perfectly for now. I'm sure I will be posting some of our Christmas advent activities here, so stay tuned. 

33

I am now 33 years old. Kinda hard to believe. It's impossible, though, to have a bad birthday when you're greeted with this on your birthday morn:

Nothing says lovin' like a homemade birthday onesie.

We had a relaxing, belly-filling breakfast at our fave little cafe/diner in neighboring Jackson, a place we originally sought out because we heard that they source their eggs from one of the farms that we regularly visit. This particular cafe is also known for its muffins and celebration cakes, and Nick arranged for them to make my birthday cake (dark chocolate with coconut frosting, mmmmm!). After my yummy stack of buttermilk pancakes I indulged in a sweet hunk of birthday cake! 

Aaaand Arlo indulged in a stealthy swipe of the frosting. Of course.

Giant hunk-o-cake? Yes, please.

Needs no caption.

And, in honor of my 33rd year, one of my favorite Iron & Wine covers. This song will forever remind me of Arlo. So simple and prodigious at the same time.