Christmas is coming!

OK, I'm trying something new here, so hopefully this will work. For the last seven or eight years, I've put together a calendar of activities for our family to do during the month of December. (That's not the new part.) Back in the dark ages, I made a paper chain and fastened it on the wall, like a caveman. I cut a star out of yellow construction paper and it moved down the chain to show what day it was. (I'm totally laughing at how primitive this was compared to the Advent Bucket Lists we see on Pinterest now!) 

It is completely impossible that they were ever this little.
Somebody must have been using a trick camera.

 Some of the activities stay the same year after year, under threat of rioting by the minions. Watching Elf, for example, absolutely must happen. Last year, I collected a couple dozen Elf quotes and put them into a Bingo card generator. Everybody's cards were different and it was so funny to watch people tense up when they were approaching a Bingo and the line they needed was coming up. So now we can't just watch Elf and be happy. We have to watch Elf while playing Elf Bingo. But I'm okay with that!

Some of the activities stay on the calendar for a while but then fade away due to changes in age or location. "Play in the snow" is a safe bet at some point in December if you live in Virginia, but not so much in south Texas. Sadly, "letters to Santa" and "Put out ho-hos and milk for Santa" have also cycled off the calendar.  On the bright side, "Christmas Eve tamales" is a delicious new tradition.

Now that both my kids are older (read: have more demanding homeschool schedules and ::gasp:: independent social lives), we may not be able to do every single thing I have planned. I'm going to find a way to be okay with that. I don't want to be the crazed Pinterest mom making the whole family miserable because "TODAY IS RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS DAY, DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

So here's what I'm hoping December 2014 will look like at our house. Feel free to copy any ideas that appeal to you, or--better yet--leave some ideas of your own in the comments.

Here's the new part I mentioned. I've never had a download link before today. The instructions seemed pretty straightforward which is almost always a sure sign it's not going to work. If you try to download it, would you please oh please do me a favor and let me know if it works?
click here to download calendar