Kendall's Advent Tree

This year, in attempt to help Kendall grasp an idea of Christmas and when it will arrive, I created an advent tree for her room.  Amidst the business and glamour of all the toy catalogs, Christmas cartoons and all other fun stuff that comes with the holidays I wanted to teach her on a level she could understand that though all those things are fun, they do not define the true reason we celebrate Christmas. I thought this countdown would be a way to show her that we think of others before ourselves both at Christmas and year round.

So I made a paper chain, each link labeled with the name of a family member, teacher or friend and a picture of that person.  (THAT took forever-going through all my picture files both digital and printed looking for the right size of each person. But none-the-less I managed to tackle this seemingly small feat. And, JuJu, the ordained family photographer, you, my dear, were the hardest of them all.  Just sayin.) And of course the number of chains intentionally match the remaining days until Christmas Day. Then I drew circles on the tree for each picture of each person on the chains.  Thus, on Christmas Eve we should open the last link of the chain and fill the last open spot on the tree (which will be with a picture of baby Jesus that will be placed in the rectangle space on the star).  I didn't bother numbering the circles for a two-year-old since A) she's gonna put them where SHE wants them anyway and B) she can only count to ten, and C) counting down would just confuse the mess out of what she already knows.

Here's Kendall modeling how the whole concept works.

Last night the link had the names and pictures of Nana and Grandpa.  (They had to double up since that's the only picture I could find where they would fit in my pre-measured circles and keep my countdown on track.  See, it got really confusing.) I must interject to state that this picture was taken at the Super Bowl Party, the night the SAINTS became WORLD CHAMPIONS! I mean, seriously, could that really go unmentioned?? Who Dat!

Kendall is holding the link with their names after we took the picture off and stuck it to the tree.  When we said our prayer with Kendall tucked into bed, we specifically prayed for Nana and Grandpa.

She has really gotten the procedure down.  My only problem now is that she asks all day to go do the "ent tee" and is usually not totally thrilled with the idea that she has to wait until bed time. So I guess that means she likes it and is learning (or else just enjoys sticking the pictures on).