twenty-five days of christmas

So I wish I could take credit for this idea because it is all kinds of awesome, but I can't. The twenty-five days of Christmas project. Have you heard about it? I first heard about it over at the Fishbowl last year. I loved the idea then, but didn't have my act together enough to pull it off.

This year I began reading the posts popping up all over the internet of people planning out their twenty-five days. I'm going to tell you, I wasn't planning on doing it, as interested as I was in the project. It seemed too big, too much of a commitment, too much organizing. Just really too much in a season when I was trying to cut back. The more I thought about it though, the more I knew Abby would love it and really, what more motivation did I need?

So the twenty-five days of Christmas involves planning a fun family activity for each of the 25 days leading up to Christmas. I know, sounds like a lot, right? I think the idea of having to plan out twenty-five days is what was freaking me out. I like to be organized, but I don't like to be pigeonholed. I couldn't get comfortable with the idea of planning to have a snowball fight on the 17th. What if there wasn't snow?

So I thought about it some more and realized I could tailor the project to better suit my personality. So I invented Elwood the Elf who's in charge of Family Fun at Christmas time. Every day, since the first, Elwood's been leaving a little note for Abby in a basket under the Christmas tree in the office outlining a family fun activity. So we wrote our letters to Santa on the first. Read the story of the first Christmas on the second. For tonight she got to go to her Christmas themed Kids Club and we read the first chapter of her new Christmas Fairy book.

Abby is enthralled with Elwood. She keeps trying to figure out how he knows so much about her (how did he know she got a new fairy book today?) and when/how he's getting in the house (maybe while i'm at school) to leave his little notes behind. She figures he must have a telescope. It's totally adorable. Maya couldn't really care less about the hoopla, but Abby loves it.

Also, thanks to Elwood the Elf, I only need to plan (at the very least) one day ahead. So I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants. Like I have no idea what Elwood will have us do tomorrow. Something simple since Mike and I are off to our parent teacher interview and then Abby has choir practice. She and Grandma Linda will be singing a duet for Christmas this year. It's going to be interesting to see the way the rest of the month unfolds.