Mama Gone Green is a blog dedicated to raising happy children and reducing our impact on the Earth. My name is Taryn and I am the mother of 2 young kids and an environmental studies instructor at a community college in Portland, Oregon. Please join me as I journey through life as a mama, teacher, knitter, photographer, gardener, and environmentalist!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

My Advent Owls: A Month of Family Togetherness

Finn loves advent calendars. Who doesn't right? Isn't the anticipation usually as much fun as Christmas itself? We have a wooden advent calendar with doors that open into tiny cubes that I found at Goodwill a few years back and I normally put a small candy or sticker in the cube for each day. But this year I started to wonder if Finn really needs a treat every day for 25 days? I decided what we really needed was to spend more together time as a family. Not just in each others presence, but actively enjoying the company of one another. Even though we are all together for parts of every day, sometimes we are so rushed with preparing dinner, cleaning up, getting the kids to bed, etc. that we don't actually take the time to "be" together.
And so my owl advent idea was born. These were certainly a bit time consuming to make, but I think they came out well. And I even finished in time! I am actually hoping to get them up on my etsy shop next winter.... Although I think that I need to get some smaller clothespins to hang them from.
The pocket in front is where each day Finn will get a piece of paper that will include a family event for the day. Some will be more extravagant than others, depending on schedules, but having a least a small time together each day where we are focused on being together will be wonderful.
I was really excited about this idea... until Finn got a Lego Star Wars advent calendar as a birthday present. I admit, it does look super cool, but as my husband said "who cares about felt owls when you have legos?". So, hopefully this will still be fun for all involved. The lego guys can come too.
Here are my ideas for the 25 days. Most of them are not yet in the correct order, but I still have time for that!

  1. write a letter to santa
  2. make paper snowflakes
  3. go out to a movie in a theater
  4. make cookies to deliver to friends
  5. watch a holiday movie at home
  6. take a nature walk
  7. walk down peacock lane (infamous in Portland for super decked-out houses at Christmas time)
  8. play in the snow (which will likely require a drive to Mt. Hood)
  9. listen to a holiday record
  10. make a gingerbread house
  11. decorate or tree (or tree alternative-- more on that later!)
  12. drink a cup of hot cocoa
  13. go ice skating
  14. make salt-dough ornaments to give to family
  15. volunteer together
  16. go out to breakfast
  17. gather of box of canned goods to donate to the food bank
  18. take the bus downtown to see the city lights
  19. go out to dinner
  20. take the holiday train ride
  21. watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  22. watch the holiday ship parade
  23. go on an adventure
  24. read The Night Before Christmas
  25. Spend Christmas day together!!
Do you have family plans for this month?


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9 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, those owls are the cutest things I've ever seen. I hope they trump the LEGOs because they're so much cooler! Love this idea for an Advent calendar! And the little ways to spend extra time together are wonderful. I've been trying to come up with some similar projects and outings, but I might cheat and borrow a few of yours. ;)

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  2. Very cute. It is hard to compete with Legos, but the little plastic pieces will most likely end up in a big box (take it from me - we've got several) and the owls will come out each year and become a tradition!

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  3. I LOVE the owls! What a great idea!

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  4. Cute! Good job Taryn! You could use it every month and just switch up the activities since owls are not exclusively holiday oriented.

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  5. these are so darn cute and beat the legos out any day! and all your ideas sound perfect to me...i might just borrow some of them!

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  6. So cute! I love this idea! I'm working on a felt advent calendar. Yep....still working on December 1st...It was a late idea but I'm excited about it!

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  7. love the idea of little notes (i, too question the need for a daily dose of chocolate)...so lucky to have found a wooden advent calendar at goodwill too! x

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  8. your owls are fantastic, as are all the ideas filling them. Hoping for you lots of enjoyment as you fulfill your owl wishes. xo

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