25 Days of Christmas - Day #1

This year we are doing a specific Christmas activity each day during the month of December leading up to Christmas Day. Some of the things we have planned are "serious" in nature (donating toys and food to local charities), some are delicious (making and decorating Christmas cookies) and some are just downright silly...like today's.

Today I had intended for us to make a Christmas chain out of red, green and white paper with our 25 different activities listed - one on each link in the chain. To help my very visual learner countdown to Christmas, we'd just tear off one link each day and do that activity...watching the chain get shorter and shorter everyday.

So this afternoon I gathered our supplies and started cutting the paper into strips and for some odd reason, this greatly upset my child. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I've told him that scissors can hurt him and he thought I was hurting the paper or what?...but he was not happy with me for cutting it.

So, revamping today's activity, we just took the white paper, crumpled it up, and had ourselves a big indoor snowball fight. Even that took a little bit of convincing b/c he wasn't sure throwing something, especially indoors and at someone, was permissible...but I think when I popped him in the forehead with one and then laughed hysterically at his reaction, he started to understand that this was (what he calls anything fun and out of the norm) a "special privilege" he jumped right in - and I must say, that kid's got an arm!

Even Alison got in on the action...not so much with throwing, but if one of the snowballs landed within her reach she would grab it and chew on it.

Of course there's no video or pictures b/c I can't very well defend myself and snap pictures at the same time, but hopefully this will be a recurring event all winter and we'll get some documentation when Daddy's home to participate.

Meanwhile, I've got to get some paper strips cut while he's asleep or we'll never get this paper chain made!