These past few weeks I have been thinking a lot about how blessed I/we are.  If you live in the US, I hope you don’t take for granted how lucky you are.  Even the poorest of the poor, in America are better off than most people in other countries.   With the recent election only a week behind us and all the talk on television about how much the government should or should not be involved in our lives, it has made me realize just how vital it is for us to take care of one another.  I know that with everything going on in our world today, it is more important than ever that we are aware of the needs around us.

Last weekend my family and I participated in a “Weekend of Service,” held by our church.  There were hundreds of different things organized to help out our community, but our family chose to help with food collection for our local food pantry.  My daughters, who are 2 & 4, got really excited about helping others and the amount of food we collected.  I want them to understand the meaning of being a genuinely good person and I believe one aspect of that is giving of yourself to others.  I think Andrea from The Train to Crazy blog, summed up how I feel the best:

“We want to raise children that are kind, loving, compassionate, thoughtful, passionate, bold, empathetic, happy, strong, patient, humble, etc. We want them to understand that they were born into privilege and with that comes great responsibility. We want to encourage our children to really be the people they were created to be.”

That is why my family and I have decided to join others in the 25 Days of Giving.  I hope to teach my kids at a young age to be grateful for what they have and compassionate to those less fortunate.  Although, I can’t  forget that they are still just kids!  So, I though we would make it fun and I took some inspiration from Pottery Barn. 😉

I saw this advent calendar in their recent catalog, but with a $299 price tag.

Pottery Barn

So, of course, I decided to make one myself!  Here is my version, for about $10.  I still have some touch ups, but I thought I would share this project early, in case you wanted to make one yourself.

My plan is to use it an a somewhat unconventional way.  Instead of little gifts or telling the Nativity Story, we are going to use it for our 25 Days of Giving.  I will come up with the 25 activities and place notes in each bucket.  Every day, my girls will be able to check the bucket and see what act of giving we will be doing for that day.

I think it will add a little bit of excitement each day and help them visualize the 25 days.  If this something you would like to take part in, check out TheTraintoCrazy.com to get some ideas.  You don’t have to spend money, these 25 days can simply be about acts of kindness and exemplifying to our children the true meaning of Christmas.

**Check back tomorrow for a full tutorial on the Advent Calendar**

Linking to:

http://paisleypassions.blogspot.com/