Normally, Chicagoans enjoy very fine autumn weather. It isn’t unusual for the kids to play in the sidewalk sprinkler well into October. But, this year, winter came in early November and hasn’t left. Last Monday the kids even had a very unexpected snow day from school.

We were coming off a long week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I was completely out of ideas – and energy – for keeping the kids busy. The house was a mess and I really needed a day to catch up on life. I hate relying on screen time to fill the hours – it just feels so depressing and boring and not at all how a childhood should be lived. Evie and Mack spent their morning outside, but the little kids just weren’t interested in bundling up. So, I let Ben bring some snow into the house for homemade snow cupcakes…a bit of a mess, but no worse than a spilled cup of water!

After lunch, we worked on homemade Advent calendars. I drew 24 squares on a piece of construction paper and had the kids draw little Christmas-y pictures in each one.

While they doodled, I cut 24 flaps out of a second sheet of paper. Because I used a ruler to sketch out both sets of squares, they perfectly overlapped when put together.

Once the kids were done drawing their little pictures, I had them frame their paper with glue stick.

And then we put the two pieces together and the kids numbered the flaps.

Now that Advent has begun, they can lift a flap every morning and feel a bit of Christmas cheer and pride in a creative job well done!