The Toy Box Years: Acts of Christmas Kindness Countdown

The Creators of the Toy Box Years

The creators of the Toy Box Years are my two beautiful daughters and wonderful, handsome soldier husband.

"Nani" (our oldest) is a 11 year old 6th grader who loves Taylor Swift, ballet, books, fashion designing and sewing. Ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and it changes daily to anything from "an artist" to "a teacher" to "a singer/dancer". Nani is also currently fighting a battle against brain cancer -- recently diagnosed in June 2016.

"Nudgie" (our youngest) is a very smiley, very happy, very giggly, very spirited 8 year old 3rd Grader who's favorite toys are anything that gives mommy an anxiety attack - ladders, stepstools, the climbing wall at the playground. Like her sister, she has a love of reading and coloring, loves gymnastics and still provides mommy lots of snuggle time!

"My Marine" is my high school sweetheart. We've been married over 20 years and met when we were 17. (You do the math....) His favorite toys are Blackhawk helicopters, the lawnmower, our steam cleaner, and microbrew beer bottles. My husband is also my hero in that he proudly serves his country as a Blackhawk crew chief (hence his favorite toy!). And need I say that there is nothing hotter than my man in uniform!

All About Me......

Once upon a time I had a career and worked in the corporate world. Once upon a time, I dreamed about leaving that all behind to follow my true calling -- being a wife and mommy.

The first part of my calling was fulfilled in 1995 when I married my Marine (now soldier) and my love. Little did I know that being a military wife would change me in so many ways and that because of that, I would have an extended family all over the world from Japan, to California, to North Carolina.

The second part of my calling took a little doing, but I finally achieved that dream in 2004 with the birth of our first child, followed 4 years later by her baby sister.

So now, when someone asks me what I do for a living - I simply smile and say proudly that I'm following my calling - I'm a mommy and a wife -- and I couldn't be HAPPIER -- I'm living in the Toy Box Years!!

You may remember that a few days ago I wrote a post about making our Christmas a little simpler and focus more on giving back. If you missed it, you can find it here. As Thanksgiving came, I became more and more excited to get started with our Acts of Christmas Kindness.

Yesterday, I finally pulled out our Countdown Calendar and started getting everything ready so that we can start on December 1st. I LOVE this countdown calendar! I collect Nativities and fell in love with this one a few years ago at JoAnn Fabric.

I actually waited in line on Black Friday just so I could get it for 75% off. And while I scored big time with this, I often fell short and missed the mark with what it's true function should be. I tried to do the Jesse Tree with the girls, but either they just weren't interested or we'd forget days and then try to cram it all in the week of Christmas.

So this year, I decided to use the countdown calendar and incorporate our Acts of Christmas Kindness. We sat down as a family and came up with ideas that would work for us and our resources. (You can click on the image to enlarge it to see what we're doing!)

I also wanted to make sure that we had some sort of Bible verse to go along with each day. I Googled and Pinterested until I found these at The Happy Home Fairy -- which I thought was perfect for us! (You can find the original post and link to download these here)

I cut each of the Bible verses out and then on the back, taped the Act of Kindess we'll be doing for that day.

I'm so excited to get started with our family!!

Do you use a calendar? Do you read Bible verses or stories? Do you do acts of kindness? How do YOU countdown to Christmas?