CONTINUING A TRADITION

When I was growing up, my family had many great traditions.  

There was one in particular that was my favorite.  

Each year, the first Sunday of Advent, my mom would set out a little crib and a bucket of straw.

Everyone's name would go into a bowl and each Sunday at breakfast, 

we would take turns drawing a name.

You were a "secret angel" that week for the person whose name you drew.

The object of the game was to do secret good deeds for that person all week long.

Each time you do did a good deed, you placed a piece of straw into the crib.

The goal was to have the crib full of straw by Christmas morning.

  

The next Sunday at breakfast, we would go around the table 

and try to guess who we thought had our name that week. 

As a child, I remember this being the highlight of the holiday for me.

I always knew I would continue this tradition with my kids, 

but I wanted to wait until they were old enough to understand and fully participate.  

The time has finally come.

We have been talking about it for several weeks now and since we had company this past Sunday, 

I thought December 1st would be a nice starting date. 

The kids were greeted with this when they came home from school today. 

We will draw names tomorrow night at dinner.

A basket of straw (actually it's a paper bag cut into strips) 

and a card with each family member's name on it. 

The cards were free printables from here. 

My five year old was a bit confused by the whole idea and he has been asking me 

for examples of good deeds.  So I thought I would put a list together of some suggestions. 

The idea is to be sneaky and creative, but I wanted to give them a starting point.

Hopefully by Christmas morning, our crib (a wooden box) will look like this. 

We will lay baby Jesus (AKA my daughter's baby doll) in the crib when we wake up that morning.

I hope my kids enjoy this tradition as much as I did growing up. 

How about you, what are you favorite family holiday traditions?