Advent Calendars and Service Star{r}s

Today's Service Starr:

Give a Christmas gift to a child in need.

We have started the countdown to Christmas, and this year we have more than one way to do it. We have our "little house" that hides behind its doors a puzzle piece of a picture of
baby Jesus and a fun activity to do in the evening as a family.

Then we have the cute new, LONG Santa from Grammy that holds a mini
candy cane for each day until Christmas.

Of course there are the festive placemats that the kids turn to show the
number of days left until Christmas. Oh how they love those!

But this year I wanted to start something new. Something focused more on the Spirit of Christmas. So we created Service Starrs...{not to be confused with service stars}. :) Each morning there is a numbered star hiding somewhere in the house for the kids to find with an act of kindness or service for them to do that day. They love running around the house to find the star and have been great about doing what it says.

On Saturday they each picked out a toy to give to a child their age. It was a bit hard for Evan to understand why he couldn't keep the truck he picked out, but we explained that another little boy needs it more than he does and will be so happy to play with it just like he is happy when he plays with his toys. Since then Evan has referred to it as "little boy's truck." Tonight we give away the toys and hopefully he will still be in the giving mood.

So far this has really helped us to put in action our gratitude for our Heavenly Father and our Savior...for His birth, His life and His mission. My hope for our family is that we can instill in our hearts
the importance of helping Him by helping those around us and
making this a habit throughout the year.

Do you do something similar with the 25 days to Christmas?