Advent Calendar Activity Day 1

I've been looking online to find something to make this Christmas a little more exciting and meaningful for my kids (mostly Baily since she's older and understands more), and also to help her count down to Christmas so she doesn't ask me every day if it's Christmas yet.  So I got some ideas from the good ol' world wide web and decided to make an Advent calendar.  I didn't know what this means but thanks to wikipedia I found out that: "Advent (from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming") is a season of the Western Christian churches, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus; in other words, the period immediately before Christmas."  So for our Day 1 of our Advent Calendar Activity we actually made the Advent calendar and a Santa Beard Christmas countdown.  Joaquin just tried to eat the crayons and make a mess so after he went to bed Baily and I finished up making our crafts and she was so excited which made me so excited and feel like a good mom for the first time in a long time.  We've got lots of fun activities planned out for the next 24 days before Christmas and I'm looking forward to having this special time to spend with my kids and help to make this Christmas season more meaningful for all of us!