Christmas Countdown and Gifts to Jesus

I have two small kids, which is really fun during the holidays. One of the things I have been looking forward to is starting our own family traditions. I have come up with a count down and gifts for Jesus activity that we are going to do every night until Christmas and I am really looking forward to it.

I started out with some cans and filled them with small treats and goodies. 

I picked very simple little gifts. Some cans have erasers and others have a sweet treat. This can was one of the nicer ones with a car for the little guy and some cozy socks for the princess.

I also have this bowl on the side of the cans. It has a pen and small pieces of paper by it.

My plan is every night after dinner everyone in the family will write down what they are going to give Jesus. I recently read an LDS talk by Elder Russell M. Nelson, The Peace and Joy of Knowing the Savior Lives. He talks about the greatest gift you can give the savior is preparing yourself to see him. There are oodles of things that I can do every day to be a little better. These gifts could include; a service, a spiritual or physical goal, a planned gift for someone, it could even be to be more kind or patient the next day, call or write someone a note. Something that you probably wouldn't do if you hadn't set the goal to do it. By the time Christmas comes there should be 100 small gifts for Jesus that helped the family be more prepared to see Him.

After we have all put our papers in the bowl we will let one of the kids pick out a can and share the treats in the can. As there becomes less and less cans the kids will see how soon Christmas is coming.