Advent Calendar: Day 1

This year, I decided I wanted to do something a little different than the traditional piece of chocolate advent calendar to count down until Christmas.  I wanted to focus more on family time, activities together, and giving back to others. I took my DIY advent calendar from last year (muslin bags with a number painted on them) and put a piece of cardstock in each with an activity for Nora and Myles to do everyday.  As the kids grow, I'd like to do more service type activities but this is a great start.

Day One: I'm ready to go to the very genuine Christmas tree lot of Home Depot when Dan decides to clean out the gutters quickly before we go.  So I take out my camera and finish up putting the lights out on the bushes.  I put my camera down on the ledge at the back of the house.  Dan moves to the gutters in the back.  I later go to the back and see my camera getting soaked on the ledge.  NOOOOOOOOO!  Terrible.  Not only right before the holidays but it's my good camera, I mean, c'mon!  So we tried to set it into a bowl of rice for 24 hours.  It kind of worked - camera took pictures on some settings but not all.  Back into the rice for another 12 hours and suddenly, we're back in the game.  Phew! Thankfully, the camera is now back in commission but not before I had to take pictures of days 1 through 3 on my phone, which don't get me wrong, takes good pictures but not the same.  Anyway... day one --

Pick out the family Christmas tree!