Advent Calendar

I love the Advent season and want it to be a special time for Sweet P. A mom in our playgroup shared her family's Advent tradition using the nativity story and we started that on Sunday. I also wanted to share my family's Advent tradition with Sweet P. It does involve a small gift each day, and last year Gammie supplied most of those gifts for Sweet P's first Christmas (mostly socks, bows and tights). This year I wanted to make sure that each gift was either a necessity or educational, not just a junky toy. There are a few socks and ornaments thrown in the mix, but the rest of the little gifts are a teaching tool or craft we can do together.

Auntie Rosita made us this AMAZING Advent calendar (and admits she'll never make another!) last year and it is so neat.
Each sock is numbered for each day in December.
I also made sure the gifts were small enough to fit in the sock (although one is sticking out a bit). She opened her first one today and while I'm not sure she has any idea what's going on, she loved taking the ornament and putting it on the tree.

What types of Advent traditions do you do?