It'sthe firstday of Advent!Time to trim the tree! First, we'll have to choose one!This afternoon, we'll trek over tothe local Scouts lot for a tall, slim fir. Then, we'll turn...

Design your own Bookplate! Today's Advent TBD is a MAJOR THROWBACK to our very first online Advent Calendar in 2011 ! The kids were too young to get involved, and...

Provide Baby Blankets via Plan Canada Gifts of Hope Today, we're providing three baby blankets to children in need via Plan International Canada's Gifts of Hope. How will you be...

Make Clementine's Famous Crullers Today, we're going to be conquering our "fear of frying" by making Clementine Paddleford's famous crullers. Clementine is the lady with the pencil, above! Her Cruller...

Family Book Exchange 2019 This year's Advent Family Book Exchange shall henceforth be known as "The Hardcover Edition." Go big or go home. Everyone's going to pick a name from...

Festive Streaming-Service Binge It's Friday. We're going to chill on the couch with some Fish and Chips from our local and have a proper binge of a new-to-us series of...

Carols, Cocktails, and Cookies a.k.a. Winterize the Song of the Summer Last year, our carol-off consisted of a day of writing punk-rock Christmas songs. This year, we're back on a...

Concert & Pinochle Today's the Saint Michael's Choir School Christmas Concert at Roy Thomson Hall. It's going to be an afternoon of rehearsals, dress up, performances, and dress-down. After the...

Make Block-Printed Tea Towels Anyone who knows me knows my obsession with tea-towels, especially calendar tea towels. If we’re going to have a good time this afternoon, DIY calendars may...

Donate to Forests Ontario Let's flight climate change, dozens of trees at at time!Today, we're making a contribution to Forests Ontario. How will you make a difference today?

Make Fried Chicken Last year's Advent Calendar started us off on a Fried Chicken tour of the city. This week in conquering our "Fear of Frying," we'll be frying chicken...

Mail Christmas Cards Gone are the family photo cards. We'll be handwriting a select few Christmas cards this year and sending them out as we go. Formerly broken hands need...

Spooky Santa Lucia Hold onto your stockings and ignite your candle crowns! It's the Feast of Santa Lucia AND Friday the 13th! Jinx! You can darn well bet we're going...

It's Christmas Canning Day And, last minute UPDATE, we've got a friend coming over who's never made jam before! So, grab your cross-back aprons, folks. It's going to be a...

Perform and Record a Classic Radio Play We did it in 2017, and we'll do it again....Tonight, we're going to perform and record a classic radio play. We'll choose a...

Glam Cans 2019 Back when the kids were young, we took part in Well Preserved's Pimp Your Preserves Holiday Contests! We designed our own canning labels and really dolled up...

Food is a human right, yet 1 in 7 people struggle to find adequate sustenance in our own city. Today, the family will be putting food in the Daily Bread...

Toronto Christmas Market Today, the ladies are heading out to Toronto's Distillery District for our annual luncheon and a loop around the Ferris Wheel. We'll also tour the booths and...

Dinner and Star Wars I can't believe they're still making these films.....And, since there's always a new hope, we're still grabbing tickets months in advance. Tonight's the final installment, or...

Sketch a Winter Window Scene Last winter, Bea sketched the snowy view from her bedroom window. Today, we'll all sit down to sketch a winter window scene, whether that's a...

The United Bakers on Spadina in Toronto. Great Canadian Holiday Cookie Bake Off Last year we had a few rounds of Holiday Cookie Wars, wherein we tested our favourite recipes...

Reinvent the Bûche de Noël Oh, look at sweet sweet Julia throwing icing sugar on her classic yule log cake, which has already been covered in meringue-mushrooms and lain in...

Christmas Eve Checklist 2019 □ START THE BRISKET: For a change, this year, we're skipping the Feast of the Seven Fishes and Making Bon Appetit's Red-Wine Braised Brisket   □...

WISHING YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! STAY TUNED FOR OUR NEW YEAR'S EVE MOVIE MARATHON POST! IN THE MEANTIME, HAVE A BROWSE OF ADVENT 2019! Advent Calendar 2019 Advent Love-To-Do...

After last year’s exceeds-even-our-wildest-expectations Train Movie Marathon, it took a long time to come up with a theme for this year’s New Year’s Eve Film Fest. Since we’re looking towards 2020,...

IT’S TIME FOR OUR ANNUAL TREE TRIMMING PARTY! Take a look at the post for our Cookie-of-the-Party and our newest Favourite Photo Ornaments!

SSJ'S ADVENT LOVE-TO-DO LIST 2020 IS LIVE! Check out the full deets here! AND BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS! SSJ'S OFFICIAL ADVENT COUNTDOWN LAUNCHES TOMORROW, DECEMBER 1ST! FOLLOW ALONG DAILY BY ACCESSING...

It's Giving Tuesday! And SSJ's Official Countdown to Christmas begins with a contribution to the Daily Bread Food Bank. View the official Advent Calendar Post for all the details: Advent...

Today, we'll be testing two candy-cane-shaped retro bakes from my childhood: Candy Cane Coffee Cake & Candy Cane Cookies. FIND THE FULL POST AND ALL OF THE RECIPES HERE.

Tonight, we'll clear the tables out of the living room and play old-school card games on the carpet, with music, funny paper hats, and some DIY Holiday Bridge Mix. View...

Tonight, everyone will choose a Shakespeare sonnet and draw a picture inspired by that sonnet . View the full post!

Today's Advent TBD? Photography this very changed city. Then, come home to a batch of warm cookies. Get all the details here: Advent Day Five

Tonight's plan is a retro pyjama party with as many Rankin Bass Christmas specials as we can possibly stomach! To go with, we'll introduce the kids to Jiffy Pop, and...

Today, we'll mail out all of the Christmas Cards. Then, we'll curl up with a pile of cookbooks, a pot of coffee, a notebook, and a pen, and we'll plan...

It's Our Annual Advent Family Book Exchange! This year's theme? "The Classics." What does that mean? View the Post

Today, we'll make Clementine's Crullers, Skillet Fried Chicken and Deep Fried Candy Bars for Sharing. Recipes in Post

Tonight, we're watching Film Noir set over the Christmas Holidays. And we're making Black-and-White Cookies. View the Post

Today we're going to identify the "Song of the Summer" was for each one of us, rewrite the lyrics as a holiday tune, and change the tune itself into whatever...