Tag Archives: Advent

The Countdown is On: Advent Calendar Using Christmas Cards

Posted on by
4

Sometimes, lack of planning can be a good thing. A few weeks ago, I saw the chocolate Advent calendars in the stores, but didn’t buy them because I felt it was too soon.

Note to self: Anytime after Halloween is acceptable for securing the chocolate Advent calendars. Also, it is unreasonable to think that they will be available at all on November 30.

Friday and Saturday I made attempts to track down two chocolate Advent calenders with no luck. Candy loving Mam was very distraught- how ever will we count down to Christmas, how will she get candy for the month of December, whatever would we DO?!?!

I promised her we would make one. I have to say, despite my own reservations, it came out just fine.

Christmas cards cut out and tied to banister spindles for Advent

Turns out, we have exactly 25 banister spindles on our staircase. How lucky is that?

To make this nifty Advent Calendar all you will need is the following:

  • Old Christmas cards
  • 2 brown grocery bags
  • small candies or trinkets
  • string or ribbon
  • pipe cleaners (optional)
  • glue stick
  • tape

1. Cut the cards to desired size- I went with about 3×5, and then punch two holes in the top of each (if tying- the other thing you could do is use clothespins on a line of ribbon). Number each card- I used a marker, of course you could print stickers if you wanted to get fancy.

2. Cut the grocery bag into strips that measure just narrower than your cards, and a bit longer- mine were abour 2.5 x6 (clearly, I did not use a ruler). Any kind of paper would do, we just happened to have these bags handy.

3. For each card, glue the strip of brown grocery bag onto the back of the card. Write a message and/or tape the candy or trinket to the botom of the paper.

Christmas card with brown paper attached, candy taped to bottom

Somedays, there’s just a treat. Other days, I jot a note about what we’re doing.

4. Carefully roll the paper up, and secure with either a ribbon or pipe cleaner.

5. Repeat until all 24 cards are made.

6. Once done, you can hang them from a fireplace, from a staircase like I did, or even clip to a ribbon with clothespins.

Christmas card advent countdown, individual cards tied to spindlees

 

Each day, the kids run to the countdown card, and unroll the message. They are working their way down the stairs. I know it will see like FOREVER to them, but they’ll be down the stairs and enjoying Christmas morning before I know it.

How do you countdown to Christmas?

 

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Posted on by
Reply

So far, our Advent plan has been working beautifully. The planned out rings have helped me pace things out a bit, and the kids are excited to pull down a new ring each day. And since all of the activities are in my google calendar, when things need to change, I can deftly switch out the ring and replace it with an updated one.

Nearly two weeks ago (this post has sat in drafts for awhile) trekked out to a Christmas tree farm to get our tree. It should have been idyllic and picturesque. It was snowing, and well, we were at a Christmas tree farm for heaven’s sake. It wasn’t, however, cold enough for the ground to be frozen. So while the snow was covering the ground, the ground was actually very soft and mucky. It also turned out that Jr is not a fan of walking in the snow. And we couldn’t find the wagon that was transporting groups to their desired tree patch. Nor did we know to grab a map to figure out which tree patch we wanted to explore to begin with.

In the end though, we came home with a tree.

And it’s perfect.

Is your tree real or artifical??

Tis the Season

Posted on by
2

Suddenly, it seems, December is upon us. Yesterday, we woke up to snowflakes and MaM exclaimed, as only she can,”This is the best day ever! God made it snow!” It was really pretty, and there is nothing better than watching kids catch the first snowflakes of the season on their tongues. Junior even wore his boots, which is a big deal because he typically only wears his Cars shoes.

Last Wednesday, I wrote the post on how we were approaching Advent, and so far, it’s going really well. The kids are getting ready a whole lot faster in the morning so we can get the next ring down before we walk out the door. It’s been great doing a short project every day, and it’s inspiring me to make a little bit more of a monthly plan to enjoy knowing that we will get to fun things every month with some planning. (Check out this idea from Heather, I love it)

Today’s activity was supposed to be write a letter to Santa. MaM was kind of intrigued, but got distracted and never brought it up again. If she’s ok with that, I’m ok with that. We did have an interesting conversation about it.

“Mom, I know what I can write to Santa!”

“You do?”

“Yes. I will say, ‘Don’t worry mom and dad, I’m out helping Santa,’ ”

“Oh that would be a letter to us, do you think you’d like to ask Santa for something?”

“Well, I’ll see presents when I help him.”

“True. Is there a present you’d like to ask him for?”

“I’ve already asked him for a pogo stick.”

“Would you like to ask him for anything else, in case he can’t find a pogo stick for you? Maybe some books?”

“Books are too boring. I need something else. Maybe a Barbie bath toy.” (last year’s gift)

And with that, she busied herself with something or other.

So here’s the thing. Actually, two things.

1) She’s kind of obsessed this year with “helping Santa”. As in, Santa is going to pick her up on his sled and she’ll go riding with him Christmas night. And that’s why she’d leave us a note so we don’t worry about her. Of course, every time she brings it up, I take the opportunity to tell her it’s not ok to leave with any Santa Claus who approaches her, anywhere, anytime. And if Santa comes knocking on her window, she must come wake us up. Strange, but I wanted to make sure all of our bases were covered. (Last year, she was obsessed with him visiting her on Christmas Eve)

2) She’s also obsessed with getting a pogo stick for Christmas. Here’s the thing, it snowed yesterday. If she were to get a pogo stick, it would sit in the garage for months before she could really use it. Also, her present this year is a Fisher-Price iXL. Have you seen these? I hadn’t even heard of them, until I went to BlogHer. There I spent some time in the Fisher Price booth, and came out a winner of an iXL. I’m hopeful that she’s as excited about it as I am for her. She absolutely loves using our iPhones, but she’ll have more flexibility with this device. There are games and a drawing program, it can play MP3′s and more. There can also be more than one user profile, so theoretically, the kids can share (we’ll see about that). I need to carefully pull it out of the box and get it ready to go for Christmas morning sometime soon. (disclosure: I won the iXL at Blogher. Just like I said. I am not under obligation to mention this fact, but OMG, this thing is cool.)

So that’s what the first week of Advent in our house. How’s yours going?

P.S. Indy friends, if you’re reading this and it’s not 5pm on Friday (12/3) yet, and you need a Christmas tree, check out this Savvy Savings deal for 50% off a live tree!

P.P.S. There are three huge gift guides over at Grown in My Heart, one for donations, one for goods, and one specifically for fair-trade. There are some amazing organizations you can support this holiday season.

P.P.P.S. I’ve got a few gift guides listed over at Persephone, arranged by age. There’s Baby’s First Christmas, Toddlers, Preschoolers and School-Agers, along with some ideas for large families/copious numbers of small children.