advent: day 6

 Together, these hands created lovely button-adorned felt wreath ornaments.  They sat around the kitchen table and worked on this for hours.  I was amazed at how art and creativity can so easily bridge the 88 year age gap.

advent: day 5

My kids were super excited to celebrate a very special baby's birthday today!

Hats were worn, cake was eaten and sweet songs were sung.

advent: day 4

The rain boots came out of the closets and were proudly worn out to a holiday cookie decorating party.

These little fingers scraped icing off the freshly decorated cookies.  Icing and candy canes were the only thing consumed at the holiday party.

advent: day 3

Finding that perfect spot for an ornament on the tree amongst the lights and limbs has become quite a science in the mind of this girl.

advent: day 2

Great-grandmother's hands point to illustrations in a favorite Christmas book.  Reading by the tree at night with Great-grandma is a favorite holiday tradition.

advent: day 1

I recently saw a website that encouraged families to document their days leading up to the holidays.  I thought it would be neat to try it this year.  I will probably regret this commitment when things get wild and crazy but it might be fun to try.  It seems that the little people NEVER get tired of pouring sprinkles onto frosted cookies {even if the sprinkles are left over from Halloween--good thing, they don't care about the colors yet}. 

counting the days...

Thanksgiving was last week and we all now seem to be counting the days...

I made this Advent Calendar today with my big girl.  It was super easy and quite fun to do together.  It will also help with those nagging questions about how many more days until Christmas!  Not to mention, it is good for counting and number recognition for the little ones.

All you need are these fun things:

24 - count mini muffin tin (about $5.00 at most large stores)

via

assorted Christmas scrapbook paper cut or punched into 2 1/4 inch squares

this is the punch I used

superglue to glue the paper squares to the muffin tin

{this is the ONLY kind of glue that will adhere the paper to the non-stick surface of the pan}

printed or hand-written numbers (1-24) cut or punched into 2 inch circles

here is the punch I used

To make the calendar, first arrange your paper squares on the muffin tin in a pattern you like.  Next, superglue  only the bottom 3 sides of the square to the top of the muffin tin opening.  This will create a little pouch for your goodies/notes to go in.  Next, glue your numbers on top of the paper squares in order from 1-24.

We had lots of fun counting and sorting the numbers as we glued them.

Next, think about what you want in your Advent Calendar.  I decided to use little strips of paper with little goodies written on them.  Instead of little gifts, I decided to give fun experiences so that we will spend more time over the holiday season together.  

Some of my Advent experiences were:

decorate a gingerbread house

drive around AFTER bedtime to look at the lights

dress up to eat breakfast with Santa

make cookies for the neighbors

buy a Christmas tree

get hot cocoa at our favorite coffee shop

I jotted down each little experience on a strip of paper and tucked it into the top of the opening of each square.

VOILA!  

Our Advent Calendar took about an hour to complete and it is ready for December 1st!

Happy Advent Season!