Well, We've been busy around these parts with Christmasy activities and the like, so I regret that I haven't shared our advent calendar until now! First I'd like to explain that this Christmas is special in many ways. This is a Christmas of many firsts- our first as a family of four seems to be the biggest one. And really it's the first big Christmas where we can actually decorate! Last year we went to Alaska for Christmas so we opted for a potted tree that would be okay with our absence and then the Christmases before that we were living at my folk's house and then before that we were in Maine for two Christmases and I never had all of my Christmas loot with us. So it's really been since 2008 (our first Christmas as newlyweds) that we've done it up and with a 3 year old in the house, there is reason to REALLY do it up!
SO, as to the advent calendar. I ruminated (a bit too much probably) about what type of advent calendar to have (see my board here). But I decided on the bag option to allow for a little wiggle room should our schedules turn upside down and we have to move some activities around. Another perk of the bags is that they are reusable and I can use them year after year (until they are teenagers- sniff).
I bought plain 5x8 bags here. And I was happy I found bags that had a sturdy drawstring. (some have these thin whimpy ones that are fine for little giftbags but not for something like this). THEN I traced numbers on all 25 bags with my stencils and painted them using gold silkscreen ink that is intended for fabric. (Heat treated them with an iron later)
For the rope I braided a combination of red, white, heather, and sparkling red yarn together and then hung it from the fireplace. (It has since moved to a doorway to accommodate fires.)
In the bags are little pieces of paper that have a drawing and the description of the activity, craft, or event we will do that day. I've already had to switch some of the contents around to other days due to scheduling conflicts, or today's snow day etc. So happy I went for the bags!
Here are a few of our activities so far!
Day 1: we got out the felt Christmas tree from last year, hung it, made new felt ornaments and decorated the tree and then refused to take a nice picture! hahaha
Day 3 was "A Snowy Day", Day 4 a little penguin Tattly tattoo, Day 5 Make a Joy decoration for the tree.
Day 7: Make pom pom angels for the tree. Our daughter's is the rad pink one with the all gray body! nice contrast ;)
Day 8: Get the tree!
Day 10: make a pom pom snowman and hang it on the tree. Our daughter actually made a pom pom (the bottom one)! I'm very proud of her and it was so fun to watch her understand the concept and then how proud she was and of course here she is explaining it to me! It helped that I got it started for her and gave her pieces of yarn that were pre cut and not attached to the entire big ball of yarn. So cute!
Originally the two pom pom crafts were more spread out, but since we had a snow day today I had to flip some bags this morning to accommodate the need for an activity on a day when she was just going to have a little trinket before heading off to school.
So there you have it!
I'll be sure to check back in with more advent activities and such as we approach Christmas!
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