Advent Calender? Nailed it!

I have always loved the idea of counting down the days with something other than a sharpie and a flip calender. Even if that flip calender DOES have horses on it (Z's favorite). But a little box with candies in it and perforated doors just isn't what our family is about.

A little disclaimer about Jen and the year 2012... I became addicted to Pinterest. It was accidental at first but now I'm on it ALL the time.

So I found, on pinterest, a ton of ideas for advents that were things to DO instead of things to get. Way back in November, remember November? I thought, I'll do something like this. Luckily my ipad makes whipping up things like this a breeze. I had the entire month of advents on 3 pages of business card templates and done in 2 days... and still managed to go to work and be productive.

I had to get creative as some ideas online were not conducive for CA. Like build a snowman in the front yard. I also had to be careful of the order some went in. For example: 'start Amish Friendship Bread' had to be 10 days before 'Bake Amish Friendship Bread'. And 'attend a holiday party or performance' had to be on a day that I knew of a few happening. So some took more planning and forethought than others.

But here we are at day 20 and we've only missed 1 advent and that was only because the supplies we bought were not as effective as we had hoped, live and learn.

I have had SO much fun doing advents with Z this month. some days I really didn't want to do whatever was on the card... but I didn't let myself poop out and I've been so glad every time. I hope that next year I have the resources to make an advent calender that is reusable from year to year (Z ripped open each envelope) and all we'll have to do is refill it each November.

In addition to the advents on the example page here's the rest of our list and a few I didn't get to put in or thought of too late :)

Have a tea party. (except we did a hot cocoa party.)

Make crafty ornaments (my husband and I started our ornament collection this way before we were married and now Z has added to it.)

Take a bubble bath.

Dance to loud christmoose music.

Watch a christmoose movie.

 Attend a holiday party or performance.

Cover a few windows with snow. (we bought the spray on snow from walmart)

Make a Yule log to burn on christmoose morning.

Wrap Graces presents. (grace is my sister and she lives with us)

Make and wrap something for Obichan. (Obichan is what Z calls her grandmother)

Make christmoose button art. (you know all those things on pinterest where they use buttons to make a letter for a girls room? we tried it and Z picked a moose shape, it was hard and took 3 days to finish, Z gave up after 20 min :)

Read 5 christmoose stories cause you are 5 years old. (Z was extatic to turn 5. her birthday was in July and we still have to do 5 of things regularly... cause she's 5 years old)

Stay up late and watch a movie.

Start Amish Friendship Bread.

Bake Amish Friendship Bread and gift to 3 friends.

Go see christmoose lights in the neighboorhood.

Go out to the mall and sing christmoose carols. (inspired by Buddy the Elf's 'the best way to spread christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear)

Go shopping for a daddy present.

Schedule a christmas volunteer project.

 Happy Holidays,

ING

!jen