our advent calendar

Hello friendly friends 🙂  Welcome to December!! (crazy how fast the year went by, right?)  This year we are doing an advent calendar in anticipation for Christmas!  My kiddos are at an age where traditions are super fun, so we’re ready to make some memories!

I had an idea of what I wanted and I’m happy to say it turned out pretty much exactly how I pictured it!  Here is our calendar:

I bedazzled some clothespins with scrapbook paper 🙂  Not much to it, but I’ll try to do a tutorial sometime soon.  Super cute right?  I love clothespins, instant vintage and so useful!

I bought a pack of scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby.  40% off!  I knew I needed a bunch of paper; buying a pack ensured everything would coordinate!  Making these envelopes wasn’t hard either.  I’ll post a tutorial; I really like how they came together!

Each envelope is numbered (stamps are another favorite in our home 🙂 and has a piece of paper inside telling what we get to do that day.  December 1st – decorate the Christmas tree!!  Yay!!

While Branden strung the lights on the tree, I took some fun pics of the boys 🙂

Here is Silas trying to make Ethan laugh by tickling him 🙂

And here it is!  It’s extra sweet since this is the boys’ first Christmas tree ever!  We’ve never had the room to put one up until now.  Can’t wait to turn off all the lights and watch a movie 🙂

I’ll post more pics of our advent happenings as the month goes by, but just in case you were wondering, here’s what’s on our calendar:

1. decorate the tree
2. watch the movie “elf” (my favorite 🙂
3. buy family presents (just for the four of us)
4. wrap family presents
5. make christmas cookies
6. put up the nativity set
7. hang stockings
8. make a gift for daddy
9. watch the veggie tales movie “saint nicholas”
10. read “god gave us christmas”
11. make homemade ice cream
12. read “a charlie brown christmas”
13. hang mistletoe
14. learn about and eat candy canes
15. drive around and see christmas lights
16. make a gingerbread house
17. drink caramel apple cider
18. make paper snowflakes
19. make another present
20. make christmas pancakes
21. watch the veggie tales movie “little drummer boy”
22. drink hot cocoa
23. go sledding
24. read the christmas story
25. celebrate jesus’ birthday!!