Advent!

I've never done an Advent calendar before, so no laughing allowed! :)

I decided to try this one, created by a friend, that was totally free since I had most of the supplies already:  http://fancynonsense.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/advent-calendar/

I was a little embarrassed to snag a stack of paint chips at Lowe's, but no one noticed and no one cared.

What took me the longest was coming up with 24 activities and writing everything down. I strung our envelopes on some cheap garland:

Here's our activity list:

1. Make a felt Christmas tree (for the wall for Connor to decorate with felt ornaments).
2. Take a family Christmas photo
3. Read a Christmas book
4. Decorate
5. Make handprint ornaments
6. Winter program at the nature center
7. Go ice skating
8. Watch a Christmas movie
9. Make hot chocolate and popcorn
10. Make and hang paper snowflakes
11. Color Christmas pictures
12. Visit a nursing home
13. Bake sugar cookies
14. Deliver cookies to a fire station
15. Go to the zoo for Zoo Lights
16. Wrap gifts
17. Deliver treats to friends
18. Drive around and look at Christmas lights
19. Read a Christmas Story
20. Buy Daddy a present
21. Watch a Christmas movie
22. Go on a winter walk
23. Connor's Birthday! Visit the North Pole
24. Make a birthday cake for Jesus. Unwrap new Christmas jammies to wear to bed that night.
25. Merry Christmas!

I've seen these felt projects all over the place. Pinterest has a lot of them, and I've had a few friends blog about their projects. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the size and shape and eesign of your tree and the variety of ornaments you make.

This looked like a fairly cheap and easy activity to me. You can get details on making a felt Christmas tree here: http://www.thingsforboys.com/2012/11/play-felt-christmas-tree-no-sewing.html

I got a yard of green felt at Walmart for $3, then a pack of smaller squares in a variety of colors at the Dollar Tree. I also bought a pack of 3 bottles of colored glitter glue at the Dollar Tree. So, total of $5 for the tree. Not too bad.

I had to tack my tree to the wall. The command strips did not hold it up, sadly. They claim to hold a pound and this tree surely does not weigh more than that! Oh well.

Making the ornaments was most time consuming and I did it the easiest possible way. Nothing fancy, mostly circles. I'm glad I got the glitter glue because that brightened things up very easily.

Connor has been having fun with this. He's not occupied with it for as long as I'd hoped, but we'll see how things go throughout the month. I really liked this project because it can easily be used for years to come. Someone suggested keeping the tree up year round and switching up the decorations, and I think this is a GREAT idea!