Advent Calendar (part 3)...

Day #16- one gift for each boy...

Day #17- Birthday party for Jesus...

Day #18- board games with Henry...

Day #19- Popcorn & Christmas DVD.  We moved the sectional so that it created a little bed and watched our movie like that.  The boys LOVED this!  We even left the couches like this for a few days because Henry decided that it made a great boat!...

This is Henry's muscle man pose...

Day #20- Baked sugar cookies with the SDD (severely developmentally disabled) class at the high school (no pictures of this).

Day #21- We made toilet paper roll bird feeders with peanut butter and birdseed...

 Day #22- Sorensen Christmas

Day #23- extended Fast Christmas

Day #24- Wiebe Christmas

Day #25- immediate Fast Christmas

**Pictures of our Christmases to come**

Advent Calendar (part 2)...

part one is here.

Day #7- Pick Levi up in Tulare & watch Daddy's first tournament game.

Day #8- My birthday!  Party at Grandma Gail & Grandpa Royce's house with the Fast family...

Day #9- Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and the kids' Christmas program at church...

Day #10- Work on Christmas projects. Henry had a special date with Grandpa Bob & Grandma Sharon...

Day #11- New watercolors for Henry & lots of Christmas book reading for Charlie...

Day #12- Our friends Betsy, Caleb, & Colt came over for breakfast and to play (no pictures :(

Day #13- Bookstore with the boys to pick out a new book for each of them!...

Charlie didn't want to pose with his...

Day #14- Henry had to go to the doctor for an ear infection, so we scrapped our plans and laid around and watched netflix all day.

Day #15- Penner Christmas!...

Day #16- Celebrate my birthday with breakfast at the Wiebe's...

And that's it for now, I'll do a list of the rest of our days after Christmas!

Our Advent Calendar...

This December I decided to fill our Advent calendar with different activities that we would be able to do together as a family (or at the very least, just the boys and me).  I even decided to include some of the boys' gifts in our calendar activities since we never really have time to celebrate Christmas with just the 4 of us.  We'll see if this is something we enjoy, but so far so good, I think :)

Here is our Advent Calendar I made a few years back...

Day #1:  Gifts- The boys each got to open 1 gift.  They each got a Melissa and Doug wooden vehicle.  Henry's was a fire engine and Charlie's was a train.

Day #2: CALM (This was actually postponed to the next day).

Day #3: Why Do We Call it Christmas? DVD.  This DVD is really well done, it's a little bit above Henry's head, but it will be great to have as he gets older.

We went to CALM with Bob & Sharon and had a great time.  Charlie was a huge grouch on the drive out there, but thankfully, he perked up once he saw the lights, the train, and of course, the merry-go-round...

Henry thought this Santa Claus was real.  He told me later that next time he sees him he wants to ask him where his reindeer and sleigh were.  He was very serious :)

Day #4: Watch our Why Do We Call it Christmas? DVD and eat popcorn (although Henry decided he didn't want popcorn, he wanted pears instead).

Day #5:  We went to the high school to play games with the Severely Developmentally Delayed students.  We played "Hi-Ho-Cherry-O", "Hungry, Hungry, Hippos", and a Fishing game.  We also did some coloring and puzzle assembling.  We are going to go back in a few weeks to teach the students how to make sugar cookies.  Should be fun!

Day #6: Hang out with Levi and go to daddy's basketball game.

So that's what we've done the first 6 days.  My goal with this calendar isn't to overwhelm us with activity, but instead to help us be intentional with our days.  Even though John is super busy this month, sitting down with him before the month starts to plan out what we want to do together as a family helps prevent the month from feeling like it slipped through our fingers.  It also makes me less frustrated about the amount of family time that basketball consumes.  A less frustrated mom/wife is a very good thing :)

My advent calendar...

I kept this calendar because it was the last one I made and required some extra piecing due to the fact that I was only planning on making 3 calendars, not 4. Pocket #'s 5 & 19 were pieced so that I could use a dark green print in the calendar and the binding used every last inch of my red polka dot fabric. Because of these things, I decided it was best to keep this one for myself. I think it still looks pretty cute though.

A few additional notes on the calendars:

• Instead of using applique or embroidery to make numbers for the pockets, I took the easy route and printed them off on fabric printer paper and then ironed them onto the pockets. If I was only making 1 calendar I would have used embroidery, but for 4, I knew the printer was my best option.
• I machine quilted each calendar by stitching around each pocket. I really like the way it turned out.
• Each calendar is held up with a dowel on the back and then hung using a piece of ribbon.
  

A very fun project...but I'm glad that they are now in the hands of their new owners and not draped over my sewing machine.

Do you need an Advent Calendar?

My friend, Christa, approached me with a business idea about a month and a half ago. She has an etsy shop where she primarily sells her scrapbooking services, but this year, like she did last year, she is selling Christian advent calendar kits...which are really amazing. She wanted to offer some advent calendars to go with her kits, so she asked if I would like to partner with her and make the calendars. I agreed. I think they turned out nicely and even bought enough material to make myself one (eventually). If you need an advent calendar and are interested, pop on over to Christa's etsy shop and take a look. If you have a calendar, and are looking for a unique way to fill it, check out Christa's advent calendar kits. You won't be disappointed!

My Advent Calendar...

I've never had an advent calendar, and thought it high time to make myself one...on the cheap. I took 24 old soup/condensed milk/spaghetti sauce cans and wrapped them in some Amy Butler paper (Unfortunately, I didn't have any Christmas paper). I stuck number stickers on each can, and presto, an advent calendar was born. I think it turned out fairly well, although I was planning to hang it, but that didn't work out so well. It sits atop our bookcases for now, which is a good place for it considering Henry's budding curiosity. I have plans to sew myself one for next year, but this will do for now. If I end up loving it, then I'll keep it, if not, then I'll reuse the cans as pencil or sewing notion holders. The possibilities are endless really.

So, what goes in our advent calendar you ask? I'm not quite there yet, but I like this family-friendly advent devotional guide (it tells the story of Jesus beginning with prophecy in Isaiah, then moves its way through both the old and new testaments), and this more adult-friendly guide (it uses passages from both Matthew & Luke). So hopefully by week's end I will have each day's devotion cut up and put in it's appropriate can. I like the idea of celebrating Christ's birth throughout the whole month of December, and these guides helps us to do just that.