Advent (or, the biggest exercise in delayed gratification a toddler could be asked to endure)

 I decided to invest a little money and time (really, though, it was only about an hour) into making an Advent Calendar that we can use again and again. We will hang these glittery boards each Christmas Season and count down the days with glee.

First I lay out each of the clothes pins on my two boards. Charlie would have measure then, I didn’t, they still turned out darling. I hot glued each one in place.

Then I added elmers to the tops of the clothes pins and Nolie added the glitter.

Then I worked on making my list and plans for our advent days. And then using glitter and a bunch of cute cards and bags we had laying around, we made our advent calendar!

Nolie helped to brainstorm ideas, and I am really happy with how it turned out. We had to hang it up HIGH so that the little gifts and cards aren’t reachable for little hands, but I think that this will be a really exciting way for us to celebrate the season.

Some of the days on our advent include;

big family breakfast to talk about what grace and advent mean

a winter walk to collect pine cones, leaves, rocks, and other exciting winter treasures

walking to the donut shop and picking out a sprinkle donut

making Christmas cookies to deliver to a friend

jingle bells and puff balls that are ready to thread onto a festive necklace

a date with Papa

a family trip to Menchies

some little wooden letters to decorate

picking up coffee and cocoa to deliver to a friend who could use a boost

gingerbread house making

and, of course, reading The Christmas Story