Are You Smiling Yet? If not- You will be!

No one's looking, it's safe. Go ahead- Smile & have yourself a little giggle as you read about my life and the thoughts that come spilling out of my head. (Watch out for flooding though- my head's not as near as empty as my husband claims it to be!) If my ramblings don't make your day a little brighter nothing will! I promise I won't be offended if you laugh at my expense- I consider it an honor to spread happiness. Besides- if I can laugh at myself you certainly can too!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

My Holiday Traditions- Advent Calendars

I can’t believe tomorrow it’ll be December! Yay!!!! I’m so happy. The Holidays have certainly snuck up fast, but that’s ok because I’m sooo ready now. I’m getting excited for Christmas- it’s my favorite time of the year! I like to stretch it out the whole month of December and try to make it very special for my kiddos. I have a few things I do every year and I thought I’d share them to inspire other moms, aunts & friends to make this Holiday Season extra special for a child in their lives. One of the traditions I started a few years ago is to make advent calendars for them. My very first one was simply 2 egg carton halves cut & glued side by side on cardboard, then I filled each well with a treat or activity & hot glued alternating red & green tissue paper over the holes. I added number stickers & a little yarn for hanging and voila! I had 3 advent calendars. They wasn’t very pretty, but they were homemade & the kids loved being able to have a special surprise to open each day.

Per my usual “do-things-at-the-very-last-minute”- no matter how much I plan ahead of time- I am once again making my boys their advent calendars on November 30th. (One of these years I will have them finished before Thanksgiving- probably when I have grandkids!) Since I don’t have pictures to share of mine yet- I thought I’d share some other simple ones that are easy enough you could join me in making a last-minute advent calendar.

 

My Little Mochi has a great idea to make a simple Advent Calendar with Dentyne gum! gum advent Pocket Advent Calendar- merrily created by mylittlemochi

 

Here’s wonderfully easy & awesome Paper Plate Advent Calendar from Filth Wizardrypaper plate advent Paper Plate Advent Calendar joyously made by FilthWizardry

 

Another great idea is to make an Advent Bag Calendar by simply numbering paper bags & hanging them up in a line like Christina from Moment to Moment did:hanging bags advent Paper Bag Advent Calendar cheerfully created by MomentToMoment

 

Yet another take on a quickly made advent calendar is using envelopes. You could follow d.Sharp Journal’s lead and make a plain White Envelope Advent Calendar with some festive numbers (which are graciously available for free download).hanging envelope adventEnvelope Advent Calendar joyfully shared by dSharp

 

Or make your own Festive Envelope Advent Calendar using old Christmas cards. HomeSpun Threads even shares the envelope template she used.envelope adventHomemade Envelope Advent Calendar happily made by MyHomeSpunThreads

 

I hope I’ve given you some inspiration to make a simple & fun surprise for someone in your life- it doesn’t even have to be a child! I know many adults would love their very own advent calendar as well.

Well- I’m off to finish my super-simple advent calendar which will not even be as creative as any of the ones I’ve featured. But that’s ok because I’m learning that not everything I do has to be top notch- especially when I take into consideration that I have to make 3 calendars and not much time to do it.  :o)

Monday, November 22, 2010

Bright Flowers on a Gloomy Day

I’ve had the urge to do extra special RAOK’s lately, but haven’t had the time. I seen these bright & beautiful flowers at Kroger's today and just seeing them made me smile. I decided that I wasn’t making anymore excuses for not doing RAOK’s as often as I wish, so I bought them and celebrated GFTAS day early this month. :o)

This cheery bunch went to a lady coming out of Walgreens. She seemed a little distracted & impatient when I stopped her at first, but being given flowers “just because” definitely changed her demeanor. Her face light up in surprise & pleasure. It made me feel so good seeing how easy it was to make her everyday errands turn from mundane to happy. (I forgot to get a picture of the cards I put in there.)

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And since I missed GFTAS day last month- I decided I that I wanted make up for it, so I bought this pretty bouquet as well. I walked over to Speedway Gas Station and gave them to another lady getting gas. She smiled so big when I gave them to her and simply told her to “Have a Nice Day!”

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