The Count Down To Christmas Begins!

Our 2010 Advent Calendar:

I had another boring simpler advent calendar started, but then yesterday Amy from Living Locurto posted a wonderful free download for this great Christmas Advent Calendar. So I scrapped my plans and pulled together things I had on hand to make this awesome one instead. Mine isn’t nearly as pretty as hers, but it’s a heck of a lot better than what I was going to make!

No pictures of progress because it was literally a last minute creation. (Which means I was finishing it when the kiddos got home from school.) I took foam board from the Dollar Tree and covered it in wrapping paper. Then I typed my activities on all the days, printed them on cardstock, cut & glued them on. Once I started that I realized I made my base board too small- but I shrugged off my perfectionist itch and carried on. I used Christmas stickers I had to hold the little folded activity cards closed. And then after I cut all the numbers out (while vowing to invest in a 2” circle punch soon) I used these “pop-out dots” things (like these) I had to put them on the front. I of course had to use the Star Wars Banner option at the top- I knew that would make me the really awesome mom.  ;o)

Since I only have one calendar & 3 boys, I had to write alternating names on the days so there would be no fighting on who’s turn it is to open each day. And I have a basket (which I forgot to take a picture of & am too tired to right now.) of small wrapped gifts for them to each open one daily. Some days it might be one small piece of candy (being the frugal mom that I am it’s confiscated leftover Halloween candy) or it could be something related to that day’s activity. They gifts are numbered & wrapped differently for each child, so there’s no doubt who gets what.  :o)

Here’s our Christmas Advent Calendar Activity List for this year:

1. Make a CD of favorite Christmas songs!
2. Make paper snowflakes and hang them from the ceiling!
3. Family board game night!
4. Put your shoes outside your bedroom door for St. Nicholas day!
5. Color Holiday pictures & mail them to grandparents!
6. Write  & mail a letter to Santa Claus!
7. No chore day!
8. Build a snowman!
9. Do a good deed today & share it at dinner!
10. Do a puzzle together!
11. Read a holiday book together!
12. Decorate the Christmas tree!
13. Make & send a Christmas card to a friend or family member!
14. Have fun doing winter word searches & mazes!
15. Add this year’s handprint to the Christmas tree skirt!
16. Go Christmas shopping for your family!
17. Make a list of 10 things you are thankful for and hang it up!
18. Watch a Christmas movie & eat popcorn!
19. Make Christmas sugar cookies!
20. Make an ornament  for the Christmas tree!
21. Donate clothes & toys to needy families!
22. Make gingerbread houses!
23. Drive around looking at Christmas lights & displays!
24. Watch Polar Express & drink hot cocoa!

I’ll try to take a picture each day & link it from this list to share & show how they all turned out. But that will be another day- for now I’m going to go bond with the hubby. Night all!

Giving Someone a Little Happiness from a Sad Event

Due to a recent death in the family, my husband’s SIL, I became the recipient of a beautiful plant (some kind of Lily I think). After shuffling it around the house for a few days I realized that we had no room for it- it was too big & our house is too small. That fact & my worry that I would kill it (I don’t have a good track record with real plants inside- I even managed to kill a fern once!) made me realize I had to give it away. I didn’t want to be callous by giving it away and wasn’t looking forward to explaining to the lucky friend how I came by it.

I pondered my dilemma for a while and then thought of a way I would be comfortable with passing it on- by giving it to someone at a nursing home! I loved the idea of taking something that was a sad reminder and turning it into a joyful thing. I delivered it to our local nursing home & asked the nurse at the front desk to give it to someone that needs it, someone that doesn’t get much visitors or anything. She was very happy to do so. I left with a happy conscious & joyful heart knowing that I made someone’s day while at the same time kind of honoring a good person’s memory.

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! Pocket Advent Calendar- merrily created by mylittlemochi

 

Here’s wonderfully easy & awesome Paper Plate Advent Calendar from Filth Wizardry 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: 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).Envelope 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.Homemade 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)

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.)

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!”

I’m still here :o)

No- I haven’t fallen of the face of the earth. Yes- Life has gotten hectic and I let myself become so immersed in the craziness that I haven’t blogged in two weeks. I’m working on that whole “balance” thing in my life and obviously it still needs some adjustment! With the school season in full swing all the activities that come with it are going now too and my obligations have gone up, while my free time has gone down. I simply forgot how much more work being “The Mom” was at this time of year. I’m spending a lot of time doing kid related things- volunteering between 3 schools, multiple after-school activities, kid’s bowling leagues, helping lead Cub Scouts, making Halloween costumes and operating “Mom’s Taxi Service.”  To add to the crazy mix we put our house up for sale two weeks ago and are hoping to move sometime soon, so I have the pressure of trying to super-deep-clean my home and get things packed up.

So there’s my reasons for neglecting my blog and readers. Sorry I abandoned you all for a bit- life grabbed me unawares & took off running and I’ve just been stumbling to keep up. Hopefully I can find a more steady pace here soon and can start blogging regularly again. :o)   I do have a few kindness things I wanted to share from during my absence- I’ll do my best to get them up this week and get caught up on all the comments left.

Another Successful GFTAS Day

Today is the 27th of the month which means it’s Give Flowers to a Stranger Day! I’ve been looking forward to this day ever since I discovered & celebrated GFTAS Day last month. Once again I headed to my local Krogers hoping to score a marked-down pretty bunch of flowers. There were many available this time that were nice, but my eyes kept returning to another pink bunch of flowers. They weren’t that much more so I got them instead. I figured if I liked them so much, than so would the lucky recipient. 

I printed a small card tag I downloaded for free here from Whisker Graphics. I wrote a little message on the inside and taped it onto the bouquet wrapping. I also picked out one of the Kindness Cards from Kind Over Matter that I downloaded & printed to use for card drops. I tucked it in between the flowers- it said “People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

I had been thinking all morning on who I wanted to give the flowers to today. I thought a nice elderly lady would be great and I knew I wanted to find someone somewhere other than a store parking lot. I decided I’d drive to another neighborhood and simply pull over and give them to the first person I seen. Being it was a fairly nice day & middle of the afternoon I thought it would be a cinch to find someone outside. (Easier said than done I soon found out.) The first two people I seen were guys and when it comes to flowers I figured a woman would appreciate them a whole lot more. So up & down the streets, around the blocks I kept driving slowly looking for a mom outside with her kids, a woman taking groceries inside or an elderly lady sitting on a porch swing. But I had no such luck- I only seen 3 people total and all were men. With my time, and gas, running out I changed tactics and headed downtown where I knew there had to be people. I spotted a young woman coming out of the post office and quickly parked, grabbed the flowers & hopped out. I thought I was going to miss my opportunity because she was getting in her car by then, but I got her attention and handed her the flowers simply telling them they was for her. She thanked me with a slightly stunned smile and I quickly walked back to my still-running van with my own happy grin.

I’ve been happy & smiling ever since. GFTAS just makes me feel so good- I’m so glad I get to celebrate it monthly instead of just once a year! If you’re new and want to know more about this Kindness Holiday- click here to read more about a wonderful lady and the kind act that started it all.

Hoping to Win My Dream Machine

A momentary interruption from my normally scheduled posts:

Crafty Crow is having a giveaway for a Silhouette craft machine. I’ve been drooling over one of these babies for many months now. There’s soooo many awesome things I could with this craft cutter- it’s like the MacGyver tool of the craft world. You can enter for your own chance to win one by going HERE and leaving a comment before Sept. 30th on what would be your first project with it.

Click HERE for another chance to win one at Living Locurto.

4 entries between 2 giveaways so far- I’m keeping my fingers crossed!