The Advent of an idea

Every year I go looking for an Advent calendar, and every year I seem to just miss buying the last one. So I end up coming up with my own idea, which, of course, now gives me something to blog about.

Because the Elephant and the Butterfly -- actually let's be honest it's Butterfly -- aren't so great with the sharing, I made separate "calendars" this year. Pretty simple idea, too: I cut out 48 circle tags using my Cricut. Half were green (Elephant's) and the other half red (for Butterfly).

I also used the Cricut to cut out a bunch of numbers. Used a medallion punch to give a contrasting background to mount the numbers, added some red twine and white yarn, and voila!





I hit a party store for half of the little doodads -- tops, bubbles, figures and such -- and Winco's bulk foods for a variety of Christmas chocolates.


I simply taped the items to the backs, making sure the popular items would match on a given day. For example, I knew if I put the gummy bears on Elephant's but not on Butterfly's for the same day, she'd never leave the poor guy alone;)


I hung them up all over the tree and so far the kids are seriously happy with the idea. Elephant helps Butterfly find her number as he's looking for his.


We also finished our gingerbread house this evening. One hint: Don't forget that it takes a couple of hours for the basic structure to set. That's why this evening was actually a part two.

Look at Elephant concentrating SO hard!


This is what he made: A little snowman in the front yard;)


Here's a view of the finished project ...


... and here's how Butterfly helped out. Hmm. Wonder why she had such a hard time getting to sleep tonight?