What the what? I’m never this organised for Christmas!!
But apparently I am this year, because even though it’s still October not only have we already shopped & sent all of the Christmas presents for our UK family this year, but I have also just finished a new advent calendar for us…
Woah baby!!
Why so organised this year? Well I blame this…
A while ago I won an advent calendar in a giveaway over at my friend Laura-Jane’s blog.
It is a hand printed DIY advent calendar by Blueberry Park and I’m rather in love with it. So on a whim on Sunday morning before church I decided to start sewing it all together.
I gave you a sneak peak yesterday…
And here it is in its finished state…
Over all I am super in love with it!!
Although if I’m honest, if I was a perfectionist there would be a few things about it that would drive me crazy…
Mostly things just either not printed straight, not printed in alignment or the pockets all being different sizes so therefore being hard to line up perfectly. Some of the pockets are also too small for the guide markers so that you can still see one or both of the guide markers once the pocket is sewn on.
All that being said I still think it came out very cute.
I will just view it as having lot of hand made rustic charm and I can see us loving it for years to come.
So what am I going to use it for?
Well… since the pockets are not super big I’ve decided to go for a different approach this year over my usual chocolate/lollipop effort. Instead I’ve written our 24 activities on paper for us to do as a family, so that each day my girls can take turns picking the activity out of the pouch and we can find some time in our day to do the activities together.
Here are our 24 activities in case you might be interested to try something similar yourself:
1. Read the Christmas story together and learn the meaning of Christmas
2. Put up the Christmas decorations together
3. Take a walk and find some wild flowers to pick
4. Find some food in the pantry or buy some food and donate it to people in need
5. Take a walk to the shops and buy an icey pole
6. Make some Christmas cards and mail them to the Grandparents
7. Go and buy a few small toys and donate them to children who wouldn’t otherwise get presents
8. Put on some Christmas music and have a boogie together
9. Blow some bubbles together.
10. Play a board game together
11. Do something to bless a friend
12. Make some playdough and make a nativity with it
13. Take a walk to the local shops and have a ride on the mail truck (ride on toy)
14. Make some Christmas truffles together and give some of them away
15. Go to watch the Christmas carols
16. Make a Christmas cake for Daddy
17. Stay up late and have a movie night with popcorn
18. Make some Christmas cards for the neighbours
19. Bake some Christmas cookies
20. Make some popcorn string decorations
21. Buy some flowers together for our Christmas Day table
22. Set up the cubby house & have a picnic/tea party
23. Pain our nails red for Christmas
24. Go & watch the Christmas lights after dark
I tried to find a balance between doing Christmas specific things, doing fun activities as a family that I knew my children would love, activities to teach my girls that Christmas is a time for giving not just receiving and activities to prepare for Christmas Day.
Hopefully I’ve got a good balance.
I now can’t wait for December to begin. Bring on the fun!
Righto, off to start sorting my scraps now – I have quite an overload situation on my hands!!
Watch this space for a scrap destash…
Good work Kat. Your are organised. I am sure the girls will love the activities.
Debra
Kat, I love this idea! I have been resisting the advent calendar for years because I don’t want to encourage my husband and I to eat more chocolate at a time of year when we’re already bingeing on a dozen other bad foods. This is fabulous! And it’s able to be personalised into soemhting for a family or any age or amkeup,so as your girls get bigger, there’ll be less of the bubble blowing and playdough and more of the writing/talking/action things. And for families like mine, where it’s all adults, we can make it more adult friendly, with meals/drives or other things that fit in the holiday spirit.
OMG, I’m off to make one now! More fabric to purchase! lol
What a great idea – and a nice balance of activities, and what is that with things that are not printed straight… etc, etc – like we spend all that time being 1/4″ freaks, and they just print things crooked!
Turning your Christmas To Do list into an advent task – great idea!
Surely 23rd should be Defrost the Turkey, 24th Peel the sprouts!
Ah this is just gorgeous! And yes I am sure you will treasure it for many years to come. Thank you for posting the ideas for family things to do for Christmas, lots of inspiration there! Enjoy the preparations and well done for being so organised 🙂
When our girls were wee, we filled our advent calendar – seen here http://annelee55.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/start-of-something-good.html – with a jigsaw puzzle split into 24 bits. Of course that meant we had to spend November making up the jigsaw so that the 24 pockets actually made bits of the jigsaw rather than just having a random selection of pieces. Now it’s only us here, we usually fill the pockets with mini chocolate bars. :o)
I forgot to say that the girls never knew what the jigsaw was – no picture allowed. I remember the year we were planning to go to Disneyworld, the jigsaw was of Cinderella’s palace. Talk about excited wee girls! – and parents! :oD
You are such a wonderful mom Miss Kat. Thanks for sharing!
Great collection of advent ideas. x
Good on ya for being so organized so far! I do have quite a bit of my holiday shopping/making finished too. I’m planning to visit my sister & BIL in a few weeks, so I can take almost all of their gifts up now & not have to put them in the mail.
The advent calendar & all the “to dos” you put in looks great. I know what you mean about the printing being off too. ERG! I’ve had that problem with pillow panels not being straight. Oh well, you did great with it despite that!
Look at you, Miss Organized. Well done. I look forward to following you on your Christmas adventure 🙂
Ay… I’m so not there yet. Your advent calendar rocks though.
I love this, I’ve had it in my etsy fav’s for ages now just haven’t had the pennies to buy one. And you made me chuckle so much at ‘what the what’!!