Advent Calendar

Everyone sees the Advent Calendars popping up in the stores around this time of year.  I remember them fondly.  Cute little cardboard Santa box with little flaps you can open up for a surprise 20 year old crappy piece of chocolate from God knows where.  Somewhere in the last 30 years the magic of them has worn off and left me with the reality of wondering how long that chocolate has actually been sitting inside those little cardboard flaps.  I mean, some of those Advent Calendars looks incredibly similar to the ones I had when I was a kid ... coincidence ..... maybe, but I'm not about to try it out on my kids.

I started looking for a cute Advent Calandar idea that I could make and stuff myself.  I stumbled upon the most adorable and EASY calendar at All Sorts, an amazing blog - and if you click on the link you will find a tutorial for this cute calendar!  Be warned, though, her sight is serious eye candy!  I got lost on her blog for hours.  Here is her cute little Advent Calendar made from felt, embroidery thread, buttons, and ribbon or fabric scraps.

She has hers hung beautifully in the background over the fireplace

I cannot take a very nice photo of mine with my little iPhone camera and poor lighting, not to mention I have no fireplace or fancy decor in my little humble apartment, but I will share my finished product anyway.  Just believe me when I say the look adorable in person :)!

I had to hang the high and above the sewing table, so little sneaky hands can't get into them when I am distracted.

I didn't want to pass out chocolate every day of the week or spoil them with toys each day and set a precedent for coming years.  I was going to do lego mini figures, but those can be expensive.  I had already purchased a bunch of stocking stuffers for the kids and one of them was these tiny little Pokemon figures I ordered off ebay from Japan.  My kids LOVE Pokemon and little figures seem to be all the rage these days.  I dug them out and they couldn't be more perfect.  There were exactly 48 and 2 fit just perfectly in the small envelopes (which I made a tiny bit wider than she did).  That way each day one kid is the first to stick their hand in the envelope and pick the first mystery Pokemon and then the other kid gets the other one.  It has been a big hit!  They have fun going to Pokemon.com and looking up their characters in the Pokedex. 

Bayne's Pokemon

Aubrey's Pokemon

My next fun craft is to make shoe box scenes for the kids to play with their characters on.  I can't wait to see what we come up with.  I will share once we are finished.  

Happy Holidays!!!