In The Holiday Mood.

Saturday morning found me having cocoa with my dear, kindred friend Anne's mom, Deb. (Anne, my Burgh hall roommate, Sweden traveling companion and fun friend to boot...)I've loved connecting with her mom via blog world and knew that a great mother had to stand behind Anne. She's lovely. We chatted, and chatted, and chatted, and drank some hot cocoa and chatted some more. Two hours f.l.e.w. by and before I knew it we were saying our goodbyes. See you next time, I hope. And next time, drag Anne along too.

On my way home from seeing Deb, I got really crafty. Which is why I think I may, or may not have been poisoned last week at Starbucks.

Thursday afternoon. Christmas music. Christmas colors. Christmas decorations. Totally got me in the mood for Christmas. In the worst way.

Starbucks, are you sprinkling Christmas powder in your drinks now?

So the below craft-i-ness is compliments of Martha Stewart and the craft can be seen here. (Update: Artist Ali Edwards just did a post on this very same craft. I'm telling you, not only is it easy, but it's fun too.)

Advent Calendar

Each year we buy both T and M advent calendars that they can open each and every day until Christmas. Usually I find the ones that have a piece of chocolate inside and they have a fun little treat each day. This year I started thinking that H will probably want in on the action too and I wanted something a bit more meaningful than the typical throw-away calendar.

With this little creation we can use it every year and change up what is inside the boxes. Also the kids will learn the important lesson of sharing as I am planning on sticking 3 of the same in each box. (IE. one box might have three Hershey Kisses...) They will each have turns opening the boxes but there will be something for each of them every day.

I bought 24 paper mache' boxes. They range in price from $0.68-$0.97 and you can buy them at Michaels, JoAnn Fabrics or Wal-Mart. I chose to get circles, stars and two different sizes of squares, plus one large box for the last day.T and I painted them red, green and yellow. M tried to paint too but quickly got tired of it. (Acrylic paint is best and you can get that just about anywhere.) I let them sit out to dry.
Then I applied number stickers 1-24. I bought the bigger numbers at Target and the little ones at Michaels. I had the tags already but you can easily buy those at Michaels or JoAnn Fabrics.

Then I hung them on the wall with thumb tacks. And as you can see they are holding up pretty darn well. We usually have something hanging here so all the holes will be covered post-Christmas.

Viola! You like?

Please share some of your ideas of things to put inside, there are 24 days and I need three of everything....

So whether I've been poisoned or not, I'm enjoying the holiday season just a tad bit earlier this year. Wait until you see our house...more to come.