Day 10..."At the Dollar Tree"

The Day 10 activity on our advent calendar was to go to the Dollar Store and each child buy a gift for every person in our family. We gave them each $4 and they were to buy a gift for mom, dad, brother/sister, and baby. They had such fun picking out their gifts, brought them home, wrapped them and we sat around and opened them together! Daddy's gifts...a musical Christmas tie from Em and a Wii baseball bat from Nathan (doesn't the Dollar Tree have great stuff!!)

My gifts were a scented candle from Em and a vegetable peeler from Nathan, this was very sweet and thoughtful, he was watching me peel sweet potatoes the other night and wanted to know why my 13 yr old peeler was so old and rusted?!?! This one has a built in veggie scrubber, too!!

Emily's gift for Nathan was a 6 in 1 screwdriver set...he is working on putting together his own toolbox.

Nathan got Emily a bag of pom-poms...again he really pays attention, he saw her asking for a bag in the craft store the other day.

They each picked out a cute bib for the baby...

While I was there wandering around waiting for the kids, I came across these things to make a new Christmas decoration. All you need is a little imagination and you can make great things from the Dollar Tree!! A glass vase, candleholder, and pack of styrofoam snowflake ornaments...

I superglued the vase to the candlestick...

Dropped in the snowflakes, tied on a ribbon and made this for the bathroom sink...cute!!

Day 7..."Make a Christmas Craft"

We chose making snow globes for our today's activity... Start by gluing ornaments onto the inside of a jar lid.

Add distilled water, glycerin, dish soap, and glitter.

We also discovered you can make "snow" for your snow globe by grating bits of a PVC pipe...

Fun project!! Still have a table full of glitter...

Day 6..."Make an ornament"

The Day 6 activity on the advent calendar was to make a Christmas ornament together. I found this super easy idea and it will definitely become one of our yearly traditions. We gathered up the supplies of paper, pens, ribbon, and a clear glass ball ornament. We ripped the paper into small strips and took turns writing our favorite memories of 2009. Some were silly, others more serious, but they all happened this year. Next, you roll the strips up around a pencil into tiny curls.

Drop them down into the ornament and finish it off with a date and some ribbon. Won't it be neat to open these up in a few years and re-read all of our memories?!?!?

Monogram Frame Wreath...

Another project from Blogland that I decided to try and copy!! Here are the supplies needed...an old frame, Dollar Store garland, a wooden letter, and some ribbon...
Wrap your frame in garland and spray paint your letter...I chose red (it's leftover from the lawnmower!!)

Attach your letter with ribbon, add some ribbon to hang and it's done! It's really bright and festive and I love it!!

Day 4 and 5...Starbucks & Christmas Lights

We combined the activities of Day 4 (go to Starbucks for Hot Cocoa) and Day 5 (Drive around and look at Christmas lights) tonight and drank our cocoa while driving around... This house was pretty...I love the wrapped packages in the window box!

I am totally copying this snowman wreath next year!!

This one was nice...

This one had the cutest hand painted Disney wooden signs all over the yard...

Our next-door neighbors house...we call him Clark Griswold!! :)

And last but not least...our house...

Counting Down to Christmas...

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is our advent calendar...each year I do a little something different with it and this year decided to fill it with numbered tags with a fun family Christmas activity each day. Some days are simple like bake cookies together, read some of our favorite Christmas stories, etc and some days have a little more excitement like drive around a look at Christmas lights in our pj's or go to Starbucks for some hot cocoa... Each day the tags get hung on a tree (the same red stick that was out Thankful tree a few weeks ago)...

Christmas Cheer in the Kitchen...

I had a little nook on the kitchen counter that needed a little something festive...I'm all about the "no spending" this year and went searching around the house for something I could use (spraypaint)!! I found this cute little slightly outdated lamp... I de-beaded the shade, gave it a coat of red spray paint, put some peppermints in my glass jars, added a little frame and glass tray, and it's done...for free!!