To start, we dug up lots of white butcher paper and all the green and red art supplies we could find: paint, markers, crayons, colored pencils and glitter.
Then I told the littles to choice their weapon of choice and get creating.
I also picked up a special coloring book for C while I was out.
- The checkout period for library books is only 28 days and I didn’t want to get stuck with a bunch of yet-to-be-opened books that were overdue and racking up the fines.
- I didn’t want to use sub-par books just to make sure I had enough.
- Even if I could get my hands on 24 high quality books that I was allowed to keep ’till Christmas, I wasn’t sure we had enough paper to wrap them all.
- I liked the idea of mixing it up a bit. C seems to get a little more excited when he’s not exactly sure what to expect.
Finally, I lined everything up on the mantle and – viola! – an Advent calendar was born.
I mixed up the order of everything to keep C wondering what would be coming each morning: a story or some art.
P.S. If you’re really looking to have the holidays in the bag this year, we’ve got two ways to help. First get the holiday shopping out of the way with all 10 of our 2013 Gift Guides here…
Second, check out our new eBook, Hands-On Holidays, packed with low-prep and low-stress ideas for make memories crafting, cooking, reading and adventuring with the kids!
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