December 1

It is finally here... December. While Fall is my favoritest time of year, I also love Christmas. This year I wanted to have a few things to help the boys count down to Christmas Day. You know, because a house of three little boys with the promise of presents under a tree is not frenzied enough... So here is the first thing I made. This was a culmination of ideas from the WWW found by me and my pal Sarah.
Sarah also helped tremendously when it came to actual fabric measurements and sewing. I sat like a doofus in front of her high tech sewing machine and tried to pretend that I knew what a bobbin was. (Sarah sews amazing things, like quilts. Really stinking amazing quilts.)
Behold.The Advent Calendar... 

I can just tell you... this was a labor of love. I blame my mother. Yes, its true. You see, when we were little she made these AMAZING and I mean totally unbelievably amazing ornaments. She had Noah and two of each animal and we strung them up from the huge dining room archway each Christmas. They were a hard dough ornament that she shaped, then painted, then embellished with everything from sequins (for the fish gills) to fluffy fur, and such. I loved... LOVED them. I was devastated when they were all ruined by a water leak. Perhaps this explains my obsession with rubbermaid totes in the attic. Anyhoo... I wanted my kids to have the same fun memory of handmade by mama ornaments. These photos are the little pockets for each day, and inside is a little stitched felt ornament.  Rest assured, after all the hours of stitching, they will be stored in a bank safety deposit box until next year.

Needless to say, Hadji was pretty stoked about getting to be the first one to get an ornament out. His was actually my least favorite one I made, a dog. I'll post some more photos as we open each day, and our other two countdown activities.

How do you guys count down the days until Christmas?