Christmas via Pintrest, Part One

I'm not even going to go into what Pinterest is, because by now everyone is in the know and if you aren't well then, I just don't know. Once Halloween has passed I begin to feel the strong draw toward all things Christmas, and this year Pinterest has helped me figure some stuff out. First things first an Advent Calender. We've done the Trader Joe's chocolate one in previous years, but Pinterest has challenged me to become a better mother/wife/human being #sarcasam. I knew I wanted something that was for both kids, Robin's not going to remember anything this year, and I wanted things for them to do, not things for them to eat or have. After searching through the hundred or so links for "DIY Advent Calender" (the nice/funny thing about Pinterest is you can put DIY in front of any word and get a myriad of options, most very clever, lots involve hot glue and pvc pipe and yarn), I found a couple that inspired me. Here they are.



Here is ours...

I'm pretty damn pleased with how it turned out. I thought about putting up a tutorial, but I'm pressed for time today and lazy, so I'll just tell you what I used. Brown craft paper cut into about 7x7" squares, yarn, little pieces of note paper to write what to do each day in the envelopes, gold notary stickers, various Sharpie markers, red jewels to decorate, ribbon and nails to hang it on the wall, and clothespins to hang the envelopes (next time I will use smaller clothespins).

$15 and 2 hours later I kind of rethought not just taking the $1 Trader Joe's chocolate calender, but I'm trying to convince myself that this is worth it. I'm not sold on it yet. It's only been two days and each has been met with adversity from Marley.

Day 1 was "Hot chocolate with breakfast." I was unprepared and out of the cocoa powder I normally use to make "real" hot chocolate, not the instant stuff. Here is the conversation Marley and I had...

Marley, "Is this instant?"

Me, "Yes."

Marley, "Oh, I can see you just didn't have the time" said in a voice that was like "I will always have the time when I am an adult."

Me, "I did have the time, I was out of cocoa powder."

Marley, "Oh.... it's alright."

Just alright? She wouldn't be saying this about a piece of penny chocolate.

Day 2, today, was similar. Open note, it reads "write a letter to send to someone". Our conversation went along the lines of it being "lame!" and "just like homework!" and "worst day ever!" Okay, maybe not that last one, but we were close. There was a reminder about the reason for the season, we went for the family and friends route over the birth of the sweet babby Jeebus, but still she was like "I want my chocolate!" Maybe next year dear, maybe next year.

And how has Abe reacted? He's pumped about this. He doesn't remember the chocolates last year, so this is the norm. We're writing letters this afternoon and you might be getting one! He was pretty definitive about who gets his letters, and surprisingly he didn't say his girlfriend Tuna Fish.