24 Days of Christmas Books

We started a super fun tradition last year: 24 Days of Christmas Books. It's super easy. You just collect 24 Christmas books, wrap them up and label them with a number (1-24). Put them in a bin or basket and your child gets to open one each night. I have been collecting books for years and I taught Kindergarten for 9 years. Needless to say, we have MORE than enough. If the thought of buying 24 brand new books sounds overwhelming or expensive, here are some ideas: start looking at thrift shops, garage sales, local resale sights, used book stores, Paperbackswap.com, etc. It's really easy to find them once you start looking.

Sally loves opening up one book each night for us to read! I hope your little ones enjoy this fun tradition too!

Five On Friday: Christmas!!

Happy Sunday! We have had a busy, busy weekend including a 1/2 marathon and lots of Christmas fun! Today's Five on Friday is two days late but is all things Christmas! Get ready for picture overload!

{one}
We had a North Pole breakfast last weekend to welcome our Elf on the Shelf "Figgy". 

She brought Sally two presents....new Christmas pajamas and a Magic Light Wand. 

Grandma and Grandpa were here from Minnesota and Grandma brought Sally some elf pajamas. They had lots of fun!

Sally was very excited to meet Figgy!

{two}

Figgy has been busy here at the Moske house. Not going to lie...I am really enjoying setting her up each night before going to bed and I love to see Sally's face each morning when she wakes up and wants to go find her. Here are some of her latest antics!

{three}

Sally and I have had a lot of fun crafting lately. I planned one activity a day...a  craft, an outing, etc. 

This week we made reindeer food.

Sally also played with Christmas Play-doh...decorating green trees with buttons for ornaments. 

When Joe's mom was here she made the cutest shirt for Sally!

  

She also made the cutest dress!

I have also been crafting. I bought these paper mache letters a few years ago and wasn't sure what to do with them. I decided to make them glittery. I love the way they look!

Sally is loving our tree and she has been really good about not messing with it too much.

I made Sally a special Grinch snack to eat this morning while we watched the cartoon version. Of course she immediately ate the mini marshmallows off first!

{four}

We have a double fireplace. We have one huge living room and there is a half wall that splits in the room in half with a fireplace on either side. One side doesnt have a mantle so this past weekend, Joe made one out of reclaimed wood. I am in love with the way it turned out!

I have started decorating it and its still a work in progress. 

I did hang some DIY art that was inspired by something I say on Pinterest. I had Joe make me a wooden panel out of reclaimed wood and cut an old globe in half. 

I used some vintage letters to spell "Love Makes the World Go Around". I found the letters at one of my favorite stores...Hunt and Gather in Minneapolis, MN.

{five}

One of the gifts that Figgy brought for Sally was a Magic Light Wand.  If you haven't heard of these, let me fill you in. These were invented by people that live in Memphis and they are the next big thing! You just a little box into whatever you want to turn on and the Magic Wand turns it on and makes a magical sound. Sally is loving it and I love it too....it truly is magical!

DIY Advent Calendar

Making an advent calendar for Sally has been pretty high up on the list of priorities. With so many DIY ideas out there it was REALLY hard to choose what I wanted to do. When I saw mini galvanized buckets on sale at Target after Christmas last year, I snatched up 25 of them at 50 cents each. 

They had colorful ribbon through little holes but I just cut it and pulled it out. I used printables found here and taped them on. I didnt want to do anything permanent since I am not sure I want to keep this color scheme. 

I knew this would be hanging in our den so I decided to use black and white. I knew it would go with the rest of the decorations in that room. I did use colorful paper to wrap the little gifts. 

I have been collecting little things for the past few months. Here are some ideas that we are doing:

*coloring books

*necklace

*candy

*small stuffed animal

*holiday DVD

*holiday plate and cup set

*ornaments

*holiday socks

*antlers

*bubbles

*small books

*holiday pajamas

*sprinkles and cookie cutters

*holiday stamps and washable stamp pad

*small bag of cookies or crackers

*window clings

*jingle bells

*chapstick/lip gloss

*hair bow or headband

*fun band-aids

One thing I have learned.....buy smaller presents that actually fit in the buckets. Some of my items are bigger and will not fit. I plan to hide the prize somewhere and give Sally clues to find it. 

As you can see, once you put gifts in, the buckets do not hang perfectly...ehhh...that's life! Today is our second day to do it and Sally wakes up each morning so excited to check the bucket.

Toddler Christmas Calendar Actvities

I am SO, SO, SO excited for Christmas this year! It's true that the holidays are much more magical when you have a little one. Seeing Sally experience everything is so exciting. This year I feel like she is really excited about all of the fun activities we have planned. 

I am doing a homemade advent calendar. Each day will have a fun craft or activity for us to do along with a little gift. We will also be starting the marvelous Elf on the Shelf and unwrapping one book a night to read. This may be going overboard/stressful but I can't help it! I love doing it all!

It took me a while but I finally made up a plan for us and wanted to share in case anyone needs ideas. I tried to include links and pictures. 

1. Make Christmas play-doh, make pretend cookies with play-doh and beads/play with Little People Nativity

2. Watch Rudolph, wear antlers and make reindeer food

3. Make felt Christmas tree

4. Watch Grinch and make/eat Grinch kabobs

5. Paint Mistletoes

6. Watch Polar Express in pajamas and drink hot chocolate. Go to Starry Nights

7. Make Christmas Senses Book

8. Make a snow globe

9.Make wrapping paper

10. Write a letter to Santa

11. Go to Alpine Village and dance to Christmas music

12. Go to bookstore and get a new book

{As a former teacher, we have quite the collection of Christmas books, so I am going to do some research on some new ones that we may need.}

13. Watch the local holiday parade and go to Zoo Lights

14. Gingerbread House Party with cousins

15. 

16. Make bird feeder

17. Make ornament

18. Bring treats to school for classmates and teachers

19. Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments

20. Have a snowman breakfast, watch Frosty and go to Christmas Party

21. Ugly Sweater Run with Mommy and Daddy, Get Elf pajamas and watch Elf

22. Make Christmas cookies with Mommy

23. Deliver cookies to neighbors wearing Santa hat

24. Go to Church, Read Twas Night Before Christmas and leave treats for Santa

25. Christmas breakfast!!