Holiday To Do List: Advent Calendar

So, I mentioned yesterday that I love me some Holiday Traditions...today I wanted to share another tradition we have started for Connor - our Advent Calendar.  When we were kids, Brian and I had the chocolate Advent Calendars - the kind where you open up a little cardboard door and pop out the cheapy chocolate?!  Well, we've upped the ante with our version.

We started our Advent Calendar three years ago, when Connor was old enough to start counting down to Christmas. Our calendar is a a simple Primitive style fabric tree, that hangs on our kitchen pantry door. It has 25 small pockets. The first year, we used simple things to fill the pocket each day -  a small piece of chocolate, some stickers, a matchbox car...then last year, we found the Lego Advent Calendar and we used that....attaching the day's Lego Toy to the pocket with a clip each day. Connor LOVED it!

Lego City 2009 Advent Calendar Photo via Amazon.com

This year we are doing the Playmobile Advent Calendar:

Playmobile Advent Calendar Image via Amazon.com

We chose this one because while Connor (and us!) LOVES Legos, he also has started a collection of Playmobile sets, and we wanted to add to that collection. This Advent Calendar is a nice collection of Woodland Creatures, which will be right up his alley! We purchased it at our local Wegman's, but it is available online at retailers like Amazon.com for right around $20.00. We plan on clipping each day's piece to its pocket like we did last year, and setting up the backdrop on Connor's dresser in his room.  I know he is really looking forward to it!

I've seen lots of cute tutorials on the blogs I read lately for making new Advent Calendars. I think I am going to look into this, since our pockets are a little too small. So, is there an Advent Calendar in your house? What do you put in it?

Holiday To Do List: Order Those Christmas Cards!

Falalala! It's the most wonderful time of the year in our house! We are gearing up for a meaningful yet simple, family centered holiday season. With a five year old, we are truly at a GREAT age for Christmas - Connor is a big believer in all of the magic that goes a long with the holidays and Brian and I love every single second of his joy! Traditions at the Christmas Holidays are big in my family - special foods, special Christmas Eve rituals, and along with those, we have added some of our own special traditions since we've been married. One of the most anticipated Christmas Traditions since Connor was born has been our Christmas Card photo. We spend several weeks in the fall thinking about what we will do for the photo, what he will wear, and what kind of card we want to send. When Connor was a baby, I made all of the Holiday Cards by hand and enclosed a photo of him. Then, I got busy, and I bought premade cards to attach a photo to. Easy, but not quite what I had in mind. It was when Connor was three that we found the solution!

Shutterfly.  With GORGEOUS card designs, a simple to use interface, and great prices, we figured that we would give it a try. When the cards showed up, we were stunned. The paper was thick and luxurious, the quality of the printed image was phenomenal and the colors were just so vivid!  It's been such an easy process for us for the last two years that I am so excited about ordering from them again this year - especially when I saw their Holiday 2010 designs. We are anxiously awaiting just a light snowfall this weekend to take our photos (we have a great idea in mind for this year's photo...so excited!) so that we can get our order in.  So...what will we choose???

With so many great designs, it's been difficult to decide, but right now we have it narrowed down to the following card designs...


We just love the cool, wintry blue of this one combined with the Vintage typeface.  It's called Vintage Noel Christmas.

Image from Shutterfly.com

Image from Shutterfly.com

This card is called the Red Revamped Christmas Card. We love the traditional red and green used on this card in combination with the black and white photo option. The square card reminds us of our wedding invitations and we think it's a nice twist on a Holiday card. It would be great with the family photo we have in mind.

Our last contender for Christmas Card 2010 is this one....Sending Holiday Cheer.
We could totally see a photo of Connor and Dunkin the Dog on it...

Image from Shutterfly.com

This one made our list because of the bright green and red color combo, the fun text box and the fact that we could be a little sillier with our photo on this card. Sooo, which one will we choose? We will let you know!

Image and Text from Shutterfly.com

The fabulous thing about Shutterfly is that they aren't just for holiday cards...we've also ordered thank you cards, photo mugs and photo mouse pads as gifts from them as well. My favorite gift ever, though, was the photo book I ordered last year for Brian, showcasing photos of our family from each month throughout the year.  It was a big hit! We have it displayed in our family room, it gets a lot of views, and its glossy, hard cover still looks brand new. Definitely keep them in mind for a unique gift for those hard to buy for grandparents!  It was super easy to put together, I simply uploaded the photos that I wanted to use, added text and basically dragged and dropped into one of my choice of templates. I could have added as many photos and pages as I wanted to. I just couldn't get over how easy it was!


In addition to all of the great products that Shutterfly offers, they are offering a great promo for bloggers! We wouldn't even mention this if it wasn't a company that we truly adore, but we feel that this is such a great product from a great company that we had to share it with you. Don't miss the chance to get your holiday cards!  Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010.  

Sooo, have you sent out your Christmas Cards yet??  If so, what do you do? Are you the traditional boxed cards family, photo cards, lengthy Christmas letter?  Tell us in the comments!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Ahhh, yes, the holidays are coming! Our neighbors are out in full effect with their decorations and lights.  It's a competitive sport around this neighborhood at Christmas - Holiday Decorating.  Literally, our neighborhood community association has a contest for it. We've never won - we gave it a try a few years, Brian was up on the second story roof stringing lights and everything.  Then it became apparent that we could not compete with the "professionals"...the neighbors who make Clark Griswold look bad. We now stick to a safe lighting scheme of retro white bulbs, greenery swags and wreaths, and festive red bows. I will be encouraging Brian to finish up that little project today...can't be the only house in the neighborhood without lights!

Image from etsy

In addition to the exterior lighting, we will really start full scale with the inside decorating this week...and seriously, this is the year I finish cleaning out and donating all of the holiday decor that just doesn't do it for us...you know...the army of snowmen I have been given over the years, the plethora of ornaments from my various decorating schemes, and all of the strange figurines that have invaded our home.  We visit the local Thrifties enough, we can drop off a donation the next time we go. This year, we are about streamlining, colorful lights, kindergarten artwork ornaments and the retro decorations from our childhood that we love. We are still on the search for a set of five foot tall plastic Santa and Frosty guys - we have the 12" ones from my mom, but really, the tall ones would put us on the map in the Holiday Decorating Contest here....so if you know of a set that needs a new home, please, feel free to let us know!

Well, I'd better get the Thanksgiving decor picked up before the boy returns from his sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I'm sure he will be running in to see where the Elf on the Shelf has landed for today!