DIY Advent Calendar

Hey everyone, happy Monday! Apologizes for no Tiny Talk today. I've been battling a really bad cough the last couple of weeks and if I talk for too long I tend to have bad coughing spells. I'll be back with some really great chats though in 2019, so look for those in the new year! We had a busy and productive weekend mixed with some fun and relaxation, ha! So a little bit of everything. On Friday and Saturday we spent some time with our family because my dear great uncle passed way last week. Please keep us all in your prayers. 2018 has been quite the year for our family. Your prayers have been such a blessing though and have really kept us going. We did have some fun on Friday night, though! We went to our friends' annual cookie party where we bake a bunch of cookies and they deliver them to the Kellogg Cancer Center for the patients and the staff. It's a wonderful tradition we've done for the last few years and this year was Kai's first one! On Saturday, we finished up our Christmas shopping and had a fun night of baking cookies and watching Elf with my mom. And Sunday was just spent relaxing and baking some gingerbread cookies!

Every year I always buy a little advent calendar from a store and Caleb and I try to keep up with it during the Christmas season but we aren't very good about it. With this being Kai's first Christmas season though, I wanted to start a few traditions that would stick with our family hopefully. I've always wanted to make our own advent calendar whether it was something crafty or some form of woodworking from Caleb. Caleb's busy with a few woodworking projects right now so I decided to go the crafty route. I have a lot of red and green decorations around our house so I wanted to do something a little more neutral and found this idea of little craft paper bags to make a DIY advent calendar! It was a simple craft project and after I got all 25 bags stuck on the wall, I added little chocolates to each of the bags that Caleb and I take turns eating each day as we approach Christmas! I plan on taking it a step further in future years and am going to slip a little piece of paper in each bag that either contains a Bible verse or an act of kindness for the person who opens the bag to read/do in addition to eating the chocolate. I always want the reason for the season to be the most prominent part of the Christmas season in our home and I feel that honoring the birth of Christ by reading about it from the Bible and spreading kindness in our world are two of the best ways. So here's how I made this super simple advent calendar that is now front and center when you walk in from our garage!

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Supplies

• Mini kraft paper bags - Michaels $8.99
• Small Clothespins - Michaels $4.19
• Command Strips - Michaels - $11.49
• Chocolate
• Black Sharpie
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Write numbers 1-25 on 25 Kraft paper bags. I free handed them but you can also print out templates and trace them to make them look extra nice. To free hand them and make them look more like calligraphy, bolden any curves that are made. It adds definition to the numbers
2. Stick the front side of the command strips on to 25 clothespins. The command strips that I bought were wider than my clothespins, so I cut them vertically to match up with the edges of the clothespins so that the excess didn't stick out behind the clothespins.
3. Clip the Kraft bags on to the clothespins.
4. Remove the backside of the command strip and stick it to the wall. Evenly space the bags a part. I chose to do 5 rows of 5.
5. Place chocolates in each of the bags. I used Ghirardelli squares to keep them flat.
6. Take turns with everyone in your family every day from Dec 1st to Christmas in opening the bags and eating the chocolate to celebrate the Christmas season!

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I hope you all have a happy and blessed holiday season! What are some of your favorite holiday traditions that you do with your family? Share with me in the comments below!