Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone, I wish you all a wonderful, cozy and healthy Christmas time!

The past few weeks have been crazy.
I've been crafting tons of different things (which I may or may not show here sometime ;-)), it was my boys' 3rd birthday in mid-December, I contributed to their kindergarten's advent bazaar, and now it's already Christmas! How come this holiday always manages to sneak up on me unexpectedly although I usually start planning and crafting for next Christmas, um well, right after Christmas is over?

I finally finished the advent calendar I started last year, yaaayyy! I think I had it all set up around Dec 5 - luckily my boys don't know their numbers that well yet ;-) But at least now I've got a head start on next year's advent calendar - I'll just need to fill it:

I've also started a collection of ideas to fill advent calendars on Pinterest (where else?). And here's just a quick evaluation of what I learned this year:

• Who would have thought that a fancy toothbrush or bath colors/ bubbles/ confetti are the most valued advent calendar items? :-)
• Printed and laminated items are inexpensive and easy to make and might be even better than store-bought toys. I made some letter-writing cards for my boys, and especially E loves them, he'll sit with them forever trying to write the names of everyone in the family (I found some really cool customizable letter/ word tracing worksheets at twistynoodle).
• I should leave out sweets altogether - the kids get so many sweets in December anyway.
• All the crafty stuff I included this time - glue, stamps, feathers, stickers - was a bit too much. The kids can't use it on their own yet (or the walls, curtains, furniture, my books and the floor will be stamped on - ask me how I know...) and it's difficult to plan crafting times this far ahead.
• This year, I didn't really get round to doing this, but I think it's a great idea to include family activities rather than "stuff". I'll have to have a look at this and collect ideas for next year.

Who knows, I might even remember to check this post before starting the calendar next year ;-)

Okay, now off to bed. I should really break that habit of staying up way too late...