Many moons ago, I saw a handmade advent calendar somewhere in the blog world and thought, hey, I could do that.  And so I did.

It’s 4 rows of pockets, straight across.  Most of the materials were vintage thrifted items, including the candy cane bias tape around the edges.  To mark the pockets, I used ribbon that I wrote numbers for dates on.  Some of them are barely holding on anymore.  I keep meaning to fix that.  I know I’ve been saying that for the last few years.  Maybe this year is the one it gets done….

The appliqued ornaments and tree boughs across the top were from the Christmas tablecloth my parents received as a wedding gift.  35+ years of gravy and wine stains take their toll you know.

This is just one of the several new lives I’ve been able to give that tablecloth so that it’s still part of our holiday traditions.

 

Over the years, I’ve learned to sync this calendar with the one on the kitchen wall.  While certain activities come back every year, like “Write a letter to Santa”,  “Go Ice Skating” never happened, no matter how much I pushed it.  Some days I just pop a piece of leftover Halloween candy in there and call it a day.   By syncing it with our calendar, I’ve learned to not tell her to bake Christmas cookies the same day as her Christmas concert at school. Not all the activities are holiday based – some, like yesterday’s “Play Uno as a family”, are just things we can all do together.   It’s definitely changed over the years, as she’s gotten older and busier, but it still remains one of her favorite things about this time of year.