Advent in Our Home

FOUR days till Christmas! Are you well and truly in the mood yet?

These past few weeks have been a mad rush for me, no thanks to the fact that we came back from Sydney with 2 weeks to Christmas. In between meet-ups, parties and concerts, we managed to get the tree up. Or rather, I managed to get the tree up, no thanks to my helpers who kept disappearing with the ornaments.

This year I also decided to try something new. With Noey old enough to understand more of the meaning behind Christmas, I ambitiously decided to construct an Advent Calendar for him when I saw some cute images of a really do-able project in Martha Stewart, involving items I have readily at hand -- baby socks! You can find the tutorial here.

(I love Martha Stewart, by the way, and accumulated a huge pile of MS Weddings when planning our wedding. I still might have them somewhere! My latest addiction is MS Living on iPad, which is half-price on subscription.)

It was surprisingly easy amassing 24 green and red socks! (And 1 pair of black ones for some variety.) Aren't they cute?

The best part about this project was that I didn't actually have to buy much to complete it. Just a length of red ribbon and some white stickers for the numbers. The pegs were left-overs from the photo line at Noey's 1st birthday. And since we were away till the 8th, I only started from the 10th. I figured Noey wouldn't know the difference anyway!

About half of them, all strung up!

I got hold of an Advent kit with bible readings and suggestions of items of daily items that I followed. I'm not very on the ball about this so I fill up the socks in an ad-hoc basis, just the day or two ahead. 

Having the Advent calendar has been useful as the presents pile up under the tree. I have a no-opening-of-presents-till-Chirstmas-morning rule, so everyday Noey would ask me "Is it Christmas?". At that point I would tell him the date and he would run to retrieve the appropriate sock from the line and rummage for the paper hidden within, as well as the gift. There have been hits and misses. The food gifts have certainly been the most well received! Some days he was just not interested in the readings so I simplified the process and told him the relevant stories.

The morning rumble for the sock of the day.

What do we have here?

On the whole it's been a fun exercise for the both of us. The socks are also a cute, festive addition to the wall. Provided they don't get hijacked, that is.

"But they are my socks and I want to wear them, Mummy!" Even more so if one is green and one is red.

It is true that Christmas is more fun when there are kids at home to share it with.