☆ Holy Crap it's almost December….

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….And I still haven't made the advent calendar.

Bean was saying to me this morning that she was so excited because it was almost December + remember Mama, that thing we had on the wall, that everyday we took a new card out of + we did special things that only we did in December. And remember mama, remember how we watched movies and made things…

She went on and on for about ten minutes, becoming more excited with each memory. 

And as I was listening to her, I remembered that I had bought a new advent calendar, two years ago, that I had never put together + that maybe as this is such a special memory for her, I should get my ass into gear and make it.

And then, in my pre-coffee addled brain I realised that December is three days away. 

THREE! 

I think even if I just put it together + spray paint it, it will be ok, but I am hoping to finish it over the weekend.

I will keep you up dated.

But I also wanted to share with you some of the activities I hope to do with the kids. 

Like most families, December is a hellish time for us, concerts, graduations, end of year parties, end of school activities, so fitting in extra activities, as fun as the are, is just not going to happen.

Rather than set myself up for failure, I have included activities like swimming, Christmas parties, Carols + setting up the tree. All things we would do anyway, but it makes it the  Christmas just a little easier.

This year, I hope we can also include:

• writing letters to Santa
• making this Nativity scene from 'Made By Joel' (How cool is that!)
• making Christmas Cookies to give as gifts to teachers, neighbours + friends
• going to the Library + borrow Christmas books
• making our own Christmas Tags with these from last year
• going to the Christmas Markets
• setting up our Fairy Traps
• making our Reindeer attractant
• watching Christmas Movies (the grinch is my fav) + eat lots of popcorn
• Going out for a family dinner. Just the five of us.

Do you have any special traditions around Christmas? I would love it if you shared a few of your favourites with us below.

A Happy Thanksgiving holiday to all of my friends north of the equator, I hope you have an amazing day and eat loads of turkey!

And don't forget that the super sale is on in the LilliBean Designs shop for the whole weekend. Pop over now so you don't miss out!

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☆ Christmas Trees and Advent Calendars

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I hope you all savoured your weekend! What did you do to stay present?

I am not sure in the end that we savoured our weekend, we seemed to be in and out all weekend - xmas tree purchasing, craft shop madness, work parties, lunch with the parents - we both felt like we'd be away all weekend!

But we have our tree - it may be a plastic fantastic tree, but it won't die before xmas day and drop all its needles, and it won't be a disappointing droopy tree with threadbare branches, and no proper point for a star! Does anyone else from Australia find they're disappointed with what their christmas trees look like?? That they never live up to the stereotype of what a xmas tree is supposed to be?? I guess I really am a shallow creature when it comes to xmas trees cause I usually embrace the quirky and unique!

Anyway - we haven't put it up yet because we are waiting for it to come up in the advent calendar I made for the girls - well for Bean, cause really although I think that Bug is the smartest thing ever, she is really only six months old ; )

Bean was given this by her granparents when we had Bug and it comes with 6 mice - but ever since she recieved it all I could think was 'advent calendar'! So we bought some sticky foam numbers, and I spent the last week before December One, filling the pockets..

with things like - make cookies, go for a swim, have a baby cino, go to the play park and watch a xmas movie, (any suggestions for good xmas movies for a two year old - I suspect 'It's a wonderful life' would be slightly above her head!)

as well as some little trinkets, hand made felt tree ornaments and a few sweeties.

So that's what I've been up to this last couple of weeks, along with the odd sketch, and the cross stitch I dug out that I feverishly worked on for about three days, before again putting it aside again for my pens and paints!

Have a great Monday

x♥x

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