Our 2011 Advent Calendar

The idea for our calendar came to me when I was in Woolworths buying some birthday gifts and I spotted some Christmas chocolates with a little felt Christmas stocking ornament attached to it.  My mind started working over time and the result was a felt stocking for each day to hold a treat and I strung the lot onto a festive ribbon and mounted it on our lounge wall near our Christmas tree.

Andy wanted to help so he embroidered the two orange stockings with bells cut out of felt and I embroidered his name and the year on it so that we will remember in years to come...

I inserted an eyelet into each stocking to put the ribbon through and decorated each with whatever I created or had on hand...

I made sure it was high enough to be admired but not within reach to be handled LOL!  I've learnt from previous years that treats seem to mysteriously vanish when within reach of certain people :)

So when it's time to receive the daily treat I simply slip the one side off and lower it for collection :)

We are also doing an eBook this year called Truth in the Tinsel. I first heard about this over at one of my favorite blogs Love and Lollipops.  I fell in love with the idea of having scriptures, discussions and an ornament activity laid out for you to do each day!  My husband bought the book for us on the 30th of November when the kids and I were up in the mountains on the annual Homeschool camp (unfortunately he couldn't join us this year due to work commitments) so when I came back on the 3rd of December I printed it out, put each little clue picture in our advent calendar along with the treats and then we played some catch up over Saturday and Sunday.  So now we've started the new week up to date on our Advent calendar and almost up to date with the washing from the camp :)

I will be blogging our Truth in the Tinsel Advent journey.