Goin' Adventin'

Okay, so I am a little tardy with this idea...

Had a little trouble executing the project with little people around... 

The first opportunity to put it all together was yesterday
when my wonderful in-laws spirited the kids away to go bowling... 

Thank goodness for them....

My in-laws, I mean.... 

Anyway, I read about this fun Advent calendar project
in the December Martha Stewart Living Magazine. 
Instead of presenting the advent calendar board with the chocolates hidden
behind the cardboard doors,
they suggest taking a different approach... 

The one I liked was filling little paper bags with treats,
stringing them, clothesline style,
and affixing them with clothespins... 

And you know, it was rather fun and easy... 

My first concern was cost: 
twenty five treats times two kids = fifty items to obtain... 

Even at a buck a treat, that is not a cheap project.. 

One of the first ways around this was Party City...

You know the aisle for kid parties that has the bins full of junk
kids love to play with...

And at a quarter or fifty cents a pop...

A good deal...

Little candy treats found here and there at the dollar store, for instance,
make nice goodies for the bags...

Anyway, I had a good time seeking out trinkets... 

The beautiful striped paper bags can be purchased here
and they are mighty inexpensive... 

The stickers to close up the bags are from Target,
twine and clothespins from Home Depot... 

So, with just bags, twine, scissors, a pen and some little treats,
you have almost a month full of anticipation and joy for the pipsqueaks in your life... 

Not having much room in our house, I rigged up the bags on our front window... 

And the fun will begin December 1rst! 

For those of you who might want to try this, but are cursing me for my late post....

How about doing the Twelve Days of Christmas instead? 

That gives you about two weeks to pull it all together... 

When the kids returned from bowling last night they jumped up and down with excitement...

Tom spied Kate eyeing the striped treats,
trying to figure out what lay within... 

It will either be tons of fun or it will bomb like the Hindenberg... 

I'm going to go for the glass half full idea....