my homemade advent calendar

Eli is getting old enough to start appreciating special holiday family traditions now, so I decided to make my own Advent calendar based on what I saw in volume 18 of Better Homes & Gardens' "Christmas From the Heart".

First, I ordered a 3D boxed calendar from Karen Foster designs, as seen here. It consists of 24 2" x 2" boxes that slide out to hold goodies or small toys. It also comes with a sheet of adhesive numbers.

Here it is before I decorated it:




I went to Michael's and picked up 4 different designs of coordinating Christmas scrapbooking paper, some embellishments, and some beautiful metallic red adhesive letters. I cut the paper into 2" squares, cut out the finger notches with a 5/8" hole punch, attached the numbers, and adhered the pieces of paper in a random pattern with a glue stick. Then I added some embellishments to some of the pieces, and two large embellishments to the front cover of the box. I finished up by gluing the adhesive letters to the front cover of the box. Here's how it turned out:




I can't wait to start our family Advent tradition! Eli will get a surprise each night in December up until Christmas day!

As Eli would say, "Num NUM!"

child of God

The other night, Eli did something that will stick in my mind forever. It had been a long day filled with the challenges an energetic young boy can provide, and I was stressed. I ended up doing something I strive really hard to avoid: I raised my voice to him. (I was raised in a loving family, but a family of yellers, and that is one thing I do not want to pass on.) He stopped what he was doing, clearly surprised. Immediately afterwards I sat down and apologized, almost starting to cry out of frustration, and thinking he was going to cry as well. Then something incredible happened. Eli didn't cry; instead he came over to me and started rubbing my leg and saying "Mommy" in a very comforting manner over and over. Then he crawled up on the couch and hugged me. I was so touched by his actions. How can a two and a half year old, who according to all the books should be going through his selfish-independent phase, show such amazing compassion and selflessness? We just sat there and hugged for awhile, and then he went back to playing. But in that brief moment, God gave me an insight into the man of God He's already shaping Eli into. I became aware that even in little moments that parents can pass off as insignificant, God is shaping our childrens' character and integrity. Out of a moment of heated frustration came what will be one of my favorite moments ever with my child. A moment that pointed me to my creator, my God who can use any situation to show me His love for us.