craftiness: our advent calendar

Last year, we did very little to prepare for Christmas.  No shopping, no decorating, no listening to Christmas music.  It was our first Christmas far from home and we thought that if we skipped the sentimental stuff, maybe we wouldn’t be too sentimental.  But that didn’t pan out — it was tough and sad not only because we were far from family and friends but also because it didn’t feel like Christmas here (other than the copious amounts of snow out our windows).

This year, I’ve resolved to get in the holiday spirit a bit more than last year.  And to start things off, I made an Advent Calendar (or Countdown to Christmas).

David opened the first one tonight!

Of course this format wasn’t my brilliant idea.  The Advent Calendar template is courtesy of LivingLocurto (template here). I love it because the messages inside the calendar can be customized.  As I don’t have scrapbook paper, I used printable wrapping paper that I found at LoveMae (pdf here)

Up next our Romanian stockings….