Advent calendar - reveal

The many presents of the Advent Calendar. Here is what was inside all those packages.



For the gifts I did a mix of crafts, toys, activities and candy. Click on any of the images to view larger.
(For the best view, please go to the website.)


1. I printed out circles on cardboard for activities. I used images from my Pinterest boards. See below what B ended up making for his ornament. I made the Walnut pistachio ornament that I already showed.
2.. Lunch Lines. Cute little book with funny lines to say. What do swamp creatures eat for dessert? Marsh mallows. Yes. It's that kind of a book.
3. I made him an embroidery kit. I bought yarn and a plastic embroidery sheet and cut out a piece of it. Then I found a Mario pixel art online. I changed out the colors in Photoshop so they matched the yarn I had bought. See below how it came out. This was my favorite one of them all. I put it in early so he could finish it in time for the reveal. And he did. So proud of him!
4. Dino kit. A slap of dried clay with some fossil bones inside. I thought he would really love these, so I bought three of these. The only gift that came in multiples, but it ended up being a bit of a bust because the clay was really difficult for him chisel off with the tools that came with it. See below for one finished dino. One is still in the box and one has gone missing...
5. Tic tac toe from the 1 dollar section at Target. I thought this was great. I painted it white to make it even prettier. See below.
6. Window gel showman. He put it on the window in the dining room.



7. Rudolph pez dispenser
8. Gold coins
9. Activity: Making cookie cutter cookies for the tree. These did not turn out so well. In fact I would call them a fail. But we had fun. Better luck next year. See pictures below.
10. Went to Ruby's for lunch. B's favorite lunch place because of their milkshakes.
11. A candy cane. He chose to hang it on the tree. So I guess this was also an activity
12. Glow in the dark putty. Big hit!



13. Another skeleton.See 4.
14. A crystal tree. This was fun. See below.
15. Surprise party! I had invited a few friends to come make gingerbread houses. We made a whole village!
16. Baking powder boat. And 6 packets of baking powder. Anything to get that boy into the tub...
17.Another skeleton.See 4. By now B was questioning my calendar skills... Three Mom?!? lol.
18. Two mini bags of gummi bears. They were left over from my shark attacks from halloween. He shared them with me. Aww.




19. Went for frozen yoghurt on a Monday. Otherwise unheard of
20. A slinky. Yay. Slinkies are fun.
21. Cherry lollipop
22. A 101 piece dino puzzle. Something to pass time until the 24th. Oh the wait...
23. A word puzzle game. Make as many words out of the letters as you can. Hat, Dot, Fast, ...
24. A can robot kit - build it yourself (shown built). Especially nice gift since we had a power outage for 11 hours on Christmas eve day.

Here is another look at some of the presents.

1. Let's make ornaments. B made this ornament. Entirely his own creation. He bent a white pipe cleaner for wings and glued it to a little wooden figure that I got at the craft store. Then he glued together a couple of snow flakes buttons for the front and cut a small felt circle (that's my boy) to cover the holes. Then he added string. He sent one to Grandma for her tree.


3. Here is the finished Mario. I am going to frame this. I love how it turned out.


Updated: This little project later inspired us to make a huge cardboard Mario on B's bedroom wall. Read all about that here: Pixel wall art - Mario gets SUPER sized

4. And one finished dinosaur.


5. I painted the tic tac toe white. Much better.


9. Let's make cookies. I am going to call this a fail. They just did not come out like I wanted. Better luck next time...


14. The crystal tree. So cute.


15. Our gingerbread houses.


I'll be back with one last post with a mini project before Christmas on Monday. It's cute, Don't miss it.

And of course check back over the next three days for the last three presents to go up.

So long.