Christmas Jamies

I had to post pictures because I think they look adorable. 

Even if they weren't surprised at what was waiting in their December 24th envelopes on the ~Advent Calendar~, at least they are enjoying the surprise.


Mommy Sauri~

Christmas Crafts - just a glimpse

Because Papi was gone, I didn't have the camera.  That means that I didn't get to take pictures of the step by step process of our Christmas craft projects.

First let me start by saying, I did have a great idea about December's front door wreath...
I bought material to make my wreath and it sat around in the plastic grocery bag for a couple of weeks.  I was searching for the inspiration to get to work.  A tutorial maybe? Yea that's what I needed.  Even though I could see our beautiful, festive front door wreath in my mind's eye, I had no idea where to start. 

THEN

I found ~this one~  which includes step by step instructions. Inspiration was born.  But...I should have known that I needed to buy 4 times the amount of materials than I originally picked up.  I returned to the store 3 times because I kept running out of ornaments.  On my 3rd visit...THEY WERE SOLD OUT.  I even went to 4 other locations around the city and still could not find my red and gold ornaments.  Needless to say my inspiration has died and I'm a bit disappointed. 
1}  The December Wreath for the front door is 80% done
2}  December's Wreath is not going up in 2011for sure
{and}
3}  I'm putting it away until next year.  This way I can let my brain rest and come up with something spectacular to fill the empty space that ornaments do not cover.  It is beautiful though and next year it will make its appearance, promise.

I have seen lots of these types of Christmas Trees all over blogland and I knew I wanted my own to be the centerpiece on our dining room table.  I also wanted to add texture while keeping with the Casa de Sauri Christmas theme of green, red, gold, silver and white. Although Caridad and I no longer have finger prints, and poor baby girl received one too many blisters from the hot glue, I like the final product.  The gold one is my favorite!

 

I found someone in blogland that had a similar picture on a post of her Fall pumpkin turned Winter snow man.  Our pumpkin was not ready to be thrown away.  A couple of coats, ok 4 coats, of acrylic white paint, some felt facial features, a warm winter scarf and a top hat to cover his cold stem...And our snow man was born.  Notice the same gold material that we used on my favorite tree.       

Every month I try to fill these candle holders with something festive, according to whatever it might be that we are celebrating or are going to celebrate.  I cannot find candles that I think look nice inside of them so usually we fill them with candy.  This time around we are using RED HOTS. 

And that brings me to our trusty ~Advent Calendar~. I made the Christmas Eve envelopes extra big to hold the babies' new jamies.  I even bought the heavy duty clothes pins to make sure the envelopes stayed pinned to the line.. 

As you can see, my plan failed.  Majorly. 

You think they know what's in store for December 24th? 

Oh well. 

Mommy Sauri~

Advent ~ Morning Ritual

Well Papi finally returned from his trip to Cuba. We all were super excited to have him back. Man it's tough to be a "single mommy" even if it is for just 18 days. I don't know how you single mothers do it. I gain more respect for you all every time Ferny goes away.

I took a shower maybe 4 times while he was gone. Not becuase I like the dirty hair look but becuse it was all I could do to get a couple minutes of extra sleep in the morning after a busy day of DOING EVERYTHING BY MYSELF. Cubi, I'm soooooooooo glad you are home. Now I need to shower.

So you guys remember ~this year's~ Advent Calendar...We've had a lot of fun all month taking turns opening the day's envelope. 

Whoever wakes up first, goes and wakes up the other so that neither of them miss out on the day's activity or gift.

The babies are excited to draw a Christmas picture.  Do you see Cari's big smile!

Just a couple more days left until Christmas.  Are you guys ready for Santa?

Mommy Sauri~

Advent Calendar

One of my fondest memories as a child is the Advent Calendars that Mom used to get for us kids every year.  It was so fun opening a new "door" every day to see what was waiting behind. 

Last year one of the families from Caridad's class gave each child an Advent Calendar.  Each day revealed a gift wrapped square of Chocolate.  The Chocolate tasted great too!  I couldn't leave out baby Rey so I combed the stores looking for something similar for him.  I'm not sure why I didn't just ask Mrs. Gopal where she bought the  calendars that they gave the Kindergartners, but I was only able to find a "cheaper" version of the chocolate-behind-the-door calendar.

No worries though because Sis shared her yummy chocolate with Little Brother every now and then...

One of my favorite bloggers posted a tutorial here for her Advent Calendar last year.  I vowed ever since that I was going to do this for my kids in 2011.

Here is how the Sauris do Advent Calendar...Gather fun, Christmas inspired paper

 

Make envelopes..........all different sizes

Make coordinating pieces of paper to write the day's message on

Stuff your envelopes.....

Decorate some clothes-pins for hanging...

And there you have it.  See the blank spot at the end, don't tell the babies but that is reserved for the big finale for Christmas Eve. 

I hope the Babies Sauri enjoy it!

Linked here:

Me Making Do