Get Crafty: the Advent Calendar

A couple of weeks ago I was cruising through the craft store when I saw an unfinished wood advent calendar in the shape of a Christmas tree. I breezed by it at first but then found myself heading back to get another look. It had 24 little drawers with pull knobs. "How fun would it be to paint that...?" I thought to myself. At $25 it was more than I would probably spend on a finished advent calendar, so I decided to head home and wait for my weekly "50% off one item" coupon* to appear in my email box and then went back to buy it.

Christmas Books for Kids

Warning: I usually try and be very "holiday-generic" during this time of year, so forgive this post. Unfortunately, in terms of books, we go totally Christmas overload...I'd love to hear other non-Christmas suggestions in the comments!

Every year growing up, my mom bought a Christmas book. She would write a few quick notes about the year (e.g., "moved to elm street, got a dog") on the inside cover. Thirty-plus years later, she has a wonderful collection of Christmas books and we have fun reminders of our family milestones. I plan on doing the same for my kids...of course, I'm just starting so I have to buy a stack of book this year and back date them! Here are some suggestions, beyond the The Polar Express.

The Night Before Christmas: It's a good place to start the collection. Jan Brett has wonderful, detail rich illustrations. Actually, any of her books are perfect for a holiday/winter collection. I also like The Mitten board book. They often have these at Costco.

The Sweet Smell of Christmas: This is in my mother's collection. We loved it growing up. Seriously, I didn't even know they made scratch and sniff anymore - but they do!

Snowmen at Christmas: Fun story about snowmen coming alive at night. It's like Frosty, but the illustrations make it seem more magical. A simple story good for little ones too.

I'll Be Home for Christmas (Toot and Puddle): Darling story about beloved Toot and Puddle. And you'll see some familiar Boston scenes. This story is a bit more complicated (at least you'll need to be a bit older to pick up on the magical "helper"), so probably better for 3-4 years plus. Although you can always look at the illustrations!

Where is Baby's Christmas Present?: Karen Katz always creates darling board books before for the under 2 set. Simple, graphic illustrations with flaps to keep babies busy.

Your favorite characters (e.g., Olivia, Arthur, Berenstain Bears) all have Christmas books too. What are your favorites?

Bring on the good holidays!

I will be honest...I am not a fan of Halloween. I rank it somewhere on my list of holidays between Arbor Day and Flag Day. Don't get me wrong - when I was younger I loved me some Halloween. I lived in an apartment with my girlfriends (therefore had no handing out candy responsibilities), we would always get dressed up as "Slutty (fill in the blank)" and we would go out to bars and drink ourselves silly. Those were the good Halloweens. But now I am a grown-up (per se) and live in a house, in the burbs, and I have a kid, and neighbors with kids, so there is a certain responsibility that comes along with Halloween. And that responsibility is for me to purchase copious amounts of candy give it out to all that ring my doorbell.

Last night was pretty much par for the course as far as Halloweens go. In the beginning there are the adorable little kids, who are so excited to receive your candy, and who are dressed up in those crazy warm one piece costumes (lions, and tigers and bears - oh my!) I wish those were the kids that came the entire night...but no, as it gets later they get older. And it seems the older they get, the more impatient they get. I answer the door, and they grab the candy and run. The costumes also get few and far between. Your high school gym sweats are not a costume girls.

Then there was the full grown man, who was at least my age, in a black jacket and wig who came to our door and said "trick o treat" and took candy from my basket before I could say anything. I feared he was more scoping out my house than interested in candy. At that point I decided it was time to turn the porch light out.

And then Halloween was over.

Trick o' Treat

I am not a huge fan of Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I love dressing up in costume, especially when it involves a long wig since my hair is so short, but I do not enjoy staying home and handing out candy to neighborhood kids. Originally my husband was supposed to be on door duty, but he hurt his back this weekend and could barely bend over to give the kids candy...convenient, huh?

I feel like it goes the same every year: the first hour it is all the cute little kids, with their parents telling them what to say from the sidewalk. These are the kids I love to see, the ones who are so excited to be dressed up, and are truly thrilled to be trick o' treating. They have been taught by their parents to be polite and always say thank you when you drop come candy in their bags (which are still Halloween themed at this point). It was only about 30 degrees out in Boston last night, so all these little munchkins are bundled under their costumes with turtlenecks and sweat pants, making it hard for them to walk normal. So cute.

My only problem with this first group are the parents of babies, who dress up their child that can't yet walk, put them in a stroller and actually go trick o' treating to collect candy for themselves! This really grinds my gears (as Peter Griffen says). I had one mother last night come to my door with her baby dressed as a ladybug sound asleep in the stroller. She proceeded to walk to my door (while leaving her kid at the base of the two stairs you have to walk up to get to my door and put out a bag for candy! And no, the mother was not in costume either. Obviously this baby is not going to eat the candy, and is not getting any joy out of this night, so why doesn't this woman just go out and buy herself her own candy!! Ugh - getting myself fired up just thinking about it. I wanted to say, what are you dressed up like tonight lady? A neglectful mother? What is this baby doing out in 30 degree weather!!

As the night goes on it is the same thing every year...the costumes get less elaborate (just a wig is not a costume), the kids get older (and ruder), and parents are few and far between. Gone are the Halloween themed candy bags, which have been replaced by plastic shopping bags or pillowcases. No one says trick o' treat, and you are lucky to hear a "thank you." It is all about getting as much candy as you possibly can now. I had one group of about 20 pimply faced kids at once, pushing each other towards the door, who were supposedly all dressed as Jersey Shore characters. I looked at them before I gave out candy and said "who are you guys supposed to be?" and they responded with Snooki! Pauly D! Sitch! I am sorry, but sunglasses do not make a Situation costume!! I do have to give props to the boy in the mini dress with the wig and poof ala Snooki. He got two pieces of candy.

I knew it was time to close up shop when at 8:00 the doorbell rang and there were two 16-ish year old boys dressed in black hoodies and jeans. They were costume-less, and had back packs on the front of their bodies that they were collecting candy in. I opened the door and said "hello" and the one shorter kid said with a deep voice "Damn, this is a nice house..." as he looked around my body at the interior of our house, like he was casing the joint. "Thanks?" I said and put a handful of candy in each other their backpacks, as I wanted to just get rid of as much as I could at this point. When I put it in the second kids back pack I noticed that he was quite a good looking kid, and I started to blush like a fool, and he winked at me. No joke, he winked at the old lady handing him candy.

No wonder he had so much candy in that back pack!!