The countdown is on...

The countdown is officially on! 

Christmas is just around the corner and I am EXCITED!!

And I'm not sure if this is funny or sad...but THREE different people sent this to me on Pinterest! HA! 

And in all honesty...they aren't wrong!! 

One of the reasons why I LOVE Christmas so much is that I LOVE traditions! Growing up we had a ton of traditions around our home, but at Christmas it seemed like they were extra special. One of my favourite traditions was our advent calenders! Each year we would be SO excited for our little cardboard advent calenders filled with the little chocolate square! My parents would always buy them mid November and it was PAINFUL to have to look at it and wait until December 1st to open the first day!! As we got older my parents switched to one of those 'fill it yourselves' advent calenders and we were pleasantly surprised each morning with a chocolate, candy, a small toy, and sometimes money! And as crazy as it may sound...My parents JUST stopped doing that advent calender for us a few years ago!! Ha! What can I say?! We love a good tradition!! 

Sooooo...Now that I have a daughter of my own, it has become VERY important to me to start some of these traditions with her! Will she remember them this year?? Absolutely not! But that does not matter to me! I still think its important to start these traditions now, so that one day we can look back and tell her that we have been doing these special things with her since she was just a baby. 

That brings us to Sophia's first advent Calender!

Since she is too little for chocolate and small toys I opted to make her a book advent calender this year! Because in my opinion, you can NEVER have too many books. Especially when you are a baby!! 

It was VERY simple to make and only cost about $20! 

I bought 2 sets of mini board books from Chapters ($10 each) and wrapped them up. Then I numbered them 1-24, alternating between a Christmas book and a Baby Einstein book for some variety! I only needed 24 books, as I have a special Christmas book for Sophia to open on Christmas day! I decorated a mini Christmas tree for her bedroom and I stuck all of the 'gifts' under her tree. I look forward to opening a book up each morning with her and reading the book! Even though she is more interest in eating books these days than reading them! 

And since we don't want anyone to feel left out with this special tradition...

This is Damian's advent Calender!

And this is mine!

Get those advent calendars ready!!

 It's almost DECEMBER!!