Great Stocking Stuffer Coupon Books

I made some really cute coupon books for my kids for Christmas. When I came up with this idea I was going to hand make them, but I found this awesome template for them here. What a time saver this was! You can pick the pictures you want on them and then you just type in what you want. I made each child a book with 8 coupons for things like: no chore day, slurpee, park day, one night of snuggles with mom or dad, etc.



Have fun with these, they make great stocking stuffers. You could even let your kids make them for family members for things like: 10 minute foot or back massage (grandparents would like this), rake the yard, lunch date out with child, and so on.

Another color by number picture

Here is another color by number picture that Juliet colored for her Nanny. Just like the other one, we bought a frame and made some matting with poster board. We love these!

Our Advent Calendar

I finally finished our advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas.

First, we printed out this Christmas tree advent calendar. Each day we add a new number to count down the days. We have this posted on our fridge. You can print out this same calendar here.



Next, I made up some really fun things for our family to do together each day until Christmas. I printed each activity on a note sheet, folded it in half and wrote the day on it. I used clothes pins and a string and hung the notes on our tree. Each morning when we wake up we will open up our activity and see what is planned for that evening.



Here is my entire advent calendar:

Countdown till Christmas...Starting at 24 days until Christmas (Dec. 1st)


day24: Put a puzzle together

day 23: paint a Christmas ornament

day 22: pick a family member and write down all the things you love about them. Then, read it to them.

day 21: string popcorn and cranberries to put on tree

day 20: Family Bible reading. Let's read about the birth of Jesus

day 19: go and see "The Nutcracker" ballet at our community college

day 18: go to Denny's or steak N' shake and have a late night dessert

day 17: write a letter to Santa

day 16: have hot chocolate and listen to Christmas music. Dance around and be silly.

day 15: Tonight is board game night. Play at least two different board games.

day 14: Find a homeless person today and give them $20 with a Christmas note attached.

day 13: Go to light up UCF. Take a friend or another family member with us.

day 12: Tonight is mall night. Walk around the mall and have a dessert.

day 11: Go to the store and buy a present to donate to charity

day 10: Today is Nanny's birthday. Let's take her out to lunch to the restaurant of her choice.

day 9: Tonight we will rent two Christmas movies and pop popcorn

day 8: bake cookies and make a Christmas card to take to our neighbors

day 7: read a Christmas story together while snuggled up in bed tonight with daddy

day 6:Tonight we will go to our church Bethlehem walk through exhibit

day 5: pick up Nanny and go for a drive looking at Christmas lights

day 4: go to the dollar movies tonight. everyone must agree on the movie.

day 3: Let's go to Tonya's house and take her family the gift basket we made for them.

day 2: tonight we will watch "The Nativity Story"

day 1: go to Nanny's house and open one Christmas present

Christmas Day!!!

We start tomorrow and we are all excited.

If you have made an advent calendar, leave me a link so I can check yours out.

Our Homemade gifts

Okay, so I am running a little behind with my homemade Christmas gifts. I have been busy making our christmas notebooking pages set and haven't had a lot of time left over. But now that I am finished we will be making something new hopefully every week.

Here is what we have made so far.

Juliet did a color by number picture for her aunt. We bought a frame for it and I used poster board to make matting for the frame. We actually made a copy of the original picture she colored and it turned out great. This way she could give more than one person this gift. It turned out absolutely beautiful! It looks just like a store bought picture. The great thing about the color by number pictures is that they are cheap but they turn out fantastic. The matting is super easy to make and adds a more appealing look to the picture. Juliet was so happy and proud at the way this turned out. It is great for children to take pride in something they make on their own. Juliet will be coloring another one for her nanny soon.

Here is another one I made for my son. He loves football, so I made him a football blanket.

Here is the blanket stretched out so you can see how big it is.


Here it is folded up and you can see the edges.

I use two pieces of material that both were 54 x 68 inches long. This made a bigger blanket that could be used to cover my sons twin bed.


You can go here to see the directions of how to make this blanket.


That's all for now. Next week we will be making more homemade gifts. Don't forget to check back and see what we've made.