Advent TREE!!

Helllloooooo!
I am still here...if you are interested in my health and my recovery, check the bottom of this entry.
So two years ago I made some pretty awesome advent calendars...(check here for full entry)

and I still haven't made one for my boys...mostly because they love those crappy chocolate ones (because they get chocolate every day, Hello-o! They are getting the Trader Joe's chocolate advent every morning, yup - I send them to school high on chocolate. I am an awesome mom! Duh! ;)

So, I decided that I didn't really want to give them more stuff...I want to lean away from that kind of Christmas. I saw a flat version of this on Pinterest made with envelopes and foam core background. I wanted a paper calendar, one I could make, and useable for my lil' dudes. So I made a list of activities and borrowed some from  All Things Simple.

Here is what I came up with, an Advent Tree:

with important family activities that we can share together. And before some of you wise-guys ask (Leanna)...no, I didn't make the tree...it's from Target. What I did make, are the envelopes and filled them with an activity for each day.

For example:
 day one is: Read "Elf on the Shelf" together
day 2: Make teacher gifts
day 3: Pick mitten from mitten tree for foster kids
day 4: Watch "The Grinch"
day 5: can you believe it...I can't remember!

Luckily, I made a master list, with the dates all assigned and even some alternate days for the outdoor activities. I made each envelope out of a 4" square of scrapbook paper, scored on all 4 corner diagonals, folded in and rounded the upper corner. I then decorated the fronts and put numbers cut from my cricut. I can't fit them all on the little tree..so I'll pop them on as the others come off.

Hope you are enjoying the season of Advent!

and as for my health...
Here I am folks....recovering from my first treatment, which was both not as bad as I expected and much worse.
I didn't get as sick as everyone told me I would...bone aches for 2 days were actually endurable. However, the bone aches were like twinkling Christmas tree lights and would go on and off constantly...for 48 hours straight. And I couldn't sleep with the pain. And the worse part: I know I have to do this two more times. But, it could be worse and I could have to do more than 3 treatments...and there might not be hope for recovery. So I will take the aches and try not to complain about the pain...or groan out loud. Too often.
Thanks for the cards and love! I'll post more as I can...