Day 4: Hot Chocolate Bar

 

Our advent activity on Tuesday was a hot chocolate bar!  Yummy nummy nummy!  

It doesn't take a lot to get my kids excited, so our mix-ins were pretty simple.  Besides, I knew they would want to have EVERY SINGLE ONE in their chocolate and I didn't want the flavor combinations to turn nasty!

Extra points for you if you can tell me where the quote on my mug comes from!  Here's a view of the back so you can see the whole quote:

Aw.  My sweet Mr. Darcy husband had this made for me after I showed him a similar one on Pinterest.  Ladies, if you share my love of Pride and Prejudice, might I suggest some subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints?   Print it out and put it on your wall...e-mail the picture to your honey...create one yourself and tell him that you've got his Christmas present to you covered... (does anyone else ever buy their own presents?)

Wait.  We were talking about chocolate, right?  It's hard to stay focused on two of my favorite topics at the same time!  What else would you stir into hot chocolate?  Do you have a favorite schmancy kind?  I'm in the market for a "Mommy only" variety!

Great Minds Think Alike!

I was in the process of writing this post when Adriane's latest post popped up, with wonderfully detailed instructions on how to make an adorable Christmas Advent Calendar... AH! She beat me to it! I honestly debated whether or not to post this because let's be honest- Adriane's advent calendar is awesome... and mine is sort of the slacker version of hers. But then I decided that I'm going to embrace my inner slacker, and that perhaps there are other slackers like me out there who want to make something cute and festive to help their family count down the days until Christmas but lack patience and creativity to do much. So here we go!

This year it was time to retire our old advent calendar- a darling mini-stocking garland that hung in our bay window- simply because it no longer matched anything in our home. I was on the look-out for something that was bright and cheery, and wouldn't take up a lot of space. After a bit of research I landed on this:

Christmas Advent

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  Now it's time to get busy getting ready for the next holiday!  If you are like me, trying to get traditions started and set the tone for Christmases to come, that preparation can be a little intimidating.  (And if you aren't--please comment: What has been your favorite Christmas tradition?!?)

I am excited about this tradition which we will be starting this year--our Christmas Advent Calendar!  This will be the third year I've been tweaking this project (sorry to those of my friends who have seen this already).  I would love to share some tips and warnings so that if you decide to try this out it might go more smoothly.