Our Advent Calendar

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed a few photos from our advent calendar. We haven't done advent calendars in the past because I've been turned off by the idea of giving chocolate/candy or crappy little trinkets every day for a month. Then last month I saw a great idea from Jordan: advent calendar activities! I thought this sounded like great fun and also an awesome way to make sure we can check off everything from our Christmas bucket-list!!

Most days I've planned for activities, but there are some days where my son gets a new little toy: I think there are 5 Schleich toys, 1 small Christmas Lego set, and a small bag of miscellaneous Christmas stamps. The rest of the days are filled with awesome activities. We have done several so far (links with photos). Here's the run-down of what we're up to this month:

Visit with Santa (for photos)
Make our own marshmallows and have them with hot chocolate
Write, stamp, and mail Holiday cards
Go ice skating
Make cookies for Santa
Make pinecone garland 
and other art projects, suitable for giving to Grandparents
Wrap presents 
Make gingerbread house
Visit library to pick out Christmas books

I'm a big stamp collector, and by collector, I actually mean user- I love to USE vintage stamps! I had almost every denomination from 1-25! I ordered a few missing stamps and got to work! I pulled out a few other things I had around the house: envelopes, yarn, paint chip samples, and my typewriter. A neighbor gave us the giant bulletin board and my son picked out the frog tacks from the craft store. Here are some photos! Have you done a non-traditional advent calendar?

 

 

Getting our tree

The advent calendar on Saturday said it was time to get our tree! So we headed out to Patchen Farm in the Los Gatos Mountains. It was a lovely day and we all had fun going up and down the hillside in search of the right tree. 

After trimming the tree, we went to a birthday party! What a great weekend!

Library Party!

Our sweet boy turned 4 today and we had a little party yesterday at the Woodside Library. It's literally the best story time I've been to. Mike & Angaline sing the stories! Mike plays banjo, ukulele, guitar, and other occasional gems like keyboard. It's 30 minutes of sheer joy- for the kids, too ;) 

Usually when we go to storytime, we have a picnic lunch in the garden behind the library. That would have been nearly impossible in the pouring rain we expierenced yesterday, so we schlepped over to Buck's Restaurant, about a block away. We dined on lunch & Dynamo Donuts and celebrated the coolest 4 year old in all the land. 

We are endlessly blessed to have the sweetest boy. He's funny, loves to sing, and is alarmingly well-behaved. I've said it before, and I'll say it again- he's a dream come true :)

I made little library-themed invitations with card catalog cards and an old typewriter (a Corona typewriter from 1912!!) I'm a stamp nerd so bought too many library-themed stamps for the envelopes. I'll use them for the thank you cards as well. 


We only invited 2 friends (and their 2 siblings) because of the quiet and small location. I feel awful for not being able to invite all our friends (next year!), but we really wanted the storytime & garden party (rained out) so it had to be small. But because of the small group, I was able to splurge on favors- BOOKS! Amos & Boris for the friends (because it's a wonderful story about friendship) and Sisters & Brothers for the sibs. I used card catalog cards & the typewriter for the inside of the book (it simply says, "thank you!") and one for the tag on the front on the gift. 




Our family (with Uncle Alan making an appearance in the background). Thanks, Farah, for taking our photo :)



Our little birthday crew. Next year we'll invite all our pals since our house will be DONE (and landscaping, too). We love you, pals, and I'm sorry we couldn't have everyone join us yesterday! Thanks to Melissa for taking our picture. 


My son and I made the rainy trek to SF early in the morn before the party for fresh donuts. Best donuts ever. Thank you Dynamo Donuts for your Maple Bacon, Chocolate Rose, Lemon Thyme, and Vanilla Bean donuts. We love you :)


A new plane from Papa and a new book from us (Out of Sight). 

 

His birthday party was Wednesday, but today (Thursday) is his actual birthday. We gave him the book on Wednesday and saved his main gift for today. Chris and my dad (Papa) stayed up late putting together this sweet Lego train with wireless remote. We also filled his room floor with red ballons. Our son was up before the sun and played quietly for a few minutes until we came in for hugs and a new-train how-to lesson. 



Don't you love the jammies and the bedhead?

 

And then we played all day. Happy Birthday, sweetie. We love you tons. 

I wish this post were sponsored by Lego, but it's not. But - Lego can call me anytime and we'll talk ;)

If you really want to see more photos, you can check out our Flickr set. This is mostly for the grandparents who couldn't make it to the party. 

Steep Ravine Cabins, Mt. Tam

I wrote about these cabins over 2 years ago (blog post link) and they've been on my Life List since! Ten lovely little cabins sit high above the beach in Mount Tamalpais State Park, north of San Francisco and a stone's throw south of Stinson Beach. They're a bargain at $100 per night! It's hard to find info on these little gems... official site and 3 reviews from TripAdvisor.

Steep Ravine is really one of the most amazing places I've been. My friend Meghan has been talking about it for awhile (she and her family go a few times per year!) so we finally made our reservations last spring to go for a few days in October. The cabins are in high demand; reservations open up 7 months in advance. Book December 1 at 8am for June 2013. The cabins don't have bathrooms, electricity, or running water. There's a sweet wood-burning stove to keep warm (they sell firewood there). And the views are so amazing, you won't miss the modern luxuries. Bathrooms are just a short walk away. And you'll be glad to know there's good cell reception, so you can still post pics to Instagram (mine are here, here, and here). We ate breakfast every morning in Stinson Beach and had great picnics and shared meals with our pals. Meghan and her parents even prepared oysters and steak for dinner! Hooray for Hog Island Oyster (a short, but windy drive up Highway 1) and a grill next to each cabin!

Click HERE to reserve the adventure that will change your life -or at least make you really happy :) Here are a few favorite photos from our adventure!