Advent of Christmas Dreams

I loooove advent calendars. Funnily, (or super sadly) I do not own one. But I now know how to MAKE one! We were assigned to get a gift for my sister Ashley's family this year and we wanted to make something special. I concocted an outlandish idea which Sean had me sketch on some paper and which he actually constructed into a reality. This is how it goes. "Make something physically impossible, Sean!" And he does. We are a good team.

I wanted something New Yorky, and something they might like to use every year... and also with a touch of us in it. So we designed a wooden calendar with the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree that they would decorate. We went to Lowe's and bought some supplies and we/Sean went to work. I did not take as many pictures as I should have but here are some.

So the tree is the main feature. The idea was to drill holes to store a piece of candy (candy advent calendars are the best) and we cut out 25 wooden discs to cover the holes and that they would flip over each day. Most of the discs were on the tree and would be ornaments that they'd use to decorate the tree day-by-day. GENIUS. Dang, I am so creative.

After Sean put together the slabs of wood (we had to make it deep in order for there to be a hole to fit a piece of candy) he painted it all white and sketched the picture.




Now it's time to drill the holes. He got an enormous drill bit and it was very entertaining.


Sean did 90% of the work, I confess. But this is only because I have no skills. But I am very good at supervising. Here I am doing just that.



I'm wearing the sunglasses, not only because they make me look cool, but as protective eyewear. And they totally came in handy because i got hit in the face a couple times with flying debris. Here's some video of Sean drilling:



Sean cut out all the discs using a hole saw.


We painted them white and sanded them.



Sean filled the holes the drill made with "wood filler." (He said that's what it's really called. Sketchy.)

Sean painted the entire scene. Here are a few close-ups.



That paint palette is from when we painted all the ornaments which was insanely fun and my favorite part. I became attached to them and named them and didn't want to let them go.


I drew on a string for the lights and then we set to work painting them on.


And here is the calendar, finished.



I painted about 14 of the ornaments. My favorites: Santa's Round Belly, the Christmas Tree, Glitzy Gold, and others. Again: SO creative. I am so impressed with me. Anything that looks precise and neat and not like a 1st grader did it is Sean's doing.

The discs are hooked onto tiny dowels. Here they are moved so you can see the candies inside. :)




I'm posting this now because Ash is finally done with it before they leave for Utah. Long live the advent calendar!!