Advent Calendar

As tired, working parents, there's so much we want to do with our kids, but there just isn't enough time in the day! Thankfully our au pair Celina steps in to bring a special kind of creativity and magic to our household. Her most recent offer was to make an advent calendar for the kids and she totally outdid herself. 

She took inspiration from an advent calendar she saw on Pinterest and went from there. 

She and a fellow au pair friend spent all day scouring both Michael's and a neighbor's yard (who had conveniently just trimmed a birch tree) for supplies and assembling the "calendar".  Their final creation ended up being a Christmas decoration in itself.

Celina didn't just fill the cups with a chocolate for each kid, but also puzzles pieces.  Each morning the kids get anywhere from two to four puzzle pieces with the final pieces received on Christmas Eve to complete a Christmas-themed puzzle.  This idea is genius because my kids love puzzles!  So much so that she could have easily gone without the chocolates