Matchbox Advent Calendar

Hello, all you wonderful people.  Really, you're all pretty wonderful.  I've had so many of you send me messages telling me to get well and it warmed my heart like you wouldn't believe.  If I was capable of tears, I'd cry.

OK, I'll cry. :)

I'm still sleeping all of the time and I'm now convinced I have malaria.  My husband told me that it's impossible because I haven't traveled out of the US in ever, but he hasn't seen my passport so what does he know?  It's malaria.  That settles it.

I had the smarts to make a whole mess of Christmas projects months ago, as if I knew I would be malaria-ridden and unable to craft.  I'm a genius.  Here's a fun little Advent calendar made from matchboxes and acrylic paint... it's so cute, I was brought out of my crafting coma just to take a picture of it.

I bought matchboxes, 24 of 'em.  Take those matches and throw them in a Ball jar with sandpaper on top... you've already made something from Pinterest and you should be proud of yourself.  Take the empty boxes and some Elmer's glue and let's do this thing.

A bit of glue on the side of the matchboxes and then you're sticking them together in groups of three.

Make eight of those.  Eight times three is 24.  I'm a math wiz.

Once you've got those, glue them on top of each other... like wee drawers.

Let that dry for a while.  You should eat some ice cream or if you're a health nut, some Doritos.  That's what passes for health food in this house, anyway.  I'm pretty sure there's some sort of vitamin in them.  Anyhoo, once it's all dried, you can add your day numbers.

I cut my numbers with my Silhouette because my handwriting is atrosh.  That's how I say atrocious and I'm confident it's going to catch on.  Atrosh.

Look how cute it is already.

I gave each little drawer a coat of mod podge 'cause I'm meticulous like that.  Once that was dry, I flipped it to the other side and painted a Christmas tree.

I don't want to brag, but I compared my painting to some other paintings and mine was the best.  Of course, the other paintings were done by pre-schoolers, but I'll take my victories where I can get them.

After that, I glued some ribbon to the bottom of each drawer and glued some winter-y paper to the outside.

So, it's all ready... all I needed was 24 activities for each day.  Easy-schmeasy, right?

Good grief, that was the worst part.  Things that I find fun, the kids don't find fun.  My idea of 'All Day Christmas Nap!' was soundly voted down.  Those kids have no idea what life is all about apparently.

I wrote the activities on some Christmas scrapbook paper and then rolled 'em up with some ribbon.  They were tucked into their drawers and haven't made a peep since.

This post has left me exhausted.  That is what I do for you, my sweet readers.  Oh, and I'm trying to return all your messages so if you haven't heard from me, stay tuned.  I'm sure you will be getting an extremely witty reply any day now.
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