Day 15 – Christmas Nails

Day 16 – Barbie Christmas Feast (including Roast Beast)

Harlow set up an entire play-doh Christmas Dinner. A Turkey (with garnish), rolls, mashed potatoes, salad… it was awesome.

Day 17 – Neighbor Gifts

Harlow and I (mostly Harlow) made chocolate covered pretzels, candy canes dipped in chocolate and rolled in mini marshmallows (stir sticks that we paired with hot chocolate packets), chocolate peppermint penguins, and “ugly sweater” ornaments for our neighbors. I totally dropped the ball on photos, but the penguins are a repeat from last year, and I made a sweater prototype before releasing the craft to be made, so…

Day 18 – Rudolph Ice Cream – again (but without the eyes and nose and antlers. so… just… chocolate ice cream. *insert eye roll here*)

Day 19 – Christmas Light Show

We visited Harlow’s grandma after her school was unexpectedly shut down. My sister suggested we go to this light show which was waaaayyyy out in the boondocks of an already boondocky town, so I honestly did NOT expect it to be anything special. We popped some popcorn, piled into the car with Abbey, and drove out into the sticks on a looong country road. Then suddenly, BAM! there were lights everywhere and it was a fantastic 45 minute long show. You tuned your radio to a certain station for the music, and watched the magic. It was seriously incredible.

Day 20 – Reindeer Cookies

The ones that inspired the Barbie Reindeer Cookies. Ours are tastier.

Day 21 – Christmas Photos with Lily and Abbey

Okay, this one was… not the most successful. I had really hoped that Abbey and Lily would be BFF’s by now, and while they HAVE been much, much better (Abbey worships the very ground Lily’s paws grace, but Lily is… less enthusiastic), they still aren’t BFF’s. Maybe like, TFS’s. (Tentatively Friendly Sometimes.) But it was in the advent calendar, so… we tried.

Day 22 – Snowman Pizzas Barbie Christmas Craft

I found out today that Harlow does NOT like repeats (even though she requested the ice cream on repeat *sigh*) so she decided against snowman pizzas again (or another variation like I suggested – cookie cutter shaped pizzas, ornament pizzas, etc.) and wanted to do a Barbie Christmas Craft instead. (Remind me… is that a repeat??? *double sigh*) So, we went for a Barbie Snow Globe using hot glue, an eraser topper cover from an old mechanical pencil, the base that fell off of one of our tiny Dollar Tree bottle brush trees, and glitter. I wanted to put something inside it… a little tree, or snowman perhaps, but she opted for just glitter. *sigh again*

Day 23 – Make cookies for Santa

Since I’m pre-posting the last couple of days, we haven’t made these yet. We are planning on doing Melted Snowman Cookies (similar to below), and will probably just do a variety of normal, decorated kinds, too.

Day 24 – Open Christmas Eve Gift, and Leave Santa and Reindeer Treats Out.

This is always the same. Harlow gets Christmas PJ’s the night before, and then we leave cookies, carrots, and a glass of milk out for Santa and his crew.

That’s it! Another Advent Calendar year in the books! I wish you all a very Merry Christmas full of health, happiness, love, and peace.