Well, we had hardly made it to Friday, and the Advent calendar I made my husband had already fallen off the mantle 3 times.  It is heavily laden down with CHOCOLATE.  I spent last week cracking up every time I heard it falling from the other room.

I had sort of given up and thought I would jut let him pick up the chocolates off the floor.  (Is that bad?)  I know he wouldn’t mind.   Turns out, he had a better idea, and hung it from the bookcase where it appears to be staying put.  The people at the grocery store gave me that look when I brought home a frozen pizza and about three pounds of chocolate.

I have seen so many beautiful advent calendars out there, but this is a simple one I put together when we were first married.  I bought 24 different miniature stockings (on sale) and tied on numbered tags I cut out with a circle punch.  The first year I tried to be really creative about what to put inside, but realized all he really wanted was candy.  Now, I am smarter and put in enough so I get a piece of chocolate too.  Otherwise, by day 13 I’m a little bitter about the whole thing.

[Image above: the Advent calendar hanging in our old apartment from the ballet barre I had installed in the living room, circa 2006]

Last week, my husband was gone on a business trip for a few days.  Does that mean I get to eat Day 1 and 2 for him?  I’d hate for him to feel behind.  Nothing’s worse than that holiday pressure of needing to catch up.  I’m available to help where needed, you know.

The fudge is ready; the presents are wrapped.  Wishes have been made.  We will be loading up the cars here in a little bit to make the short drive to our parent’s house.  I’ll be signing off here for a few days while we spend time with family, open gifts, and eat too many sweets.

Yesterday, we took part in our annual Christmas tradition: the making of the Christmas tags.  For the past 5 years or so, my husband and I have collaborated on our gift tags.  Some years they’ve been elaborate.  Other years, more simple.  However, I think this year might just be my favorite.

All of the presents have a North Pole shipping theme.  We wrapped them in two shades of brown kraft paper and tied them with red and white ribbons.  My husband gets a ton of credit on the design execution.  I was busy tying all the bows.

The main label looks like this:

However, my favorite part are the Christmas shipping stickers.  They are extremely silly (like us).

We’d love to share our Christmas stickers with you as a present from the Lee-Creel family.  You can download them here.  The download includes a 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet with several different sizes.  We print them on full sheet white label paper and cut them out using a paper cutter.  Enjoy!  (These are for personal, non-commercial use only.  Thanks for your understanding.)

May you have a wonderful holiday full of many good things and unexpected blessings.  See you soon!