Christmas Advent Calendar: Days 17-25

Once Tory and I left for a week-long trip to Nebraska on December 17, our Christmas advent calendar kind of flew out the window. I had the best of intentions to continue throughout the month and even programmed the daily activities in my phone to serve as reminders, but the exhaustion of traveling got the best of me. Plus, it's difficult to conduct an activity when you're not in control of your day. I'm sure I could've made something work, but family time and seventeen trips to Wal-Mart ruled our days. (Because obviously, that's what you do in a small town. Hit up Wal-Mart as much as humanely possible. No time for anything else).

Upon our return home, I looked back at my list, certain there was something we checked off the list, but ... nope. Nothing. On Saturday (Day 22), I asked my mom if we could make a special holiday breakfast for Nana and Papa as this was part of our advent calendar activities, and she informed me she'd rather us not mess up her kitchen. Well, ok then! In her defense, she was preparing us a big Christmas dinner later that afternoon.

While visiting my friend Ashley's house earlier in the week, we did make these adorable Holiday Bugles. Ashley saw a recipe somewhere online and thought it'd be something fun for us to do while we chatted one evening. We had a surprisingly difficult time finding Bugles in the store (merchandised only in the dollar section at Target) but putting them together was so easy.

Bugle Bites
Ingredients:
Bugles
Red and Green M&Ms
White Almond Bark

Melt the almond bark in the microwave or double boiler. Dip the open ends of Bugle snacks into the almond bark, then stick a M&M in the center. Let dry on a piece of parchment paper.

The combination of salty and sweet was pretty fantastic and the snacks looked adorable tied up in cello bags with a bow. Ashley sent some home with me when Tory and I visited my parents, but I may have eaten them all by the time we arrived. Oops!

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Having an advent calendar this holiday season was as fun as I had hoped it would be. Our daily activities helped get me into the Christmas spirit early in December and gave me something to look forward to each day with Tory. Although I planned an activity for each day until Christmas, I was flexible when things didn't go quite as planned. Shuffling "playing in the snow" to the day after a big snowfall or making a frozen sun catcher during an impromptu trip to the cabin -- the point was to spend time together, making memories and celebrating the season. Our Christmas advent calendar did just that.