Looking Back Over Advent.

Making an advent calendar for the husband was a good challenge for me. I had lots of fun planning each day and coming up with ideas. I decided to make it a few months ago, and it made me listen more carefully for the husband to mention things that he wanted/needed. Normally I find it challenging to shop for him, he's not really a small ticket kind of guy, he wants/needs big ticket items. But, I found that by having a plan to make the advent calendar, I was able to pick up on lots of small things to suprise him with that I wouldn't have thought of before. Not everything that I suprised him with was a purchased item. Some days were more about quality time spent together or me doing something for him. If you know about the "Five Love Languages", one of his is Acts of Service, so he really digs it when I go out of my way to do something for him. Ever since our first Christmas as a married couple, I have been trying to find our traditions. I want there to be things that are special to us as a family each holiday season. I think the advent calendar is going to be one of those things.

Day One

Love Letter

Day Two

Clue that lead to a box of See's Scotch Kisses

Day Three

Clue that lead to a bottle of Orangina, a favorite drink, chilling in the 'fridge

Day Four

Coupon for new lens for ski goggles, but since he'd already taken care of this himself, a couple of his favorite sticks of peppermint candy

Day Five

Clue that lead to a box of "movie size" Hot Tamales (another one of his favorite candies)

Day Six

Clue that lead to a new set of wet erase pens for our family calendar (he maintains these each month), and a new set of pens for everyday use.

Day Seven

Breakfast in bed

Day Eight

Clue that lead to a new bottle of his shampoo. (not all gifts can be pure fun, I am somewhat practical!)

Day Nine

Clue that lead to three candy canes, with the words I LOVE YOU attached.

Day Ten

A gift certificate for a pizza dinner.

Day Eleven

Lovey Dovey Wifey Coupon (yes I came up with that horribly cheesy name). Basically a romantic night, bubble bath together followed by a massage (he says I am a great masseuse)

Day Twelve

Coupon for a suprise afternoon picnic at the beach.

Day Thirteen

Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast.

Day Fourteen

Coupon for a box of Trader Joe's pecan pralines.

Day Fifteen

We will be in the Bay Area, so dinner with my brothers at a restaurant in Walnut Creek, CA where I used to live. It's called the Hickory Pit, and though it's not glamorous, they have phenomenal ribs and steak. We loved to eat there when I still lived in CA. I tried to keep the location we were having dinner a secret for as long as I could.

Day Sixteen

Again, another day in the Bay Area, so a meal at In-n-Out, the husband's favorite place in CA to get a burger. He's pretty obsessed with this fast food restaurant, when we were still dating long distance, I sometimes thought he'd plan an extra day to visit me just to be able to get an extra meal in at In-n-Out. I could go on, but I'll just leave it at that.

Day Seventeen

This is a coupon for some loving. Nuf said.

Day Eighteen

Wild card coupon, I thought it would be fun for him choose something (within reason of course) himself.

Day Nineteen

For a guy that wears them with jeans nearly every day, a new t-shirt, he's been in need of some new ones, his old ones are looking a bit worn out and stretched out aroung the necks.

Day Twenty

Coupon for Dinner and a Movie Date Night - he gets to pick the movie and the restaurant

Day Twenty-One

$35 to fix his BC (dive vest), it has a broken zipper on the pocket where his bouancy countering weights are supposed to go. I dare not fix it myself because if I made a mistake, there are safety issues. This called for a professional.

Day Twenty-Two

A gift card to our favorite burger place in Washington, Fiamma Burger.

Day Twenty-Three

Coupon for a purchase at Aaron Bros. to get some frames and mattes for the black and white photos that will be hung in our dining room. He has taken pictures from all over the world, our goal is to have a picture from every continent and of each of the 7 wonders on the wall...eventually. Currently we have 3 pictures, one of a boat in a harbor in Hong Kong, another of the Sphinx with the Great Pyramid behind, and the third is of the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It's a good start, but he also has pictures of the Eiffel Tower in France, Chichen Itza in Mexico and the Coliseum in Rome that he wants to hang.

Day Twenty-Four

The final day of Advent called for a special suprise...in a way for me and for him. I'm giving him some money to buy hotel points. He loves to plan trips, but lately has had to stop because of our tight budget. It has also been difficult for him to accumulate points for hotels because he hasn't built a house in a while - he can normally earn points pretty quickly from the large purchases that come from buying building supplies. So the goal with the points he is going to get will be for him to plan a vacation for us to somewhere warm so he can go diving. We still have a good amount of airline points built up, and we get a $50 companion ticket each year, so airfare should be pretty easy. He loves a good challenge when it comes to planning the nicest possible vacation on the least amount of points and cash, so he is going to have some fun with this gift.