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I'm home with a sick boy and since he won't let me leave his side, I've been checking out some fun stuff online while we chill on the couch and watch Christmas movies.

Here's what I'm loving right now:

**The smell of christmas tree in our house**

**This bracelet**

**Being amazed at our kids' sense of humor**

**These Advent ideas**
Here's how we adapted them into our own Advent Calendar:

(Inside each envelope is something to do each day until Christmas. The kids thought of each idea with only a little prompting from me for certain things like "Make Christmas Cookies". *A*'s ideas were very thoughtful and kind. After suggesting lots of things to give to people who don't have much, she wanted to "Make soup for the whole....WORLD!" I gently explained that would be awesome but way more soup than we could ever make, so she settled on making soup for our neighbors. Her new High Five magazine has a project for soup in a jar and she thinks the layers of lentils, rice, etc. is pretty cool so I think that's what we'll do when that envelope is chosen.)

These camera straps

**The way things are coming to a close for the semester and the long break ahead of us**

**Getting out our favorite Holiday cds, especially this and this**

**The reminders all around me to slow down during this Advent season**

Hope you enjoy some unexpected downtime this week.