Christmas Advent Calendar List- 25 Activities for Decembering & Remembering

So, not surprisingly to me, I failed at posting the rest of our Christmas Advent calendar activities last month. Partly because we skipped a few of them or I didn't take photos, and partly because I just got busy and was too lazy to post. But the unfinished series was still bugging me almost halfway into January so I thought I'd do a comprehensive post and just list our daily activities, whether we actually did them or not.

If we skipped a day or two, we combined them into one or left it for a more convenient time. (The Christmas lights, for example, we left for a relaxed Sunday night.)

Our family is LDS, belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and therefore a few of the items on this list refer to things or places relating to our church. However, they are open and available to all Christians and all other faithful people who need spiritual enlightenment in addition to fun-filled activities during the month of December. In the paragraph below the list I link to more information about a particular item on the list if it relates to our church.

Feel free download this list and save it for later this year. Because we all know December sneaks up behind us before we're ready for it! We looked forward to opening the little white envelope each day and it truly did change our attitudes during the Christmas season. We focused more on what we had rather than what we thought we needed. Health, family, and a handsome boy to keep us feeling young! That's all we needed.

2. The First Presidency Christmas Devotional is always held in the late afternoon on the first Sunday of December. Our prophet and his counselors speak about Christmastime and Jesus Christ and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir graces us with beautiful Christmas music.

5. Scriptures about Jesus Christ.

13. Christmas Hymns.

14. LDS temples.

25. Luke 2

Bread.

I cannot make bread. Period. Last Monday when I posted about making bread? It turned out rock hard so I had to throw it away. I don't know what I do wrong! I've tried everything. At this point I'll take any bread-making tips, though I've probably tried them all. You would think I'd give up after wasting so much flour, salt, milk, yeast, but I'm determined to make edible bread.

I tried again yesterday and the pictures above show the result. Not too shabby. Not perfect, but it didn't break my teeth. I used a glorious recipe from Betty Crocker which ironically enough starts out with, "Homemade bread doesn't get much easier that this!" I beg to differ, usually. But since it actually turned out this time, I'm willing to agree. Here's a printable copy of this recipe--let me know if you like it. But if your bread looks and tastes better than mine, then please keep it to yourself. =)

Click on the image below and right-click to save

Click here to download a Pdf copy

Happy Hearts, Love, And Valentine's Day

It's the holiday of red and pink around our home. 

Chocolate roses I made to give as Valentines and a wallet-sized flip book I made for Franco last year. I'm blowing kisses {red hearts} at him as he flips the pages.

Red, pink, and white gumballs in my apothecary jar. Everything I love is in the picture: Franco, Paris, and candy.

Every couple of weeks I write a new scripture or quote on the little chalkboards I made.

Love one another as I have loved you. 

John 13:34

Whether you believe in Valentine's day or not, and whether you have a Valentine in the traditional sense of the word or not, choose to spread the love today with a friend, a family member, or a Valentine-to-be. It can't hurt. =)

The talented April Meservy has a love song called "I Like Mondays" free for download for this week only. And if you still need a card, this one's available for download and print. Happy Monday!

I Love You, Deeply. {A Free Printable For You, With Love.}

Hi's! If you still need a pretty card for Valentine's day {or anniversary, birthday, just because}, maybe you'll like this one. Head to my design blog to download the pdf files, then have fun printing it out for your sweetie!

Franco is out on a scout camping trip tonight, so I'm spending the night at my parent's house. 

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Warm Weekend Wishes + Freebie

Hi friends! Hope your week was fantastic. Tonight, I'm getting together with the ladies who made up our last young women's board at church for a yummy Italian dinner. We have a new board now and I'm very blessed and happy that I got to stay on as a counselor! I love my girls.

I wish you a fun + exciting weekend, even if all you're doing is staying inside and watching movies with a cup of hot chocolate! {That's all I want to do.}

Toodles!

For your weekend:
-Need a movie recommendation? Here are some of ours.
-Wipe the dust off your library card and check out something good to read.
-Bring back visions of summertime with this fresh chicken + mango salsa recipe.
-And if you're going to a birthday party or just need a quick note, download one that I have available on my design blog. Happy Birthday, Thank you!, Just a little note..., Gracias!, and Thinking of you.

Spooky Halloween Downloads

I thought I'd share these graphics with you for your spooky blog headers, invites, fliers, e-vites, digital scrapbooking, whatever! Just click on the picture and save to your computer.

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Keep Calm And Kneel Down By Natalie Jost

--> Brilliant.

{download from natalie jost}

Easter Bunny Peeps Free Download

Go over to my design blog where I've posted another free download for you:

printable bunny peeps!

Sweet Wishes For You + Cupcake Download

{Click on the cupcake & save to your computer for personal use!}

xo Anelieze & Franco

Design Bug: Love Heart Download

I have the design bug! I've been designing non-stop all week.

I thought I'd share a little bit with you!

Valentine's Day is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Have you planned anything yet?

I'm hoping I can get a few couples together & cook a fancy dinner.

Or maybe just stay in and watch a movie.

You can get a head-start and print out some notecards for your loved ones.

I hope you like them!

Happy Weekend!

Download "Love Heart" Notecards + Labels

"Be Strong" Print

This year's theme for the Young Women's program at my church
is the scripture Joshua 1:9,

as stated above. I designed this print for fun,

and thought to make it available for anyone else to download.

I'll be printing some out to give them to my Young Women during class this Sunday.

It's our challenge to memorize it,

and, throughout the year, to live it.

So feel free to download it, or pass it on!

Download "Be Strong" Print

Happy Monday! And Free Music Downloads from Amazon

Another day closer to the big 25th!
It's definitely beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

I decorated my little space last weekend with the few Christmas decorations I have.

I made a Christmas playlist:

And finished a few sewing projects for my handmade Christmas,
while watching A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation.
{I'd never seen A Christmas Story all the way though until last weekend!
I absolutely loved it. It is now one of my favorite Christmas movies of all time.}
Tonight, we'll bring home a tiny Christmas tree.
Tomorrow, I'm in charge of our Young Women activity and we're going to make paper ornaments, decorate sugar cookies, and sing Christmas hymns.

What are you doing every day to bring the Christmas spirit?

Here's a little Christmas spirit-bringing music for you to download,
courtesy of Amazon.com.
Each day until December 25, Amazon will post one free MP3 Christmas download.
Should be worth it.

Happy Monday and Merry Almost Christmas!

New Moon T-Shirt Transfer Images

Okay, I've had lots of questions on how I made our New Moon premiere shirts.

I stayed up until 2 am on Monday making them because

I didn't want them to look like everyone else's shirts!

I already had three white shirts, two of them were new,

but the one I wore was a little old so the transfer got warped. =(

So I would recommend making it on a new shirt to prevent it from happening.

Here are the images I designed:

You can print them onto iron-on transfer paper and make your own t-shirt. The instructions are on the PDFs.

Hope they get some good use. =)

{Christmas present, anyone?}

Note: You may need to download the latest Free Adobe Reader Software here.
Or, if you're having trouble, please email me and I'll email them to you.
anniezparis@hotmail.com
Thanks for your patience.
I'm still new at this "PDF Sharing thing."

Download Edward T-Shirt PDF

Download Jacob T-Shirt PDF

Feel free to pass it on!

And enjoy the movie! Woo hoo!

New Moon Soundtrack

I just downloaded the New Moon Soundtrack off Amazon for $4.99.

It's actually pretty good.

It's kind of like the Twilight Soundtrack--

I listened to it before I saw the movie and didn't love it ,

but I do now because I can picture all the scenes as I listen to each song.

So I'm ready! November 20th can come any day now.

Contains Valuable Document--Download

A free download for you today, brought to you by 16 sparrows. I wish I were that creative.

Creature Comforts

Hi, friends! I was browsing and found this cute site, http://creaturecomforts.typepad.com. There are occasional "freebie" downloads to make crafts and cards. This month's freebie download features Library Cards you can use as notes, event seating cards, etc. I love the library and am going to use them a lot!