Christmas calendar

Since I was little until I was about 14 (or so), my mom made a punchout Christmas calendar for my sister and I. I have fond memories of punching it out every December day leading up until Christmas Eve. I've been making it for Ilea and Kyler for the past 4 years, usually finishing on the 30th of November :). Normally there are some elves and Santa figurines and plastic holly sprigs that are placed around the calendar to give it a little festivness (is that a word?). This year I decided to do something a little different and have the kids decorate each side of the calendar. Jenny let them use some of her holiday stamps and they went to town as you can see.

Inside each circle, there is usually some kind of candy or toy. Sometimes (most of the time) the toys are too big to fit into the circles so we leave notes inside the circle that says what the toy is. This year we alternated the candy and toy circles, forgetting that the kids alternate punching each day. It turns out that Kyler is the candy puncher and Ilea is the toy puncher. Ilea figured out, after the 5th or so day, that she was always going to get the notes. Next year I'll have to be a bit more random with the prizes.