Advent Calendar and Gilmore Girls.

This is a very fun post for me. First of all, pictures of my Advent Calendar that my Mom and I made together. Story- I saw this amazing felt 5 ft. Advent Calendar in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog back in October for $70 and thought, I could make that for less then $30. Have I ever sewn anything in my life? Nope. But I have been wanting to learn and what a fun project to learn on. So I asked dear ol' Mom if she would be the teacher and creator with me and of course she loved the idea. So almost 2 months later, with football season and a two year old ( we worked on in on Sunday afternoons while James and Daddy watched the Cowboys) we finished it. Amazing eh? And, less the $30. And we made it with our own two hands which I am totally patting myself on the back as I type:) Keller Cade has LOVED it. First thing he asks for in the morning is "advent calendar" but what he really wants is the candy cane I know.
Second thing that makes this post so exciting is my hubs and friends threw me an early surprise birthday party last night. My birthday is not until the 28th but no one is ever in town so we usually celebrate early. I knew James had something up his little sleeve. So last night we were supposed to go next door for dinner at our friends the Martin's, literally, the very next house to ours. So we were supposed to come over around 715 but Keller was so excited to go see Jack their son that I thought, lets just go over early so the boys can play a second before we put them down. James kind of starts sweating and stalls as long as possible. So we go next door, Sara says "oh Jonathan and Jack are in the backyard cooking the burgers" and all of a sudden I step into Stars Hollow. If you have ever watched The Gilmore Girls television show, than you know exactly what I am talking about and if you are a fanatic like me, you may be a little jealous. Basically, the backyard looked like the town square from the show and all of the guests were dressed as different characters from the show. I of course, was given an outfit to wear as Loralie Gilmore, the main character. Although I am 6 1/2 months pregnant so maybe I was her when she was 16 and pregnant with Rory. James was Luke, Sara was Rory, Robyn was Paris, Luci was Lane and on and on. The best costume was for sure my parents who played Emily and Richard, Loralie's parents from the show. Also shout out to Suki and Taylor. So they had two fire pits going, cooked burgers at Luke's grill, with onion rings, tater tots, pop tarts, twinkies. Then they had a town hall meeting and gave me a gift- the entire DVD collection. I told James I was spending the night with it and he needed to find another place to sleep. I am so excited to own them all! So then, we snuggled up by the fires and watched the pilot on the projector screen outside. Can you believe it? First of all, just a great idea in general but really, I felt so loved and known by James and my friends. It was the best theme party ever!