Advent Calendars

I wanted to get the kids Advent Calendars this year.
I actually wanted to get them last year, but waited so long that it seemed pointless to get them by the time I got around to looking for them.
Yep, that's the kind of mom I am.....very dedicated. ;-)
So this year, I decided to actually look for them in November.
I saw these CUTE calendars at Target the other day & grabbed all three designs.
This way each of the kids could have their own design!

I was going to look for some Wilton candy molds that were small so I could make chocolates that would fit in the tiny pockets.

When I told my sister Mary about this, she said that she had saved the molds from her kids' advent calendars from last year.

She brought them over & I started making candy!

I filled them with mini chocolate chips:

Then put them in the microwave, carefully watching them.

I pulled them out every 30 seconds or so & stirred up the chips.

Then the phone rang......

and apparently I am easily distracted.....

because suddenly I smelled something burning.......

(Sorry Mary!!)

Yeah.......

that's not good......

I then did what I probably should have done to begin with.

I melted the chocolate in a glass bowl.

Then I poured it into a baggie and cut the tip of the bag to squeeze the chocolate into the molds.

That's better. =)

Then I stuck them in the freezer.

When they were done, I immediately tried to pop them out.

Turns out that was not such a good idea either.

I broke a few molds.

Fortunately, my sister is very nice & will not hold this against me.

I doubt she will let me borrow anything from her anytime soon though. ;-)

Anyway....after letting the molds get a tiny bit warmer than frozen, I easily popped the rest of the chocolates out.....and repeated this process two more times.
(Only this time I didn't burn or break anything!)

Here are some of the cute chocolates:

Now I just need to wrap them & put them in their calendars before December 1st.

The kids were really excited to see their Advent Calendars & to choose which one they wanted.

(Surprisingly, none of them fought over them, they each chose a different one!!)

Although it was fun (once I got the hang of it) to make the chocolates myself, I think I will just buy tiny chocolates next year. =)