The Laboratory

Welcome to our Advent Calendar! Now in its 10th year, we're so happy to have friends, family and random visitors joining us again for our Christmas preparations. Do send us your ideas, your photos, and your feedback. OK, enough chat, on with the show! We're going to start decorating the house today, and what better way to brighten up the window than with some paper snowflakes? But with a twist ... STAR WARS snowflakes! Thanks to Anthony Herrera, who has designed a whole Jedi Council of snowflakes, like R2-D2 above, you can have Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and even Admiral Ackbar. Download the full set from Anthony's blog . Bonus beats: buy "Darth Vader and Son" , a heartwarming cartoon book by Jeffrey Brown, about what would have happened if Lord Vader had to use his parenting skills (rather than the Force) to bring up a 5-year-old Luke.

[via Gawker - any similarity to requests that childfree couples at my church get from new parents is entirely coincidental!] Dear friends and family, The following helpful list are the kind things that we will remember and appreciate forever. This is what [Parent]'s body and soul needs, and will be most helpful for our bonding with the baby. By devoting just a few hours doing one of these things, we will get the support and rest we need with our newborn in the house. Love, [Two Chill Parents] 1. Ask us what groceries we need around the house and bring them to us. We likely need toilet paper and milk. 2. Drop off a big super greek salad with grilled chicken. We will dress it ourselves at home. Or, drop off frozen homemade food like lasagna we can reheat later. *Allergies/intolerances include: Soy anything (including tempeh and tofu), carrageenan, guar gum, gum acacia, xanthan gum, carob bean gum (anything with the word GUM in it), lentils — Please read labels. Many of th...