Advent

I've been meaning to show you our Advent calendars since the beginning of December and time is now fast running out! The one above is the star of the show this year, a gift from my friend Chieko. She had it delivered directly to our house from the store (Muji), addressed to K. It arrived on November 30th and, thinking it was a Christmas present, I wondered whether to open it or not. It was labelled as 'food' though, so I thought I'd better open it just in case... In each little drawer there was a sweet, but I took them all out (and, with H's help, ate them...) and replaced them with tiny wooden cars, lorries and buses that I bought a long time ago (also at Muji!). I happened to have 23, so number 24 is still empty. I'd better find something soon to put in it, or I could probably sneakily take back one of the cars K has already had and have him find it again! He wouldn't notice, he's only 2... On the 3rd day, H realised that if you put the drawers back in backwards once they had been opened, they formed a Christmas tree. It's a great Advent calendar and I'm looking forward to using it again in future, assuming I can find things small enough to fit in it!

This Nativity scene calendar was sent over by my Mum and again it's one I want to keep for future Christmases. Aside from it being an Advent calendar it's a lovely, simple view of the Nativity and I think it would make a nice decoration. This year I haven't really introduced the true meaning of Christmas to K, partly because I don't want him thinking that our baby will be arriving on Christmas Day!

Mum also sent this joke Advent calendar too, full of cracker-worthy jokes such as the classic 'Why do birds fly south for the winter?'*

Our fourth and final Advent calendar is this fabric one, hanging in our hallway. Everyone who comes here comments on it. I need to fix the loops on some of the little ornaments - see if you can spot the red ribbon attached to the tree purely by the magical sticking power of felt-on-felt...

When we opened the first part of each calendar on December 1st, K was determined to open all the others too and got quite annoyed when we wouldn't let him. He soon got the idea though, and there have only been 2 occasions when temptation got the better of him. He knows, without looking, what number we're up to and greeted us this morning with '20 today! 21 tomorrow'. He's also grasped that it ends on the 24th and that the 25th is Christmas Day, although I don't know what he thinks will happen then...

*'Because it's too far to walk'.