Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Advent calendar

When my four children were little, I made advent calendars for all of them. First I made one board to hang on the wall in a central place. Then I attached 24 ring to which I could tie four presents each day to be opened until the 24th. Each child had a present wrapped in his own color wrapping paper. We were fairly poor at that time, so the presents were insignificant. Maybe one piece of gum or a small pencil or a candy bar. A few days before dec 24th there would be a small box of thank you notes for the four of them to use after the holidays. Sometimes there would be a small treasure fit for the individual receiver. It was fun to do each year, but the wrapping was a forever job. Four times 24 I think makes 96 and it took forever to wrap that many little packages. But when you heard one of them come shouting down the hall, saying 'Look Anna, I got a great little book about birds. Then it all seemed worth it.

I told someone this autumn about the advent calendars an that someone I think was Shreve; She told my four children about the fact that I had told her I had never received an advent calendar. And so this year, on Thanksgiving Day an Advent calendar was delivered to my place. I love it. The base had been used for Anna's two children. On the twenty four rings that have been sewn onto the brown felt covering the board hang a present for each day. The packages are wrapped in three different kind of papers, I know that the one for dec 1 is from Martha. I am eager to wake up on Thursday so I can open it to see what may be hidden under the the white tissue paper.From where I sit it looks as though there are two to open on Dec 2.

The board it self is a wonderful Christmas decoration. There are two larger Santas. A mother Santa with a white apron, making her look as though she was interrupted while baking cookies.
At the end of the line is Papa Santa, and between them are two cute little Santas. signifying Shreve and Karin. What a lot of work Anna had to do to make this for me. I will be forever happy about my first Advent Calendar.

7 comments:

Tina said...

Lovely post!

Beth said...

You are loved!

oksana said...

how absolutely lovely ~ you are truly loved ~

Della said...

Oh, I love that! What a wonderful gift!! A sweet return on all those hours of thought and care you put into doing it for your children. I would love to hear more as you get to open your presents!!

Liza said...

What a lovely and thoughtful gift! Every time I read your blog, I think about my grandmothers. Please tell us what wondrous things are on your advent calendar.

-s- said...

I haven't done an advent calendar since my grandmother died. She always sent us one she got at a swedish shop (she was an immigrant) and the chocolate made all American version pale in comparison. My brother got the even days, as his birthday landed on one (except when I went off to college. I got my own then!) Each one we'd open, we'd write a line about what we were looking forward to. List was sent to grandma. She wasn't always easy for me to love, but I've always admired her immensely.

I love your version of advent calendar. I'll broach it to my brother and SIL for my nephews.

Ariel said...

Oh my! SO jealous. I'm going to start doing this next year. This year (and last) for Christmas I just saved up all of the things I "normally" buy for my baby girl (3 years old now) and wrapped them all up for Christmas. We had such a pile of presents, and I let her open them all up. Mostly it's things like a pair of knit tights (although we didn't need them much this year with the lack of winter in the midwest!), or secondhand books from Goodwill. A present every day would be nice though. I've just seen the cardboard open-the-doors type, but I like the idea of hanging presents. Very inspirational post. Lovely family you have.