A couple of years ago, I bought an advent calendar, as part of my seemingly yearly attempt to recapture the magic that this season held for me as a child. For the first several days of December, I went to the calendar each morning, found and opened the appropriately numbered window, and smiled at the small illustration revealed.
Around Day 10, something happened. Work was crazy, or we were busy; I don’t really remember. At any rate, I forgot about the advent calendar. Though it still stood in plain view on the living room bookshelves, my eyes passed over it without my mind’s noticing. When I did finally see it again, several days had gone by. I caught up, opening the little windows for each of the days that I’d missed, but any small success I’d had recapturing childhood magic was lost.
This year, when I segued from posting daily for NaBloPoMo into posting daily for Holidailies, I wanted to do something a little different than simply (ha!) posting every day. I thought of creating a bloggy version of an advent calendar; each day’s numbered post would have a (holiday-related?) photo or graphic, hidden from view until a reader clicked (more…). If nothing else, my desire to have the complete string of numbers from 1 to 24 would keep me posting each day until Christmas Eve.
Then came the wind storm, and the power outage, and the loss of internet connection. I couldn’t blog. I couldn’t upload photos. When our internet connection finally came back yesterday, I couldn’t decide what to do with my little conceptual advent calendar. Although missing days of the calendar was beyond my control, I felt like it was ruined.
Today, I’m going to catch up, just as I did with my paper advent calendar. After this, we’ll take it one day at a time.
To open the advent calendar windows for Days 14-16, click here:
Day 14: This is one of three felt Santas that I found at a small shop near my parents’ house, the day after Christmas in 1995. I love their rosy-cheeked faces.
Day 15: The year after Paul and I married, my sister gave us several ornaments, including three of these pretty gold-painted papier-mache balls.
Day 16: Many years ago, my grandmother gave me a handsome nutcracker for Christmas. She has been gone now for almost eleven years. No matter their size, nutcrackers remind me of her.
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Lovely ornaments. I just adore all the stories that go along with each one. We should really take pictures of all the special ornaments and catalog them with the stories for those who come after to enjoy as well.
I do believe I have one very similar to the paper mache one in the middle. It is in storage, of course.
I love your virtual advent calendar idea and am glad you are catching it up. It’s lovely, so don’t you dare stop (power outtages notwithstanding).