Happy Advent

We’re halfway through the first week of Advent and I have yet to dig our Advent wreath out of wherever it is hidden among the Christmas decorations in our garage, but our new Advent calendar is finished and hanging in the kitchen!  As I finished the border on Sunday night, I was so glad I started back in August. 

   I had a lot of inspiration:  most obviously the Advent calendar Kate made last year, the sequined Christmas stockings and projects my mom and sister make, and Gran’s stash of sequins and beads (which I used).  Like most of my projects I just went a step at a time, working out the plan as I went.  I constructed the inlaid pockets based on an Advent calendar I saw here, but as our computer was blitzing out and wouldn’t open Adobe files as it was time to sew the pockets, I just went from a general memory of having previously looked at the tutorial rather than following it.  I needed pockets big enough to hold candy for –God willing- multiple children as our family grows. For now it’s filled with mini candy canes (like Rush’s mouth) and chocolate Santas.  Rush would have been just as excited with boxes of raisins, but as tempting as it was to fill the pockets with raisins, it doesn’t exactly shout “festive”.   I love Kate’s idea of adding notes like “go get a Christmas tree!”, but I’ll just have to slip those in as the events arise.  We haven’t planned that far ahead for December yet.

So the Advent calendar is up, check.  The next step is either finding the Advent wreath or gathering the last of the pumpkins and putting them outside.  After that I’m expecting things to start moving pretty quickly.  December is typically a fast month anyway and to quote Charlotte’s Web "Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.”  We’re waiting for both.