Advent

Welcome to my version of PeBloPoDe (Personal Blogging Post December) which coincides nicely with what I intend to post about - the Advent.  I happen to be an Atheist, and I don't mind telling you, because it seems about as valid as any other sets of beliefs to me. Despite this obvious roadblock, I love Christmas. I lustily sing along with the songs with only a twinge of hypocrisy and put up all the decorations and the colored lights. And I have always had an Advent calendar. But this year I have TWO Advent calendars:

First, a traditional chocolate style type, but the important thing to note is the word Kinder - I have a slavish devotion to the Kinder brand of chocolate and Kinder Surprise eggs  specifically, which have little toys and puzzles inside to put together. They're from Germany and you can get them in Canada - but never, ever in the USA. I do not know why, but when I saw this Advent calendar on my trip home I snatched it up. Kinder every day! I am sort of glad my kid is too young to fight me for it. 

But I'm REALLY excited about the second one - also via Germany, as my brother gave it to me when we met up in Canada. The empty bags seemed to have a lot of possibility and when I read this post from Cup of Jo, I knew what to do. We made a list of 24 Christmassy things to do - mixed them up and put them in the bags. It's crazy how excited I am to open the bags, like I'm a kid. Today was a gimme, because we already had plans to see a Christmas choir at the Duke chapel tonight, but I love the idea of making all my tasks and traditions into a daily surprise. And the plan is to share them with this blog. 

In honor of the music we're going to hear tonight, here's a cut from one of my favourite Christmas records, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles's "The Season for Miracles" (1970):

(Advent Day One update: We made it to the third song before someone's small child started wailing and wanted the lights back on instead of those pesky candles and beautiful singing...sigh, maybe next year.)