Today marks the first day of December, and with that comes the traditional German Christmas calendar or advent calendar."An advent calendar contains reminders each day that Christmas is coming. Advent is a term from the Latin word adventur which means "arrival". The advent officially begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. An advent calendar begins the time of anticipation. It is truly a time of preparation and joy."
- From About.com
For the past three years, Amanda has gotten one of these calendars from her German grandmother, and eagerly looks forward to it. She gets such joy out of opening the little individual doors each morning after breakfast... and finding the tiny piece of chocolate.
For the second year, Eva received a calendar of her own. This year will be even more fun for her since she'll actually be allowed to eat the candy. (Last year Daddy and I divvied it up amongst ourselves, since she was only 6 months old at the time. ) I know Eva will be just as thrilled as Amanda about this yearly tradition.
After breakfast and baths this morning, the girls sat on the floor with their calendars and got to work. Here is a short video of the girls searching for Door #1.
Amanda struggles to get the little cardboard door open.
Eva enjoys her chocolate treasure.* *
While browsing the internet last night, I found the perfect online Christmas calendar for a music enthusiast such as myself: The Bach Christmas Calendar from the BBC's website.
From now until Christmas Day, simply click on the date and hear a brief bit of trivia about J. S. Bach, followed by one of his compositions. For example, today listeners are treated to an excerpt from his St. Matthew Passion - BWV 244. You can bet I will be visiting this website daily.
I have spent a good chunk of time hunting for holiday recipes, gift giving ideas, and interesting crafts. In fact, I think I may even have found a way to incorporate some of that Halloween candy into a winter-themed craft after all. Stay tuned!
Over the next few weeks, I will continue my search for unique craft ideas and kid-friendly recipes, so if you have any brilliant suggestions, please throw them my way!
My Christmas shopping is about 90% finished, so that will leave me with a fair amount of free time on my hands! If the weather turns cold and snowy, you can bet we'll all be inside, in front of the wood fire, trying to think of fun ways to pass the time.
I think it will prove to be a fun month!
2 comments:
The joy of advent calendars, my girls just adore this tradition.
We will be enjoying an advent calendar, too! Hers comes with stickers this year. Love it that Eva jumped right to Christmas eve. :o)
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