Advent Calendars

There's something rather disorientating about going through December without an advent calendar. For one thing, I never know what the date is and for another it's hard to get excited about christmas without a visual countdown. We've always had homemade calendars at home, thanks to my very talented mother, so I thought I might try my hand at making one. The first week of the month was ridiculously busy for me but I somehow managed to find the time to make myself a calendar out of red Ikea pegs, Sainsbury's string and Blackwell's record cards. I wanted something that would keep me focused on what I consider to be the true meaning of Christmas: Jesus. So each record card has a bible passage written on one side, which I must read every morning, I then write my favourite verses from the passage on the other side of the card and reattach it to the peg. In theory I should have a garland of uplifting, inspiring verses in reality I have a somewhat ragged, saggy washing line inconsistently pegged with bible truths. Oh well, it's the thought that counts right!?

THE MAKING OF MY ADVENT CALENDAR

A week after this masterpiece was created I received a calendar from home. Mum had ordered me a picture advent calendar from Germany that arrived late. It's almost a carbon copy of one I had hanging in my room, aged 9 during my first real German christmas. It's wonderfully traditional, with the picture for the 6th December being a large window filled with a smiling St Nicholas and all the lovely characters are dressed in Lederhosen and Dirndls. I feel like a proper German student now, in fact, as I write this I am half watching a program called 'Al Murray's German Adventure' - SO CULTURED.