For several years we have enjoyed putting up the tree within a day or two after Thanksgiving. That’s when I get help from family members who are in from out of town. This year is a little different. I got sick on Thanksgiving day and spent the day after recuperating. Then we attended a wedding on Saturday and by Sunday everyone was gone.
Will there be a tree this year? Of course, but later rather than sooner. We’ll save that for just days before Christmas when family returns to help.
Still we have the Advent Calendar. The first Sunday of Advent will be this Sunday, December 2. The turkeys will come down (remember “Turkeys Crossing the Road”?) from the wall and fill that space with the green felt tree and the numbered pockets naming the days until Christmas Eve. As each day in December passes and we approach the birth of our Lord, I will pull out an ornament, hang it on the tree and include a personal count down of the days until our California duo and Dallas trio arrive. Grandson #1 will take over that job I’m sure when he gets here.
This little calendar is older than the hills girls. I picked it up at a church bazaar knowing when I saw it, it would become a tradition in our household. We have enjoyed it so much I have made several modeled after this one to share with other members of the family. There is one for my mother, another for my brother’s family and then one for daughter #1 and son. My mother is relieved to avoid the pressure of putting up a tree if the Advent calendar can take its place. It is very similar to ours but with some creativity different ornaments adorn it. I patterned her ornaments after Christmas motifs on wrapping paper–Santa’s cap, reindeer, a train–trimmed in sequins and beads. More recently came grandson’s with miniature light bulbs, button trains, cars and planes, snowflakes on the ground and yes, a tree topping star trimmed in sequins and beads. I cherish the thought that he will have a tree on December 1.
Well I have never seen anything like it Georgette and I love it. Our tree is already up here but when I was a child Dad would pull us on a sleigh and we would go chop down a tree and it got decorated Christmas Eve. There was a special excitement doing it then and it added to the excitement the next morning.
How magical is that? To be pulled in a sleigh and find a fresh tree for Christmas Eve would be a lasting memory. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
i’m glad you have those traditions and keep them going for the next generation. 🙂
🙂 One holiday gives way to another. It gives us something to look forward to.
What a lovely tradition – what a way to share it with others you love so dearly. I love your blogs, Georgette … your words always touch my heart, no matter the subject. XO
Do you do an Advent calendar for the twins and M?
Love how you always have a story to share with us about what you do for each of the major holidays. You’ve brought so many beautiful traditions into your home and made it into such a rich place for your girls -and now your grandchildren – to grow up in.
Thank you, rosie. We’re all looking forward to it.
I’m sorry to hear you weren’t feeling well on Thanksgiving. Of all the days to get sick!
It was unfortunate and thankfully only lasted about 24 hours. I truly don’t get sick often…can’t remember the last time, but it made me very grateful to feel well again. Thank you, Lynn.
Something’s in the air, Georgette…usually I wait until the day before Christmas Eve to put up my meagre offering for outside decor. This year, I saw a gold wreath full of sleigh bells on sale. I grabbed it. It’s on my door. Unheard of for me!
Gotta take advantage of a sale. Sounds like you found a good and lovely buy. Season’s Greetings, souldipper. And now you remind me, what to put on the front door? hmmmm…
I love this .. and the story and tradition behind it! So cheery and colorful. I’ll bet you’re counting the days till the family arrives 🙂
MJ
MJ, You know I am counting the days! 🙂
((happy face)) those are just the best times and totally worth savoring! Now .. rest up so you’re raring to go then!
MJ
🙂
Love your traditions! Hoping to decorate a bit this weekend….
Yay! So glad to hear you can find this weekend to do that. And, I’m so glad for your decision to blog M-F–changing things up a bit is good. 🙂
I’m so sorry to hear you weren’t feeling well over Thanksgiving, but glad you seem to be back on track now. And it’s always nice to find someone who keeps Advent. It’s perhaps my favorite season of the church year. While I go along with the cultural understanding of things, I make the most of my twelve days of Christmas starting on Christmas Day!
I’m going to get the decorations out this weekend and sort through them one more time. Mom and I together had just so many – I’m almost pared down now to the sentimental ones, the heirlooms and such. The rest will be donated to a resale shop in Bacliff. They charge almost nothing for them, which is great for people who lost everything in Ike. Every year, the area looks a little more festive. 😉
I just had an exchange with another teacher friend on fb this morning who had the same bug over Thanksgiving lamenting he “never gets sick.” I had to shoot back a message to him I had it too! 😦 It’s going around I guess and it chose right around noon on Thanksgiving to hit. Thank goodness for my SIL, mother, daughter who just took over. Me? I went to bed I felt so bad. Another reason we just aren’t doing the tree sooner.
How wonderful you have a place to donate those Christmas decorations for those still recovering–it’s taking years for many. You are so very thoughtful. Bacliff–I seem to remember our phone book serviced that area back in the day when we lived down there.
What lovely tradition, and to know that you’ve been doing it for years. Such a pretty, meaningful advent calendar. Nice! Thanks for sharing. My son is coming over tomorrow after work and he is going to help me get my boxes of decorations down. But setting it up is on me. Though, I’m lucky that I have friends from work who have been coming over every year for the last four to help me set up my little village. I love how that looks when it’s all lit up.
Your village sounds delightful. I would love to see it. 🙂
I got sick then, too! Hope you are feeling better. I never get colds and had an awful one. Once I got well I flew to the p.o. and mailed my daughter an advent calendar! Not as pretty as yours (one of those cheap ones from World Market that has a teensy piece of chocolate for each day…:)
haha…it is going around. My ailment was a terrible bug. Finally, I recuperated by Saturday and felt so much better to be “alive.” I love Advent and Advent calendars whatever shape or form. I hope you are feeling better. Always good to hear from you. Take care, blogging friend.
Where I come from we traditionally don’t decorate the Christmas tree before the 23rd of December which we call Little Christmas Eve. Now that my kids are all out of the house, we won’t have any Christmas calender, though.
Whaaaaat? Otto, no kids? Still there’s Christmas Advent magic.
Yes, but I have never been really big on the Christmas thing anyway…
Glad you’re feeling better! Love the Advent calendar. When we were visiting son and daughter-in-law over Thanksgiving, they purchased a wooden one that was absolutely adorable, one that will serve them well for years to come, just like yours is.
Thank you, mama. Advent calendars are definitely part of our wait to Christmas. I need to get to work on grandbaby #2’s calendar. It’s Christmas and Advent is almost here…how much joy can you stand, mama? I hope to blog about a very special seasonal post soon. ooo-I can’t wait.
We always had an advent calendar when we growing up. Sadly, it has taken a back seat. You have encouraged me to rethink this, especially with the gorgeous one you have from years past. So much tradition! I love my Christmas tree ornaments for that same reason. So many of them tell a story all by themselves and conjure memories from Christmasses long ago. And isn’t that the point really?
You’re right “So many of them tell a story all by themselves…” We still have the tree ornaments my in-laws had on their first trees. We enjoy our Advent calendar every year. Consider getting./making a recurring one.
Oh, no, sorry you were sick. We had it hit our house too, right around Thanksgiving. Not a good time at all. I love the advent calendar. We have one too and my kids (and I) all look forward to it every year. We always cut out little snowflakes out of paper and put them in the windows. And play xmas music while decorating the tree, then we bake cookeis. Those little traditions seem to be the ones we remember most over the years, aren’t they?
Yuck–I can’t remember the last time I felt like that–chills, fever, etc.
Sounds like fun to cut out all those snowflakes–each one different. We have saved many art projects from the girls and grandson when they were younger and set them among the branches of the tree. The girls remember making several. Happy decorating!
Beautiful post. Love the advent calendar. This post reminds me why I love Christmas and the happy memories it brings.
It’s a fun family tradition to hang one ornament a day until December 24 when we hang the star.
Glad you’re feeling better, sorry you didn’t get to enjoy Thanksgiving and family to the max!
Thank you, Patti. I wasn’t feeling well at all but my SIL certainly nursed me and everyone pitched in to get things set out and cleaned up.