Simply..advent....

3/12/2017

.. with a small a the word means a coming into view, a coming into being, an arrival. With a capital A it is the period of prayer and fasting (that's fasting not feasting!) leading up to the celebration of the arrival of the Christchild. Presumably the Christmas Day feast was to celebrate the end of fasting as well as the coming of the precious baby. I must find the balance between fasting and feasting...

My first task in preparation was to find the Advent calendar which involved moving quite a lot of stuff to get into the cupboard in the eaves where I put all the Christmas things not so very long ago!

Ah, here it is. Fun to fill it with sweets, balloons and silly Christmas jokes...

What do you get when you cross a snowman with a shark?

Frost bite!

Are your Christmas things easier to access than mine?

And have you got them out yet? I might find a handier, separate place to keep the advent calendar next year.

14 Comments

Julia

4/12/2017 02:54:42 am

Well first of all, it’s nice to “hear” you laughing, freda..:-) there is nothing like s samll joke to cheer us up..and that wonderful advent calendar would do the trick for me too! So much i could comment on with this particular post...i am relieved to see that we are not alone in our collections of random art..and what to do with it all? (Then also blessed to have been able to afford so much art!) my christmas boxes are all under the stairs here..and direct access. Since i have spent my aduthood in the “land of excess”, the christmas boxes take up an entire 6 shelf unit...this is after kondoing, and giving more than 2/3 away...more work to do i suspect. Back to advent calendar...we’ll get out (belatedly) the one my mother-in-law used her whole life..i found it in her things when she died, at aged 100 last year. It is a swiss paper one, very small, and you can still carefully open and close the doors without the paper tearing, even after 100 plus, christmas’s.

Julia

4/12/2017 03:00:43 am

Forgot to say: is that hatch as small as it apears??? One would have to be on a very strict diet just to get in there! Or send in the grands, i guess..

Freda

4/12/2017 03:10:07 am

Yes it is and I don't really want stuff stored in places I have to crawl into!

Freda

4/12/2017 03:08:43 am

What a treasure of a calendar Julia! When I get the decorations out this year I may well part with a few more. I must say I don't have regrets about those I parted with last year - can't even remember what they were....but there are some I really treasure and I will get them out in a week or so. I see now I should keep the advent calendar and Christmas cards in a more convenient place - or maybe find a new place to store the art works so I don't have to move them to get into that cupboard, or maybe get rid of some of them too? Or the contents of the cupboard (last place in the house to Kondo - next to nothing now in the loft and cellar! Love it empty!

Mary

4/12/2017 02:38:34 pm

Most of the Christmas decorations are under the stairs, but unlike Julia's situation, these boxes aren't easy to retrieve. Too much other "stuff" has made its way in front of the decorations--luggage, other boxes. I have given away many ornaments over the years--intentionally. As my children were growing up, every year I bought each of them a new ornament based on things they liked at that age. Then, when they moved to their own homes, I handed each of them their collection to so they had ornaments from their past to start their own traditions.

But I still need to get rid of more decorations...especially old lights.

julia

4/12/2017 02:48:01 pm

oh Mary! we found the perfect solution for old lights...we accidentally gave them away in a box of other stuff...went to look for the lights..they are NOwhere! and by the way..if you want new lights..do not assume they will be available at your local big box stores...nope, nowhere to be found either...so we had to order online and will be waiting..

Mary

5/12/2017 01:42:01 pm

Julia, the kicker is that some of those lights were my parents. So when I say old lights, I mean reeeeally old - early 1950s. Don't think they'd pass electrical code today. Probably would "light" the house by catching fire. :) But no worries. We have plenty of other lights that do meet code.

Freda

4/12/2017 11:37:58 pm

That was a great way to pass on memories, I hate the way lights don't last and it is so wasteful just to throw them - but what else to do?

Lotta

4/12/2017 02:54:38 pm

I'm laughing because I've just realised that ALL the Christmas things I own would fit into your advent calendar! They're currently taking up less than half a small shoebox! Not some minimalist feat, just that after months of making Christmas things I run out of steam for my own house. Love Christmas trees though... so hopefully next year...🎄

Freda

4/12/2017 11:41:54 pm

I can understand you will have had enough of decorations - but Christmas is about more than the decorations of course and the smell of a tree in the house....wonderful.

Lucille link

5/12/2017 12:18:04 am

Yes. Although we have a large loft it is so inaccessible, dark, dirty and unboarded that we have never been tempted to store anything up there. That said, we do have a garage so I suppose that's our ground floor attic. The decorations are quite easy to find but could do with culling. I never thought to Kondo those. There will be some sentimental items in there but I think I'm ready to deal with them now.
Did you make your Advent Tree?

Freda

5/12/2017 02:56:03 pm

There is still the shed.....
The Advent Tree came filled with sweets from M&S many years ago - it's beautifully made. As you empty each drawer you turn it around to make a picture - will show you later! It's interesting that you say 'I'm ready to deal with them now. You have to get to that point with some things don't you.

Lucille

6/12/2017 07:40:59 am

Some of the decorations are silver baubles which my mother decided one Christmas to use on an artificial silver tinsel tree with turquoise being the only other permitted colour. It sounds very tasteful but to us it represented a heinous departure from all that was held sacred in the way of real pine trees with the old decorations and lights. She was not a great fan of Christmas but it has only recently dawned on me why this was. So those baubles have some sad and complicated memories attached to them and I think it's time they went.

Freda link

6/12/2017 06:25:51 pm

So much to process but 'does it spark joy?' still feels like a good criteria to me as the answer is nearly always a straightforward yes or no.

Simply..advent....

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