Virtual Advent Tour - December 5

This is such a special day in our family. On this date five years ago, our first grandchild was born on her grandfather's birthday. The story of her birth is here. Hazel Nina is a miracle that I am thankful for every minute of my life. Her birthday party was on Sunday and I took this little video.

This evening we celebrated with supper at her house. One of the presents we gave her was a matching pajama set for Hazel and her American Girl doll, Emerson.

We were having so much fun that I never got a picture of grandfather and granddaughter.

My heart is full.

Virtual Advent Tour - December 1

I asked for December 1 in the Virtual Advent Tour so that I could tell you about something very wonderful on the internet that you can get today! Do you know about Jacquie Lawson email cards? If not, you may visit here. I first heard about the site when two friends sent us the same Christmas card (nearly 20 years ago!). I was totally wowed, and truly still am. It is quintessential England to many of us in the US. You may see it here. If you have trouble seeing it, that may be because until recently the cards depended on Flash. You can make it work by following the pop-up directions for your browser.

For many years now the site has offered an Advent calendar. This year's is here. You do not have to be a member to get the calendar. It is a wonderful way to mark the days coming up to Christmas.

Once you buy the calendar (this year it is $4.99), you have it forever. Ours are stored in our Applications folder. We have many years of Jacquie Lawson calendars there, and over the past couple years, Hazel Nina has enjoyed them tremendously. She even knows how to open the folder and find the calendars, even though she doesn't read yet. We've spent many hours with her on our laps, and now she sits by herself, having so much fun.

The one below is is a special amusement that we bought from the JL site. It's all about a circus. Not sure if it is still available, but there are others like an English garden that you can buy.

After all these years of playing with the past Advent calendars which were all completed, I don't think she would much enjoy the actual day by day opening of one window during Advent! But Tom and I dearly love these annual calendars, and I think you will, too!

Virtual Advent Tour - 2018

In case you haven't heard of this, I would like to make a public service announcement (isn't that what they were called on TV when I was a kid??). You may go here to sign up. It sounds like a lot of fun, both doing an entry and reading entries each day of Advent.

virtual advent tour 2018 signups now open

This year marks the fourth time I will play host to the Virtual Advent Tour. I can’t believe it’s time to embark on the process once more!

If this is your first time here at the winter holidays, welcome! The Virtual Advent Tour is a bloggers’ take on the traditional Advent calendar in which each day in December leading up to Christmas Day you open a door to unveil a hidden scene or piece of chocolate or some other treat. In our version, each morning I’ll point you to a post at someone’s blog in which they share something about their holiday season.

While both the tradition of the Advent calendar and the timing skew Christian, the tour is inclusive and open to anyone who celebrates December holidays of any sort — from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa, from Festivus to Solstice, and from Christmas to something I’ve never heard of but that I’ll learn about from you — and who wants to share them with us. We love reading about all kinds of holiday celebrations and the traditions you’ve developed around them!

Would you be willing to share a winter holiday post one or two days next month? You’d know the date(s) ahead of time (and can request a specific one if you’d like), your post can be as simple or as complex as suits you, and there’s no need to tell me what you’re going to write about in advance. Folks have shared favorite holiday music, charities, recipes, religious calendar dates, literature, local events, memories, and traditions both old and new, to name some of the topics from years past. All that I ask is that you have your post published by midnight your time the evening before the date(s) you pick, so I can link to it in my post and direct visitors your way. (Speaking of visitors, make sure leaving a comment on your blog is as barrier-free that day as possible if you’d like folks to respond.)

If it sounds fun and you’d like to participate, please leave me a comment on this post telling me what date(s) you’d like. I’ll update this post as people claim days and will create a 2018 Tour button/badge folks can use if they want to.

Thanks in advance for making this one of my fun December traditions!