First December

Today is first December (actually it was yesterday, seeing the late hour, that finally I can sit down and concetrate). Since I was a child, first December meant only one thing: to start the Advent Calendar. For me there were no candies and chocolates calendars (it happened only once in our school and was a drama since we were 24 in my class but school was closing on 20th December and some pupils missed the chocolate!), but journey is to understand better what we were waiting for in this period.

I've to confess, I'm a Christmas addict, it is my favorite period in the year (soon I'll write about Kenyan Christmass) and months ahead I start to prepare decorations, crib's settings, gifts and menus. But, deep down , all of us await for the birth of Baby Jesus and the Calendar is still the most useful tool that helps me to recognise what I am looking for (among lights, reindeers and father Christmas).

Straight to the point: in Kenya, advent calendars don't exist, so, in the last years, I had make myself.

In these days, I started a new adventure: learning to sew using a machine. To practice i followed the suggestions I found in Lisa's woderfull blog www.cucicucicoo.com and I started sewing on papers, liking very much the red dread on brown papers. A bright idea struck, why not take this opportunity and make something useful. Once I decided the measurement of the calendars, I cut 24 small squares and I sew on them making the borders. I know, I still have a long way to go in sewing but this project helped me improve a lot. Since I am not blessed with a good handwriting I used some stickers to number the squares.

Now, maybe you are asking yourself: after the great promises of the introduction what did you put inside the pokets? Since Giovanni is still a baby, a very courious baby, I decided to use something figurative using some wooden decorations bought last year in a Christmas fair in Merano. My idea is to stick the calendar on top of the crib, so I put the decorations in order leaving angels and stars for last.

Here is my project:

I enjoyed so much making our Advent caldendar that I decided to make different kinds for my friends and (my favorite project) I made an Advent book too.