text and images britt-arnhild
Advent is here......in a few days. And my mailbox is filling up with emails from all over the world: "will you be doing your advent calendar posting again this year?"
Of course I will!
Actually I am counting days like a happy child :-)
Advent starts this coming weekend. Sunday is the day for the first advent candle, and since Saturday is 1st of December, I´ll start my advent posting then.
No Christmas in The House in the Woods for several weeks yet.
My online advent calender is a tradition, started before blogging.
In my mailbox on yahoo I have a folder named "Advent 2003", another one named "Advent 2004". Every day though advent I sent out emails according to an email list I had set up.
In 2005 I started Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods, and the emails became history.
Here is the first advent email I sent out, on November 29th 2003:
I have been looking forward to this week-end for a
long time. It is the week-end to start advent
preparations, and over the years this has become more
and more important for me. It is still almost four
weeks till Christmas, and this period will be the
period for preparations; preparations to open my mind
for the wonder which happened 2000 years ago, and
happens again every year, the Creator became man and
came to this world. The advent colour is purple/lilac,
and our decorations the coming weeks will mostly have
this colour, though all through our house more and
more Christmas decorations will be seen. Tomorrow is
the first Sunday of advent, and already tonight a star
will be hung in our livingroom window, and advents
wreaths with four candles will be set all through the
house. Tomorrow the first candle will be lit, then one
more for each of the coming four Sundays.
I have the advent calendars ready for the girls, one
basket for each with 24 packets in. It was a great
pleasure last night to wrap them all, as it has been a
pleasure the last weeks to use my creativity to gather
gifts for them. It is an aim for me that the gifts
shall not be expensive "use and throw away" gifts, but
small tokens they will like and use. The huge working
table here in my studio is filled with boxes of what I
call "my very own advent calendar". A huge box with
all my Christmas books, a smaller one with the CDs, a
basket with my snowman collection, another with my
angels, several colourful baskets with small and
bigger quilts in progress, my snowglobe collection is
here, and also my home made Christmas stockings. And
not to forget my nativity scenes. I have four scenes
so far, and they are all very special to me. One is
from Haiti, bought when I visited the country in 1998.
It is a coconut with an opening for the door, and the
figurines are made out of clay and painted in bright
colours. I also want to mention our newest scene,
bought in Provence this summer, traditional Provencal
santons.
.....well, just like a child (and at Christmastime it
is important that we all behave like children) I
cannot wait till Monday and December 1st. The first
Christmas cd, Christmas in Vienna III with Placido
Domingo, Charles Aznavour and our own Sissel Kyrkjebø
is on the cd-player, my Debbie Mumm The Magic of Santa
mug is filled with spiced tea and as soon as this
letter is finished I have Mary Engelbreit's Christmas
Companion is waiting to be enjoyed.
Happy advent, and remember to take time to enjoy this
very special period of the year.
Britt-Arnhild
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and here is my first advent blog post, from 2005:
Advent is here.
Advent means coming, the coming of the world's Saviour. And advent is a time for preparations, preparations for the coming Christmas. Starting today our house will gradually be clothed for Christmas, starting today my mind will gradually be prepared to meet Christ on Christmas Day. The Christ Jesus, the God Almighty whom I walk with every day. Again I will meet him as a newborn baby, away in a manger, born into a world in many ways unprepared to welcome him. I pray that advent will prepare me to welcome him once again.
Today the Star of Bethlemen is hung in our main window, and there it will shine for some weeks. In another window shines a candelabrum with seven lights, Ingrid has an angel in her window, Marta has a heart in hers. Besides that not much has changed in our decorations yet. But small and bigger changes will come every day now, and to help me I have my advent basket.
The advent basket is something I have had for a few years now. I actually start to fill my basket the night before December 1st, and then use it's filling to decorate the next morning. But I also fill the basket for the 1st Sunday of advent.
What is an advent basket, you might ask? Well, if you follow me the coming weeks you'll get to know alot about it, my whicked basket filled with items to decorate my home and prepare my mind for Christmas.
Last night I filled the basket with our old, red Christmas curtains with Maria, Joseph, the shepherds, stars and Betlehem in the background in silver and pink. The curtains are now hung in the sittingroom window. I also filled the basket with a cd with "Christmas with Dickens" and Dickens' book "A Christmas Carol". The book has 5 chapters, one for each Sunday in advent, the last one for Christmas Eve. The first snowman from my growing collection was in the basket, a small quilt of purple and gold angels made in pure silk (my own design), a Christmas book, "Christmas with Rosamunde Pilcher", a Victoria Christmas magazine from 2001, and a Provence nativity set which I bought in Avignon a few years ago, "Chrèches et Santons". Terje was in Avignon again this autumn, and I hope to get a few more santons for Christmas.
Most of the things in my advent basket are from my Christmas collections. And there will be one item from every collection in the basket every day. But for that I have to wait untill December 1st. And while waiting I'll sit down with a mug of spicy advent tea. Yes, of course I use my Spode china, which have now found their place in the glass cupboard.
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I am looking forward to celebrate Advent with you.
And I would LOVE to learn m,ore about your traditions for these last weeks before Christmas.
