Sanguine

My favorite thing that I came away from this Christmas with was not something given to me, but something I set out (BRAVELY, I might add, on a Saturday two days after Christmas,) and picked out myself. Last year Target carried several designs of these beautiful chest-of-drawers style Advent Calendars. I didn't have the money then to buy one and was certainly sad when they went away, anticipating never to see one again. Imagine my surprise when, standing in Target two days before Christmas, I saw them!

I have to admit that I wasn't really all that preoccupied with the idea of Advent calendars, considering we do not celebrate the Advent*. However, that whole idea went end-over-applesauce when I saw these little Waldorf style pocket babies and thought to myself, "oh my gosh, how fun to hide those in an Advent calendar!" With that, and some home-made soft peppermint sticks, and a few other delightful tidbits, like wooden figurines or marbles or other treasures to decorate a seasons table with, I thought I surely must go through with it. So back I went (bravely, remember?) And parted the hordes of fine folk in the throes of impassioned consumerism, and I found one. The last one.

My face was filled with happy! I clutched it to my chest, heavy though it may have been, and I walked right out of there with it- after paying for it, of course. I smiled at it, (nestled safely into the passenger seat,) the whole way home. I'm so excited for the Christmases to come.

*I suppose, in a way, in the purest meaning, we do celebrate an advent. If one is prepared only to acknowledge an 'advent' as being an anticipatory time in which one prepares for the coming of something (per its Latin etymology,) then we do celebrate it. We prepare for a day of friends and cheer and goodwill, and over the course of the month also recognize and celebrate (with cooking and crafts and books and movies,) the many other Solstice-oriented celebrations of other cultures. I suppose in that regard, our 'advent' is a bit more celebratory than originally intended. =)