More about advent calendars

In the countdown till Christmas post I promised to tell you about the advent calendars I am involved in. 

Karen from Baking In A Tornado is my blogging friend who coordinates the secret subject swaps I participate in. If you are interested, the next one is coming up on Friday, December 13 - yes the lucky day!

My fellow bloggers agree that it is time to do something for the lady who does so much for us during the year. Happy Blogging Holidays is an interactive, online calendar for Karen, a gift from all of us, isn't it great what we came up with? And that's only the start!

On to the next one: Tuepfliqueen's advent calendar is an opportunity for mommy businesses to promote their services or products. Each participant posts a giveaway on their assigned day and chooses to give it to one of the people who shout "meeeee!" 

As I don't have anything I want so ultimately sell to that bunch of potential new customers, I decided to do justice to the Christmas spirit and raise some money for my favorite cause, Mael, the sweet boy who suffers from Nieman Pick Type C disease.

It seems like I am a sucker for advent calendars because I signed up for yet another one! The envelope calendar for our friends who moved to Canada this summer. A friend who visited them in early November  encouraged us to give her some surprise cards, so every day in December the Fischer family is reminded of their friends back home.

I took a picture of their former house in our village and transformed it into a gingerbread house. Number 10 used to be their house number, that's why I want my envelope to be opened on Dec 10. I hope they are going to love it just as much as I do.

Although the house they moved into in Canada isn't bad either:

I hear their envelope calendar is pinned to the living room wall and they can't wait to discover who sent them something!

Last but not least - our own. Note that it is ours not Colin's. He is an only child and gets a lot of attention and gifts, so we consider the advent calendar a good opportunity to learn waiting his turn and sharing. He is cool with it and put a lot of effort to divide the 24 days equally by Colin, grandparents, mommy and daddy.

It is easy to come up with things for Colin - he likes all things ice hockey, Disney cars and planes -  but my husband and I don't alway have the right touch when we try to surprise each other with something different than (INSERT FRUIT) gadgets, so this year I took the liberty to buy my own gifts. Body lotion, scented candles, you name it. He will get his favorite chocolate, a new PJ, his own headphones so he doesn't have to displace mine and a miniature Christmas tree tea light. The highlight will be a voucher for the three of us to see a hockey game on a Sunday afternoon in January.