Twenty-five Post Christmas Countdown

Christmas tree at the town square.

Würzburg setting up shop for its Christmas market.

I started thinking about Christmas early this year. In the past, with the film festival around the corner, the holiday preparation in our household was a bit neglected. My mind was full of deadlines, emails, notes, and calls I needed to make. Granted, I put up lights, crafted Advent calenders for the boys, remembered to put their boots out at midnight for "Nikolaus", baked batches of cookies so Santa would have something to go with his milk, and bought gifts, but everything was so very last minute. Usually I found myself hanging up and taking down our decorations within the same week (yuk) or Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve (double yuk). My brother and sisters always got their Christmas gifts in February (after the festival) and my husband...well, we usually agreed on something in passing. Do I get an "R" for romantic on that one? This year, however, my gifts are bought and hidden, my packages sent out, and holly was up before Tom Turkey was tot. To top off my Christmas-ness, I even began contemplating how to design the boys' Advent calenders, one of my verymostfavorite ways to countdown to Christmas, before our Halloween pumkins took up residence in the compost. But, thanks to commercialism and premature holiday displays, the boys rallied for the chocolate-filled paper calenders that had been tempting them the last four weeks at our local grocery store. Not being able to resist their delightful cries after they snuck the calenders into my grocery cart the other day, I sacrificed craftiness for wrapped-arm hugs between the cereal and tea aisles. Funny though, I haven't been able to stop thinking about Advent calenders and thought maybe, just maybe, you'd wanna countdown to Christmas with me? I am so thrilled you're out there, reading and keeping up; I love getting your emails, reading your comments, and hearing from my mom who's behind the numbers. It simply makes.me.happy. I can't promise you numbered treats in small felt stockings, many of you are an ocean away, but I can promise you twenty-five posts with twenty-five things the next twenty-five days that let you know I'm thinking of you this Christmas season. See you on Wednesday!!