Advent

A few weeks ago my father arrived with a beautiful (or beautifully tasty) advent calendar for me and Mr Teacakes. It is a Hotel Chocolat calendar especially made for a pair, with a truffle each for every day of advent. There's something wonderfully romantic about these little twin truffles and the idea of not having to share is most delightful (she said, with her trotters at the ready to open door number 2. I started writing this post yesterday - the trotters have now already broken their way through door number two).

However, a few days ago I realised that I wanted to make sure that my father's own advent had daily makers. Unsure that I could beat the loveliness of a Hotel Chocolat calendar with anything left in the shops, I decided to make a calendar myself and could think of nothing that my mother or father would more enjoy opening each day than a message from the smallest Teacakes. With them enthusiastically in on the plan I began sewing until late each evening to have it ready in time for December 1st and the small ones have been busily creating the cards to be put inside each pocket.

I spent a long time drawing out grids to achieve an even pocket placement...and got some of the way through writing this up to share with you, when I realised that it may be a tutorial to save for next year as few people begin making their advent calendars on the 1st December. This may be a good thing, as the pictures for it would have been gloomy (or cosy, if one's looking at things in a positive light), when all the sewing was carried out late at night by lamplight so that Mr Teacakes could try to sleep.

Here it is finished...nearly.

The photos of this are truly awful - I'm sorry. The sky is so full of snow that no light seems to be getting through.

I thought that I'd finished, but then I realised that a Christmas tree motif might look nice in space number 25...

Here are some of the cards that the Teacakes made - I left them completely to their own devices with these and they are far more humorous and lovely for it, complete with idiosyncratic spellings:

December 1st arrived, the calendar was finished, the pockets were full, but the car was immobilised by snow in the driveway. So after school yesterday we decided that it would be a lot of fun to carry out a surprise delivery and make the four-mile round trip to my parents' house on foot....we would almost be like Father Christmas. We had such fun and it was our first outing with the beautiful wooden sledge that my father had given us during the summer (I know that he would want it documented that he winkled this beauty out for a mere £2. Yes, he is a deluxe bargain hunter extraordinaire). I found that for much of the way I was able to pull both of them on it and they encouraged me by singing loudly and telling me to go slower, so that I would feel encouraged by how fast I was managing to go (they stumbled upon this reverse psychology when they realised that when they implored me to go faster it resulted in my gradually slowing down). After making a pit-stop at my parents house where they delightedly received the calendar and plied us with cherry juice and biscuits, we returned home. It's not a route I would normally venture down alone after dark, with woods on both sides, but lit up by the whiteness of the snow, it felt completely unscary and more Narnia-like than Watcher-in-the-Woods. Mr Teacakes walked out and met us nearer home for an annual visit to the chip shop and pulled me some of the way back on the sledge while the small ones ran along beside - I'm not sure anything could be more fun. Eager that he shouldn't miss out we found that the sledge is perfectly capable of holding the weight of a 6ft 2 man and that I am perfectly capable of pulling this weight. My muscles are HUGE today! Eager to pack a year's worth of arm-toning into just one week we are off out again soon.

I hope you are having fun wherever you are.

Happy advent,
Florence x