Advent Calendar

Posted by Justin.

One Sorrell family tradition is putting up ornaments on our advent calendar. My Great Aunt Babs made the calendar for me when I was a baby. Grandmom and Granddad would hang it every year. You put up one ornament a day until Christmas Day. Most days of the week you put a fun Christmas present. But on Sundays, you put up a special ornament that depicts the Manger scene.

After a few years, Grandmom and I made it a game to see if I could figure out what ornament I had pulled from the bag without looking at it. I know most of them by touch. Some of them, however, like the rocking horse, always give me problems.

I wanted to pass this tradition on to my own family now, so I started with Nancy. I laid out all the ornaments and gave her 30 seconds to memorize them. Then we put them in a bag, shook it up, and then Nancy pulled one out to put on the calendar. Lo and behold, she got it right! And the next one! I missed both the second and third ones! Nancy has taken this new tradition to heart! (I still missed the rocking horse this year when I pulled it).

And as a bonus preview of tomorrow, here's a picture of the tree we bought. We got too tired to decorate it tonight.

Thank you Grandmom for being so good to us by helping us get a tree and sending the Advent Calendar and my childhood ornaments. We love you! We'll keep the traditions rolling! But I'm not sure how Santa will put unwrapped presents under the tree...