Tag: advent (page 1 of 1)

The First

Not only did we usher in the first day of December today, with a few morning snow flurries, I might add, but the beginning of Advent has also arrived.

I was so excited to see what was behind our little paper window this morning! Mr. Michie carefully pulled it back and our miniature scene today was of a boy pulling a sled over a frozen pond.

I adore paper Advent calendars. They bring me back to my childhood and all the little glitter covered paper calendars my Nana would give us to celebrate the season with. Happiness is…

The First Sunday of Advent

Vintage Baubles

The house has been filled with the sounds of Christmas music today. The candles are lit, the pumpkin pie has been baked, fresh vanilla whipped cream is in the fridge and the turkey is in the oven along with carrots which are roasting in an orange juice and brown sugar glaze.

The mashed potatoes are being kept warm and the stuffing and other sides are in their final stages as well. We are celebrating Thanksgiving today. Work has kept us from celebrating it sooner as Mr. Michie had a late school night on Thursday and a school commitment yesterday as well. So today is our Thanksgiving with each other. We have had a quiet day, which is something that doesn’t happen often, I have loved it!

On this first Sunday of Advent we are celebrating love, family, a roof over our heads, food on our table and the blessings of the Season.

{Image Pinned HERE}

The First Day of December

Jennifer Michie Advent 2013

I have a pumpkin pie in the oven, bread torn and drying out, ready to be turned into stuffing, Christmas music playing and I am cleaning the house and beginning to put away Fall in preparation for decorating for Christmas.

This afternoon we will celebrate Thanksgiving. We are a few days late, but it still counts!

I can’t believe that today marks the first day of Advent and the first day of December. Where has this year gone? It seems to have vanished with a blink of an eye! We are trying to keep things a bit more simplified this year. We even bought a chocolate Advent calendar instead of using Eglantine.

Which doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but it is for me. I love Christmas! Our house is usually decorated within every square inch of itself. However, I don’t think it will be that way this year. I love my new job, but it is keeping me very occupied. So something’s gotta give somewhere and that means that this year we are keeping the house decorating elegant yet simple.

Eglantine, Eglantine!

“Eglantine, Eglantine, Oh how you shine!” This little ditty was playing in my head as we carefully hung our Christmas pixie up last night. She was named after Angela Lansbury’s character in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Mr. Brown sings this song to her after they go back to the house he has moved into in London. It is one of my favorite movies and it somehow fits this little gal.

This year we decided to fill her elfin sized pockets and hands with candy. I am going first this year, so when Mr. Michie gets in tonight I am going to reach in her pocket and see what surprise awaits me!

I can’t believe it is December 1st! Where has this year gone? I want to enjoy and savor this month. The time spent together, the time spent with family, it all goes by too quickly and I want to capture it all in my memory.

The First Day of Advent

Where has the year gone? I cannot believe that as I woke up this morning, we entered into one of my most favorite times of the year; the season of Advent. The 24 day build-up to Christmas! It is time to get out my Christmas Pixie, Eglantine. Alas, we are going to be having some work done at the cottage and I won’t be able to decorate as normal.

I have looked and looked at old-fashioned paper and chocolate Advent calendars, but non were beautifully decorated and were not anything I wanted in my house for the next 24 days.  Since most things will have to be packed up for the moment, I wanted something small, maybe even transportable.

In looking at “One Pretty Thing”, I happened upon this:

What a fabulous idea I think this is! This is the perfect Advent calendar for grown-ups, or to mail to a college student or a friend. What a cute idea!

Read the whole post here. Happy First day of Advent!

(All images copyright My Little Mochi)

The Stockings were Hung…

Eglantine has been filled with little love notes and each day it has been a special treat to see what we have written for each other. We finished decorating last week and I love the fact that I get to come home to the merry twinkle of little lights and Scandinavian ornaments bedecking our garland that runs along the stairs.

Pixies, Milo & Gertie are watching over the garland on the mantle.  Next to our nativity set stands Genevieve, our beautiful Christmas Angel handmade with vintage materials by Claire Fletcher, a friend of mine. I love her. She looks to me like she belongs at the top of the March girls’ tree from Little Women.

My slowly building project has been collecting little odds and ends to go around my zinc Christmas house. Last year I found a vintage chalkware Christmas cake topper from a little antique store.  The red breasted robin sits so proudly on the postbox.

I love this time of year; pulling out treasures that have memories; everything has a story, putting in the new pieces that you have collected over the year to add to your Christmas stash…

We are all decorated now, so it won’t be long before we have our first hot chocolate night. Those are the nights where we can’t sleep so we come downstairs at some crazy hour, turn on just the Christmas lights, a little Christmas music and sit on the couch just being with a cup of hot chocolate. It is pure happiness!

1st Day of Advent

Today is the first day of advent! We put up our little pixie last night, she is our first piece of Christmas out (besides our Advent wreath); Eglantine as she has been dubbed, is proudly tied up with a gingham ribbon.

As, you know, I have a thing for pixies and gnomes and all of our little Christmas pixies have names, I have smaller versions of her in the cutest little knitted sweaters and dresses!

We always try to do something different each year, I don’t mind getting chocolate, but I like being creative with my advent calendar.  This year we have decided to fill her little pockets with messages of LOVE, in the form of poems, quotes, movie lines… I can’t wait to see what has been written for me!

When I was little we always had the old-fashioned paper advent calendars from Germany.  One year, we were given a calendar that contained vintage looking wooden ornaments.  My mom put a little tree, strung with lights into a brass drum base and each morning we would run to discover what elfin sized ornament waited behind those doors to be put on our miniature tree.

I thought about making one of our own this year, as well as Eglantine and remembered that Jenny B. Harris had a pretty felt calendar tutorial on her blog, Allsorts.  It would look so sweet strung along a mantle or around a door.

allsorts adventAnother inventive idea I came across was a calendar made out of a spool on “Just Something I Made“.  What a cute idea, especially if you, like us, live in a little cottage and space fills up quickly, you could easily hang the spool rack on the wall.

spool advent calendarThe first day of Advent, we are now officially counting down to Christmas, where has the year gone?