Advent Day 1

Happy 1st of December!

I've been busy finishing off swap makes this morning followed by a mad dash for some secret Christmas Shopping before doing the school run and all the madness that comes between the end of school and bedtime, so my photo for Day 1 is a little late but better late than never as they say!

I'm joining in with Julie's Advent Calendar over at Julie's Scrapbook

, the idea being that you post a photo, an image from the internet, a drawing or a video just like those old fashioned advent calendars with the opening doors and before chocolate became a must have!

My photo for Day 1 is of our Book Advent. I started this last year for Tomas with the idea being that you wrap 24 christmas story books and read one each night at bedtime. We really enjoyed it last year and I wanted to add some new books to our Christmas library and was lucky enough to pick up some wonderful new to us books from our local charity shops and Ebay. I used wrapping paper that was left over from last year so this doesn't have to be an expensive tradition to start.

Tonight we read The Christmas Robin and Tomas has already earmarked a book for tomorrow.

I'm also taking some time each day to read Restoring the Joys of Christmas written by Brenda @ It's a Beautiful Life. Last year Brenda wrote a blog series for advent and this year she has turned it into a PDF book for you to download. And although I don't feel weighted down by Christmas it is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle in the build up to Christmas and forget to stop and look at what really matters at this time of year. If you would like to find out more or download the PDF for yourself then pop over to Brenda's blog.

Day 1 is about watching for moments and one of my moments today has been counting Christmas lights on houses on the school run home with Tomas It's almost dark by the time we head home from school and yesterday we counted 16 and today 33 and I'm sure the number will grow over the coming days and weeks. Watching his excitement as the next displays of lights and decorations came into view was contagious and I found myself shouting 'There's some!"

Another was listening to him singing Christmas songs with wild abandonment as we came in through the door. I think Paul caught the moment too as he remarked on "our Christmas loving boy". 

I've another busy day ahead tomorrow but I'm looking forward to sharing my daily advent photos with you and seeing what will be behind the doors of those that are taking part too.