It's Beginning to Feel a Little Like Christmas

It's beginning to feel a little like Christmas here in our home. Just a little! While away on holiday, I felt far removed from the Christmas rush, from extra busy shopping centres, long lines at the post office and piped in carols at the supermarket. Instead, there was just the quiet peace of a beautiful island. That quietness seeped into my soul and I haven't really wanted to lose it by rushing into Christmas preparations upon arrival home. 

We did take one special Christmas tradition with us on holiday though.  Each year, since he was very small indeed, we have used a simple felt advent calendar for our boy to count down the days until Christmas Day. In each pocket, we place a beautiful little ornament and each morning, it is collected with delight and placed upon our Christmas tree. At first, these ornaments tended to be clustered around the lowest branches of our tree but as our boy has grown they have been promoted to higher up! This year, with no tree to hang them from, they were instead placed in a special box ready for decorating the tree when we arrived home.

A sweet snowman waiting in the pocket our our advent calendar.

That same sweet snowman on our Christmas tree.

A decorated Christmas tree, with shiny red tinsel that catches the sunlight, real pine cones collected from under a stand of pines and a collection of sweet ornaments carefully placed by a growing boy.  

The few remaining "empty" pockets of our advent calendar tell me that Christmas Day is almost here and now, with a tree dressed in all its Christmas finery, it is beginning to feel a little like Christmas time to me.

Meg