Hi, everyone!
I know Christmas is coming, but I’ve been mostly getting ready for getting ready! There are a lot of things we do for Advent before we actually get to Christmas! Just before Thanksgiving, Grandma took me shopping for the food items we needed for our Reverse Advent calendar! Instead of getting a treat each day, we give a food item away. The local food shelf published a list of what they needed most. James and Thomas and the other children at church made a calendar for December with one most-needed item on each day. We went to the store with our calendar to get everything we needed for the entire month. The first item we got was the one for Christmas Eve — a box of cookies! Then I picked out peanut butter and cake frosting. Of course I got chocolate frosting!
Grandma looked up where everything we wanted was located in our local grocery store. We started in aisle 1 for the cookies, then went to aisle 3 for the peanut butter. We got a few more items on the toiletries aisle and the baking supply aisle. There were lots of items we wanted on aisle 9! I helped Grandma count the number of items before we checked out to make sure we hadn’t missed anything!
I helped Grandma check out our items and put them in the car. When we got home, I found a big box to store everything until time to start the calendar!
The Saturday after Thanksgiving was a mild, sunny day. We were at the bay and it was perfect weather for putting the deer fencing around my rhododendron friend! I helped hold the fence stakes so Grandpa could drive them into the ground. Then I helped attach the wooden frame to the stakes. My rhododendron friend has been getting bigger! I had to help squish the branches together to keep them inside the fencing! Some of the buds stick right through the fencing roof!
Grandma was waiting for the town to pick up our leaf pile. She didn’t want to put the lights on the apple trees when they might get snagged by the leaf loader. Grandpa puts up a clothesline tree to fill the gap where an apple tree died, and Grandma is especially concerned about that getting snagged. When the town didn’t come Thanksgiving week, Grandma decided she needed to put the lights up, anyway! I helped check that all the plug connections were nice and tight. Then I made sure that the strings of lights going to and from the clothesline tree were securely fastened on both ends! Grandma raked the leaf pile as far away from the trees as she could.
The town crew showed up first thing Monday morning after Thanksgiving to collect the leaf pile! I was happy to see that they scraped and blew all the leaves into the road without snagging the lights! The first town dump truck was already full of leaves before all of our pile was collected!
On Thursday December 1st, I was ready to start my Reverse Advent calendar! The item for that day was instant mashed potatoes, so I transferred that package from my storage box to my Advent box! On December 2, the item was another dried potato product. That was also the first night for our apple trees to be lighted. After dark, it’s harder to tell that a tree is missing!
On Friday, before the lights came on, I helped Grandma make the pieces for a gingerbread house. Aunt Kara hasn’t decided when James and Thomas will assemble and decorate it yet, but Grandma wanted to be ready. Grandma mixed the sticky syrup with the dry ingredients by hand, but she wouldn’t let me get my paws in it! I did help cut out the pieces for the house. We had extra dough and found some cookie cutters to make gingerfolk and gingersaurs. I wonder how James and Thomas will decorate a prehistoric gingerbread house? My Christmas cactus friend is getting ready, too! There are lots of blossom buds appearing!
Last Saturday, I helped Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Steven decorate the sanctuary Christmas tree at our church. The bird ornaments on the tree help us remember loved ones who have died. There’s always one for Uncle Bill near the top of the tree. There were five for church members who died since the last tree was decorated. I was in charge of the birds and name tags until family members came to choose spots on the tree. Saturday was a very windy and cloudy day, but there were a few bright rays of sunshine. I like the way those rays lit up the tree!
Saturday’s Reverse Advent Calendar item was peanut butter. I hope whoever needs it likes chunky style! Sunday’s item was deodorant. Grandma took the first batch of items to church on Sunday. The food shelf is getting at least 18 of each!
Now I’m starting on this week’s items! Yesterday was spaghetti sauce and today was noodle soup! Now it’s also time to get ready for gift wrapping and Christmas card writing!
Love,
Lion-san