Advent Calendars

I have been seeing a few advent calendars on blogs and in magazines and catalogs,

and even though I am a little late, here are a few favorites...

(source)

Gingerbread cookies serve as the dates!

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I  love the whimsy this was has!

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Perhaps I still have a few old number flashcards left from teaching!

 (County Living)

pretty with lace

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(source, via tumbler)

This one...

and this...

are from Potterybarn.

This last one caught my eye on the PB website, but the cost was a bit much,

so I intended to make my own. I sent away for a few small canvas bags and they arrived, but

the snowy roads have kept me from getting to a fabric store for the backing. I have

a stencil for the numbers but also need to buy fabric paint.

 Maybe this will make a great project to make ahead for next year!

In the meantime, I could hang the bags from ribbon...

How about you? Do you use an Advent calendar to countdown the days until Christmas?

The Angel's Song

by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649)

Run, shepherds, run where Bethlehem blest appears.

We bring the best of news; be not dismayed:

A Saviour there is born more old than years,

Amidst heaven's rolling height this earth who stayed.

In a poor cottage inned, a virgin maid,

A weakling did him bear, who all upbears;

There is he poorly swaddled, in manger laid,

To whom too narrow swaddlings are our spheres:

Run, shepherds, run, and solemnize his birth.

This is that night — no, day, grown great with bliss,

In which the power of Satan broken is:

In heaven be glory, peace unto the earth!

Thus singing, through the air the angels swarm,

And cope of stars re-echoèd the same.

Or say, if this new Birth of ours

Sleeps, laid within some ark of flowers,

Spangled with dew-light; thou canst clear

All doubts, and manifest the where.

Declare to us, bright star, if we shall seek

Him in the morning's blushing cheek,

Or search the beds of spices through,

To find him out?

Star. — No, this ye need not do;

But only come and see Him rest,

A princely babe, in's mother's breast.