Advent

Growing up, each of us girls got an Advent calendar filled with chocolates every year. I loved the calendar not just because I got a chocolate each day, but also because it was the perfect countdown to Christmas! I loved that tradition so much that I often buy myself an Advent calendar each year.

Well, today is the beginning of Advent, and I got the BEST surprise!

When I came home from Thanksgiving, there was a huge box with my name on it sitting inside the door (my roommate had brought it in from the steps). I opened it up and found a beautiful basket full of GIFTS for Advent!! I was SO EXCITED!! And, of course, since I am a horrible cheat with insatiable curiosity (and a to-the-end-flipper....) I promptly opened the letter that said "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DEC 1!". My first thought when I saw the gifts was "whoever gave me this has NO IDEA how hard it will be for me to not open all of these gifts RIGHT NOW"! On the other hand, maybe the giver knows me really well and knows how much I LOVE surprises and that giving/receiving gifts is definitely one of my top "love languages". And the letter offered me no clues as to who the mystery gift-giver is, so it just made me more curious!

I have a reputation with my family for being the worst gift-sneak in the world. I used to UNWRAP the ends of gifts and wrap them back up just so I would know what I was getting! Mom typically did all of her shopping and wrapping on Dec 23 during our growing up years.....I think she may have done that because it worked best with her schedule, but I also suspect she did that because she wanted to keep me from sneaking until the very end!

So, since I should have just opened my letter today, I decided that I could open the first gift instead. After all, I'll be gone this weekend, so I should be able to get ahead just a little bit.....right?!?!

This will be a fun Advent season! Thanks, mystery gift-giver!