Two – no, THREE! — very different advent calendars

’Tis the season for advent calendars, and even though we’re already half way through December, I wanted to tell you about this amazing blog post courtesy of my friend Sue, who is the curator of the children’s lit collection at UNB (doesn’t that sound like an awesome job?)

Sue has put together a wonderful list of 25 animated shorts based on children’s books. Truly, it’s a thing of beauty, this list. It’s defiinitely worth bookmarking, whether you share them with your kids throughout the holiday season or save them for a rainy day. Brilliant stuff! And if you love it as much as I did, toss Sue’s blog a vote in the Canadian Blog Awards, would you? It’s Mouse-traps and the Moon, and she’s up for Best Canadian Culture or Literature Blog.

And, ahem, if you’re still in a voting mood… you could always toss me a bit of clickety-love, too!

Speaking of advent calendars, I’ve continued to be impressed by the items we’re unwrapping from the Hill and Knowlton / President’s Choice advent calendar. We’re up to day 17, and despite continuing exhortations from Beloved to jump ahead, we’re still opening one new item each day. In case you missed it, here’s what we’ve had so far. In the last week and a bit, we’ve opened:

• PC Mocktails, a raspberry fizzy drink. Beloved and Simon give two thumbs up (my kids don’t drink pop, so Tristan wasn’t overly impressed, and I’m not fond of sweet drinks like that myself.)
• PC Holiday Cards: this was a nice change of pace, and will come in handy as I’ve already used up all my Costco Photo Cards.
• From the PC Antipasto Collection, Gigandes Beans in Vinaigrette. Okay, this one didn’t fly at our house. Interesting idea, and I do love most antipasto nibblers, but this one was a universal bust with us. Oh well, you can’t win them all!
• PC Mint Jelly: Not sure about this one, either. We don’t eat lamb, the only use I know of for mint jelly. Can you just eat it on toast? If nothing else, this calendar is broadening our horizons!!
• PC Wheat Hazelnut Cantuccini Mini Biscotti. This? To die for. We polished off the box the very first day we opened it, and I bought two more at the grocery store later in the weekend. Yummy!!!
• PC Caramel Latte Drink Mix. Again, too sweet for me (and I’m not much of a flavoured coffee girl anyway) but Beloved approves!
• PC Chocolate Covered Gingerbread Bites. Really, do I need to tell you that this went down like a house on fire? Even the baby loved them.
• PC Pad Thai Sauce. I’ve never had Pad Thai, though I have enjoyed many other Thai dishes. Since the PC Tika Masala is one of my favourite standby meals, and since the directions on the jar seem straightforward enough, I’ll have to give this one a try soon.
• PC Chocolate Butter Fudge. Seriously. How am I supposed to lose those 5 lbs I’ve been working on when this kind of thing magically appears in the house? Sooooo good, especially straight out of the freezer with coffee.

With just over a week to go, even though I can’t imagine there is anything more delicious than the truffles and the biscotti left under the tree, I fear I may yet lose the battle to prolong our enjoyment of these treats throughout the full 25 days of Christmas.

Edited to add: when I was noodling this post in my head, I knew I had three advent calendar ideas but for the life of me couldn’t remember the last one when I actually sat down at the computer. Got it now! Courtesy of Suze of Here In My Head, check out this awesome collection of 25 of the year’s best images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Truly awe-inspiring!!

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