Advent Calendar

Way back, before the dawn of time, my parents were married.  Sometime after that, my mom made an advent calendar for Christmas (see photos below for a likeness of the original).  Sometime after that they ended up with five kids all fighting over who got to put up the figures for Dec 24 and 25.  I remember we used to have to write down what happened that year and put it with the advent calendar so that the next year we would know who did it the year before.  It was very complicated. 

Sometime after that, all my siblings moved out and there just wasn't quite the competition there had been before.  That didn't stop me though, I still put up the figures with gusto and glee.  Well, they all moved out and started getting married, so I decided to make my oldest brother an exact replica of the advent calendar we had all used growing up.  This was about 17 years ago.  I don't remember exactly how long it took, but I did make one.  And subsequently all my other married siblings received one shortly after they married.  Well, this year, my brother got married, so what better gift to give than an advent calendar???  Here is the one I made this year.  I hand sewed the figures and the numbers too. 

You may wonder who made me an advent calendar when I got married.  Wonder not!  I inherited that well-used advent calendar that was made sometime before the dawn of time which is my all-time favorite of the five that are in existence.