the count down begins!

As my birthday is 30 November, I have always been given an advent calendar as part of my present (it used to be that I always got a Bunty annual too, but I requested for that to stop quite a long time ago!).

I actually can't remember when the responsibility changed from my mum's hands to my husbands - but it has. And every year Bry scours the town for the best calendar he can find.

There is only 1 rule - it is NOT allowed to be a chocolate one. I never had one as a kid and that's where the tradition began, so I don't want one now. They're never as nice anyway and the chocolates are bogging.

So - here is the first window of my lovely new calendar nice and wide open. It is a picture of a reindeer. Woohoo!

I used to get so excited about the advent calendar when I was a little girl. The number 24 door was just the most amazing thing ever. I used to try to sneak open the door to get a look inside loooooooong before it was supposed to be opened - even though I always knew it was a nativity scene.

I was a bit mesmerised by christmas I think - the sparklyness of it, the magic of it. Mum would put up the christmas tree and I'd spend every available moment sitting beside it - reading, drawing, making up plays with all the bobbles (ahem - I feel I should point out at this stage that I am an only child. I also used to play Monopoly with myself - you know, Abi 1, Abi 2, Abi 3. Abi 1 ALWAYS won) and listening to Mickey Mouse's christmas carols. I just loved every bit of it.

Tis a lovely time of year.

It's not been quite as magical over the years what with usually having the MOTHER of all hangovers on Christmas Day and generally feeling a bit jaded and in dire need of time off from work and all that but there have always been elements of Christmas that make my tummy flip. The christmas tree is one of them (my only requirement when I got married is that I got married by a christmas tree. At christmas time, obviously - would be just stupid in June) and I would always take the tree down with a bit of a heavy heart.

"What will life be like when I take these out of the box again?" I'd always think. Year in, year out I would ask the questions and my thoughts would turn to the year ahead.

Last year I was 4 months pregnant. I knew that life was going to be turned upside down and that when I took the little ornaments out of the box the following Christmas, things would be so different.

And they are.

Once again - Christmas is magical.