An advent calendar with a difference…..

The final countdown: Days 17-25

It’s time for the final post for My 25 Day Countdown to a Happy Christmas.  Thanks to Sue at Sizzling Towards 60 and Beyond, who hosted the advent calendar with a difference challenge.

I joined Sue in her quest for a more relaxing and stress free countdown to Christmas, and I must say it’s done the job! It has proven to be more fun than stress, which is good as that was the whole aim of the game 🙂

My Week 1 responses can be found here – My 25 Day Countdown to a Happy Christmas #1 and Week 2 is here – My 25 Day Countdown to a Happy Christmas #2

Sue called it My 25 Day Countdown to a Happy Christmas using the hashtag: #my25daycountdowntoahappychristmas on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and quite a few of us have joined in with the fun.

How it works

Every day Sue opens a new drawer on her advent calendar and shares the prompt inside with us.  We are then to take and share a photograph of something to do with the prompt. It’s all about reducing the build up of stress at this busy time of the year.

Day 17: Make a list of 5 things that make you happy to take into 2019

This is my list of 5 things that make me happy and what I aim to do more of in the new year (in no particular order).  I made a list, jazzed it up a bit and shared it with everyone for Day 17’s prompt. There’s always room for love and peace in any list!

Day 18: Release your Inner Child and have fun

Release your inner child. We were like kids in a lolly shop today decorating our Christmas Gingerbread House and definitely let our inner child out 😊 So much fun with Anna our Hungarian Rotary Exchange student – I will admit that she did most of the hard work! I just had fun 🙂

Day 19: Call someone and reconnect

My sister and I often have a special (or weird) sisterly vibe thing happening. We buy the same clothes despite being hundreds of kms away from each other, we read the same things at the same time, we understand each other when no one else does.
Today, just as I was about to call her for a chat, she rang me. There are so many photos similar to this one, with her looking at me for some reason, I really don’t know why, maybe to see what I’m doing, to copy my reaction, or for some other reason. I chose this photo to represent our connection today. It’s very special to me. We may have grown up since this photo but we’ll always be sisters. Photo from a family wedding in 1965 with me as the flower girl.

Day 20: Take time to enjoy a delicious and nutritious meal

Oops!! I forgot I was supposed to take a photo of my delicious and nutritious meal before I ate it all!!  Today’s prompt called for a nutritious meal that we take time to savour – which I totally did! It seemed a shame to waste the photo 😂 In case you were wondering, I made some pancakes with yoghurt and berries with sugar free maple syrup.

Day 21: Christmas Markets

A fabulous memory of Christmas Markets in Bath UK, from a great trip some years ago.  I’ve had a lovely time reminiscing about our first experience of being cold at Christmas time, markets with mulled wine and crafty things and having a wonderful time with our daughter Melanie.

Day 22: Take a moment to stop for a few deep breaths

Taking a moment to stop for a few deep breaths while settling into our new surroundings for Day 22 of the advent calendar with a difference.  We’ve arrived at our holiday house for the Christmas Week and it’s nice to stop for a relax. This gorgeous bucket of succulents was a delightful find in the garden.

Day 23: Make new memories/traditions

Here I am making memories and starting a new family tradition with Emilia, now that I’m Granny Debs.  This is my first Christmas as a grandmother 🙂

Day 24: Spend time with someone special

This place! It’s full of memories of fun times spent with special people over the years. Instead of a photo of someone special, I chose to share this photo of Huskisson/Vincentia where we’ve celebrated Christmas many time over the years.  it holds lots of special memories for both our families.  It also is known for having the whitest sand beaches anywhere in the world. This year we’re missing some special people, including my eldest daughter Melanie and Craig – they’re a bit jealous of our surroundings compared to theirs wintery senes in England.  We miss them terribly.

Day 25: Time to Celebrate You

All wrapped up and under the tree as a gift to all! Merry Christmas 🎄

As Sue said in her video, you are unique, there’s no-one as beautiful, no-one quite like you, so celebrate how special you are!! My daughters agree there’s no-one quite like me!!

Here’s my take on a meme I saw that said Gonna go lay under the Christmas tree to remind my family that I am a gift. Here I am taking it it the next level 🙂

De-stressing as we speak

The whole idea of this challenge was to take the stress out of Christmas and to enjoy the festive season.  I think I coped quite well and the challenge helped me to be creative each day and to think outside the square at times.  I hope you’ve enjoyed my take on the daily challenge too.  Here’s Sue’s final wrap-up post in which she mentions me, as I stuck with her for each daily prompt  – Sue’s Week 4 Wrap up.

So that’s a wrap for the #my25daycountdowntoahappychristmas challenge.   I think this was a much nicer Advent Calendar idea than eating chocolate every morning, but maybe that’s just me 🙂 . I am off the sugar as you know!!

I always appreciate hearing from you 🙂  Take care and continue to try to stay stress free, we’re in holiday mode now and I’m off to the beach. Here’s proof of me de-stressing.

This really is my last post for 2018, so I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and look forward to catching up with you all next year.

Deb xx

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