Advent calendar

Look at our wonderful advent calendar! The Norwegian tradition is to have an advent calender and do the count down to Christmas eve, 24 days. Christmas eve is the day we open our presents and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Our calendar is for the whole family, the children have there own in addition to this.

The calendar hearts was made by Zack and me. It was so much fun doing this together! On the backside of the hearts it is an activity for the whole family to do this day. December is a busy time for our family and the activity is to get a little fun time together. Doing things with people you love is our favourite thing to do in the whole world.

Here is what the hearts says:

1 - Give the family a hug and play your favourite Christmas song.

2 - Play a game of UNO.

3-

4 - Call someone you love.

5 - Writhe and send postcards

6 - Make a list of at least 10 things you are grateful of.

7 - Make Christmas cozy for Boris, our cat.

8 - Make dessert for tomorrow.

9 - Make one big Christmas picture.

10 - Play a game of "ticket to ride" - Nordic addition

11 - Learn a new Christmas song and sing all the ones youknow, sing all that your heart
desire.

12 - Bake "lussekatter"- translates to Lucia’s Cats, sweet-buns.

13 - Give the neighbours "lussekatter" and sing the song of St.Lucia

14 - Hang titmouse-buns, made of fat and seeds AND the "julenek" Christmas sheaf, of oats, hung out for the birds to feed on.

15 - Read the book: "Carpenter Andersen and Santa" also known as "Christmas Eve at Santa's" by Alf Prøysen

16 - Find at least 10 things/toys to give away to the jumble marked.

17 - Watch a Christmas film.

18 - The children tell and show pictures from Tallin

19 - Time to get the Christmas tree, shower it and decorate it.

20 - Read about the birth of Jesus.

21 - Try a new recipe for dinner.

22 - Take a drive in the neighbourhood and look at the Christmas decorations.

23 - Read the book about "the district that forgot that it was Christmas".

24 - Make a family Christmas breakfast.

Losing my balance

Sadly I get periods in my life where I lose my balance. The world is spinning and my concentration is not there. All I want to do is lay still in till it all passes. It started with a car accident 4 years a go, now it comes in period. It is SLOWLY getting better, and I am starting to learn to live my life with this illness.

The illness has made me renounce/give up things I really want to do, and just concentrate on what is important to me. I can not hold the pace I used to. To me right now my priority is my family and my studies(need to pass those exams...). My art is important, but the time and effort I put into it comes in waves much as my illness.

My art journal is a good friend. It is a great comfort knowing I can nurture some of that creativity even if it is small scale. This is a entry form my journal when this last dizzy period started. For me it is the feeling of falling into a swoon.


Medium used: watercolour and permanent marker.
Entry made in the: brown hard covered journal from Huey.

Art journal - ticket

My Nana, grandmother, died Monday. I will miss her tremendously. We had a close friendship. In addition to being my grandmother she was a close friend, we shared a lot of common interest among many things the love of books, crafts and family. When we talked about death she said that she was not afraid to die. She had her ticket to heaven ready, it was just a mater of time before the conductor called her on board the journey to heaven. It is a slim comfort that she was old and did not suffer much. It does not take away the terrible void she is leaving. My art journal entry is the quote she used to say "I have the ticket to heaven".

Medium used: 3B pencil, vintage book page from the book "he is our peace" , stazOn stamp, and watercolour. The entry is made in the brown leather journal from Rhonda Miller.