As of day’s end this Tuesday, Advent Bowl 2024 is complete! I count it as a victory, as each task was performed on the day it was drawn! In years past, I’ve encountered difficulties with seemingly simple things, like “Make a felt Christmas ornament using a sugar cookie cutter for a pattern.” These were to be given as gifts, one ornament tied atop a plate of the matching sugar cookies. It seemed a simple design: light blue felt stars decorated with shiny beads, sequins and embroidery. Wrong! The experience provided me with a big lesson learned:
Advent Bowl Lesson Learned 1: If special materials are needed to complete a task, purchase them in advance. Having procured the felt and the cookie cutter, I thought that job was done. Wrong! My trusty sewing basket did NOT have the right kind of beads, and absolutely no sequins. Plus, I hadn’t picked up light blue thread. But also:
Advent Bowl Lesson Learned 2: If a skill you had in the past is required, make sure you can still perform that skill as you are today. After the shopping trip to procure beads, sequins, and light blue thread, I spent way too much time trying to thread the needle! Aging eyes and hands were the issue. I was compelled to develop a technique. Under the brightest light in the house, wearing my highest powered cheaters and positioning the eye of the needle in front of a white background, I at last experienced threading success! Given various technical difficulties along the way, I was several days late on this project, but managed to get it done before Christmas.
With five years of Advent Bowl under my belt, 2024 was pretty smooth sailing. For “Make double chocolate walnut biscotti” I bought the ingredients in late November. It was a messy, sticky project that took more time than I had imagined, but darn it, I got it done!
Lesson learned: making biscotti is a sticky business!
That was my favorite, even better than “Treat from Wheatland Bakery for 9”!
I’m pretty sure it was you, 9, who inspired me to lick the beaters once the biscotti was in the oven.
Some tasks, like “Watch a holiday movie” turned out differently than I had envisioned. I was thinking something like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Miracle on 34th Street” or even “Desk Set,” which is not a purely Christmas movie but has a long sequence at Christmas time, including a rip-roaring 1950s era corporate Christmas party at a commercial broadcast television network’s NYC headquarters.
Sadly, none of these were available under my current streaming subscriptions. I then remembered the PBS Masterpiece membership I inadvertently signed up for. I was delighted to find “Lucy Worsley’s 12 Days of Tudor Christmas.”
Lesson learned: holiday-themed documentaries can be fun! The court and customs of Henry Tudor, aka Henry VIII, provided Dr. Lucy Worsley with plenty to explore.
Which leads to:
Advent Bowl Lesson Learned 3: Be flexible!
All went well until December 24. I drew the last task, “Mask for Lily.” Just a simple pre-packaged facial. It seemed perfectly innocent. In fact, I’d done this for Advent Bowl 2023, and had my first experience with a “sheet mask” product, one made of thin paper soaked in serum and sealed in its own tidy envelope. This year, I grabbed something old school, a mask of the smooth on/peel off type that I’d used many times over many decades. And yet:
Advent Bowl Lesson Learned 4: When selecting a facial mask, consider the age and skin of the user.
While a 14-year-old like Lily would still feel the tug when a mask is peeled off, her skin isn’t as thin, therefore, as sensitive, as mine. Not to mention how it tugged on the downy hairs that inhabit my cheeks these days.
I swear I wasn’t laughing when you said Ow ow ow!
Advent Bowl Lesson Learned 5: When selecting a task that involves your inner 14-year-old, if they are going to be snotty about it remember to keep them on the inside.
Advent Bowl was fun! I’m going to miss it.
Me too, 9, and I also miss the Advent puzzle and the Jacquie Lawson digital interactive Paris Advent Calendar. But never fear, this year I have learned a new lesson:
Advent Bowl Lesson Learned 6: When Advent Bowl is done, have a backup project in place to ease the transition to normal daily life.
Lesson learned: when Advent is over, have a transition project at the ready! Courtesy of my niece, Glenna Nelson.
You guessed it, a Twelve Days of Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle!
Wishing you a smooth recovery from the holiday season.
I love your story and stories. I didn’t do advent bowl but so many of your “lessons learned” like “Do I actually have everything I need (and room to do it) to complete this project? Is so increasingly important. I love laughing with your wisdom across the miles.
No doubt about it, the things we can do change over time, and the ways that we do them do, too! It’s nice to have the blog for an outlet to share these experiences. Thanks for reading and commenting, Tom, and Happy New Year in as much as current events make it possible!!
Heartwarming! Happy New Year!
Judy
Thank you, Judy, and Happy New Year to you, too!