An Advent calendar is a fun present for an adult, giving them a touch of nostalgia and excitement for the Christmas season.

 

 

Every year my sister buys her son an advent calendar filled with chocolate treats. Why should he have all the fun? For Christmas this year, I decided to give my sister her own Advent calendar.

I had so much fun coming up with 25 days of gifts. Not all of them were traditional. Some were informational videos or reads.

The gift of information is just as valuable, if not more, as a physical one.

My “genius” idea struck a little late causing me to rush this project and send the first 4-5 gifts as emails. One gift was a how-to video about red holiday party lips from Violet Grey.

Another was a fantastic quote about aging from one of my favorite Instagram ladies, Serena Crawford. Her wise words often inspire. Her post discussing the casting of Olivia Colman as the older Queen Elizabeth in The Crown was one of her best. An excerpt is below. I thought it pertained to a fifty-year plus woman.

• …”Well darlings, age and life are a shock and they make you heavier. It is a feat to remain “light” energetically (let alone physically) It’s enormous work. It’s a spiritual point of view that doesn’t come for free. I bow in respect to any of you who have managed both(…) You earn your place on the B team just by getting older. Many people find this marginalisation very painful, but actually it gives you all the time in the world to pursue another way of being that you can’t do if you are too much with the world. It’s THE best adventure of all. And if you don’t understand this you will find ageing very hard. It’s not your turn to be the sex pot, the top sportsman, the society queen, the coolest person on the block, the power monger, the person in control. Let go, hand over the keys..it’s someone else’s turn to drive.” #spiritualjourney #ageing

Other emailed gifts were this newly discovered recipe from Food52 that I crave.

Another from Food52 is this video. Being from Texas, I did not expect to learn anything new about guacamole. Well, I was wrong. I learned so much about avocados and guacamole that I have since changed my ways. My sister doesn’t like to watch how-to-videos, but she must. Life is too short to eat marginal guacamole.

Of course regular gifts are very fun.

Aside from the gifts of soap, candles, and skin products, I gave her some of my favorite things that might be new to her.

Kosas lip sport is one of these items. These green products are so good. There are three versions: One clear, one pink-toned, and the third, warm-toned. They are like chapstick but much more. I am addicted to them. My lips have never felt better, not chapped but also they feel plumped up and much younger than fifty years old.

I gave her a chocolate quinoa bar from Casa de Chocolates which I wrote about here.

Papier had the cutest notebooks which can be personalized. There are three options of filler paper – plain, lined or dotted.

Green gifts are the ultimate when it comes to my sister.

My final gift to her is a set of lingerie in her favorite color, green. For her birthday I intended to buy her a green faux fur jacket. At the last minute, I switched from green to a multi-colored striped jacket. Seeing the cute young salesgirls modeling it altered my judgement. Well, back it went in exchange for the original one. We all select items of green when shopping for my sister. I thought she might be growing tired of them. Turns out that was not the case. She may receive green gifts for the rest of her life.

Next year you might consider giving the gift of an Advent calendar. It is as much fun to conceive as to receive.

Casa V Interiors wishes you a very Merry Christmas.