Advent Calendars

I'm a sucker for an advent calendar. When I was little, my parents would occasionally get one for me. They couldn't just get them anywhere, they had to go to a "fancier" grocery store, probably in Houston, to be able to get them. I loved opening one every day, and getting to eat piss-poor chocolate first thing in the morning before school. Until about a week or two into the month, when I'd forget to eat the chocolate first thing, and I'd eat it when I got home from school. Then, another week would go by and before I knew it, it was Christmas and I still had 9 days worth of waxy chocolate that I had forgotten about.

But, it was AWESOME!! I'm a sucker for Christmas traditions (which is ridiculous for a non-believer to be into, but what can ya do?).

Anywho, while the advent calenders we used to buy were dollar-store quality, the ones in Germany are AMAZING!!!!!!

I went to a huge local grocery store yesterday, just to check out the holiday goods. There was an entire section of the store dedicated to different advent calendars.

They had a section JUST for toy calendars - a different Hot Wheels every day, a different Lego piece every day (and at the end of the month, you'd have a finished model of whatever), a different modernized Polly Pocket every day, etc.

Then, there was all the chocolates. They had dozens and dozens of different chocolate advent calendars - fancy pants chocolate, and some of the calendars were almost €30 each. Ferrero Rocher, chocolate covered liquors, pralines. They also had cheaper chocolates with different cartoon characters (Smurfs, Spongebob, Simpsons....not sure why I only thought of the ones that started with an S...).

Then, there were some non-food advent calendars that were for adults. Like, the beer advent calendar. (What!? Yes!) They also had a "for him" and "for her" calendar filled with toiletries and liquor. One day you'd get a stick of deodorant, and the next day you'd get a mini bottle of Schnapps.

I almost bought the tea advent calendar for €14. Until I saw the advent calendars for pets. One kind for cats, and one kind for dogs. Each day, they would get a different treat, and then on Christmas Eve, they'd get a toy.

I seriously almost bought one for Sasha & one for Rufus. How flippin' dorky am I? I'd like to blame it on the fact that Josh is gone for work, so I'm becoming a crazy pet-lady. But really, I'm a crazy pet-lady anyway, and it doesn't matter if Josh is gone or not.

In fact, the only reason I didn't buy one is that we're going to be gone for a week in December, so what's the point?

Although now I'm thinking I should just buy some anyway. We could skip the week we're going to be gone, and just do a Countdown to New Year's Day (and Josh's b-day).

But, now that I REALLY think about it, I should just buy a bunch of various advent calendars, and do them throughout the year. That's just how awesome they are.

Ugh, maybe I really am turning into a crazy lady. It's like I'm Howard Hughes, only I'm obsessed with random German holiday items. Josh, you better hurry home...