Even the best of plans can be waylaid by Life. Which is exactly why, when I write Family Advent “how to” posts I advocate stuffing the envelopes the night before. That way you can easily make last minute changes or switches and save yourself some grief. Last-minute stuffing is especially useful if you’re one of those people who planned everything in November and then promptly forgot what each envelope contained. (Er, not that this has happened to me. Nosirree.)
For example, one of your activities might be to go sledding but there isn’t enough snow. Or you suddenly realize you don’t have the ingredients to bake a batch of shortbread. OR mummy throws her back out. You get the picture, right?
The last few days were like this for us.
Day 10:
Mark had a wicked cold so our activity was postponed for another day. The girls usually get pyjamas on Christmas Eve, so I gave them to them early and we cozied up here at home instead. This photo is of my youngest, rediscovering the joy of Gary Larson’s Far Side treasuries… which are totally awesome by the way. (Here’s an affiliate link
in case you’re looking to buy.)
Day 11:
Sarah was out for the evening, so another activity had to be postponed. Emma and I went grocery shopping and while we were there we decided that our revised advent plan should be to make a cash donation to the Ottawa Food Bank.
There are many ways you can donate to the Food Bank, but you should know that monetary donations go five times farther than donations of non-perishable goods. And did you know that you can text a donation too? Look in the sidebar of the OFB website to see how.
Day 12:
… this one deserves a whole post of its own. Check back later for the writeup. If you have a sweet tooth you will love this one. I promise! :)
This post is part of our 2012 Family Advent, a.k.a. 25 Days of Christmas. You can read more about that here. Looking for some Christmas-related activities to try out yourself? Check out my Pinterest board.
If you’re wondering what this post is about, read this. I’ll be uploading photos during the course of the day. Scroll down to see the most recent.
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Since tomorrow will be the 12th day of the 12th month of 2012, Annie asked me if I was going to be undertaking another photo challenge. How could I not?
The date: December 12, 2012
The deal: Take one photo every hour, on the hour, for TWELVE hours. The photo should be of whatever you happen to be doing at that time.
This one is a real challenge. How exactly does one get 12 photos over 12 hours, when it’s dark in the morning and gets dark so early? What the heck am I going to take pictures of? The laundry? My computer? It’s going to be tough, but I’m up for it. (Prepare for lots of photos of the dog! But nevermind that.)
The point of the hourly photo is to commemorate the passing of a day in a different way – boring or not. And given that we live in the Social Media Age, it is kind of cool to see what others are seeing and doing at the exact same time as you are.
If you’d like to play along, here is the nitty gritty from previous Hourlyphoto posts.
- Use whatever camera or mobile device you prefer. Post them to your blog and/or your photo sharing site as you are able. Just make sure you let us know in the comments below where you’re posting them so we can all have a look. Tag them “#121212” #12photos so they’re easy to find.
- Would you like to make it extra challenging for yourself? DON’T DO RETAKES. This is not mandatory but I thought I’d throw it out there in case you’re the kind of person who REALLY likes a challenge. :)
Here’s a tip if you have a mobile phone or alarm clock on your watch. Set it for one minute before the hour i.e. at 7:59, 8:59 etc. You’ll be less likely to forget, and it will give you a solid minute to get your camera ready and snap The Thing You Happened To Be Looking At and tweet it out.
It’s not a problem if you can’t upload as you go or aren’t on Twitter. Upload in batches when you have the chance, or even the next day.
Who’s in? I’ll keep the list of participants and their respective Flickrs/blogs/Twitter accounts updated here for reference. Just let me know where you’ll be uploading your pics and I’ll make the link.
