I know it is not a tradition in every family but ever since I can remember the Advent Calendar was an exciting and often argument causing countdown to Christmas.  My mom would surprise us with the latest 'model' and my brother, sister and I would take turns each day opening a new 'window' (this often led to fights about who got to open the angel on the last day). 

Even now as we are older and out of the house my mom still makes sure we each have our own advent calendar to open (in college the advent calendar was always quite a hit with the roomies - they even requested one year when we went home for winter break that I inform them of what new character was behind the new window each day- hilarious narratives ensued).

Now the traditional cardboard advent calendars are nice, but a few years we've gone outside the box.  The Playmobil calendar was one of our childhood favorits - each day you open a new accessory or character that in the end creates a 'scene' and a ton more pieces to add to our already jam packed dollhouse and box of them (if you don't know what Playmobil is - they define my childhood).  We had one that was shaped like a 3-D gingerbread house one year too. The ones with chocolate are enticing, though i think i would cheat and eat more than one a day! 

Being immersed in the online/social media world on a daily basis I got to thinking that it would be cool to have a 'digital' Advent Calendar.  I naturally just Googled it and didn't come across much (Boowa-Kawala was the cutest one that was free).  

Even on Twitter most of the accounts were inactive or lead to a paid service.  One that did intrigue me was @AdventCal.  It is actually connected with a Geneology blog but has a prompt for each day that encourages you to share family holiday traditions and memories.  Cool idea.

I think I am going to tweak the idea a little bit and make my own Sticky Notes themed blog Advent Calendar.  Each day leading up to Christmas I will post a holiday inspired quote (inspirational, song, movie, or otherwise) for your enjoyment and maybe a fun cheesy Advent Calendar-like image to go with each one.

Stay tuned!

"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving."

For each new morning with its light,

For health and food, for love and friends,

A great way to get cooking questions answered in real time! 

I found this resource on the Twitter blog along with some other great foodie Twitter recommendations.  

Being home with my mom and aunts for Thanksgiving I feel a bit more confident in my cooking with all the secret ingredients and time-tested tricks just across the counter...but when we are all scattered across the country, I often need a bit of help.  Now I'm excited to be able to send an SOS to @foodpickle to get a quick answer (if mom isn't answering her phone!).

Has anyone put the service to the test?

via: http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2010/11/18/real-virginia-wedding-sara-bill-part-i.html