She Puzzled And Puzzled ‘Til Her Puzzler Was Sore, Then Nicole Thought Of Something She Hadn’t Before. Happy December! One of the very most exciting things about December First is the start of Advent calendars. I don’t know about you, but for me, growing up in the 80s, Advent calendars as they are seen today just weren’t in existence. Nowadays there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different kinds of Advent calendars – chocolates! booze! tiny samples of cosmetics and skin care products! hot drinks! and more! – but when I was a kid, there were two kinds: the cardboard ones in which you opened a door to reveal a Christmas-themed picture, as seen on Christmas Vacation, and the kind that your mom might buy in the grocery store after much pleading, which contained a centimetre-square of waxy chocolate in the shape of stockings, trees, and, on Christmas Eve, a star. We had both kinds, but the chocolate ones I had to share with my two brothers.
All of which is to say that my Very Pampered Family enjoys the Very Fancy Lindor calendars, and no one has to share, because Pampered. I have always wanted the excitement of my own calendar, but a chocolate one did not appeal to me. You would think that, being me, I would love a cosmetic or skin care calendar, but no. Samples are wasted on me because I stick with what I like and I don’t love to deviate, especially for just one day. Last year I bought myself a tea calendar, which was an utter failure; with maybe three exceptions, I hated the flavours.
So when I saw this puzzle calendar at Costco – at the beginning of October, but if you know anything about Costco, you snap up what you see because you may never see it again, and indeed I have NOT – I knew this was the calendar for me. A daily puzzle! Featuring DOGS. In SANTA HATS. If there is a more perfect calendar, I do not know what it is.
It’s A Wrap. My older son was so excited when I got home the other day, to tell me that Spotify Wrapped was out! This is a big day in the Boyhouse, let me tell you. I immediately opened the app to see my top songs and artists, and it was just as amazing as I thought it might be. I never have any idea what song I have listened to the most over the year; it is a constant surprise.
I absolutely love that my top song was Everyday People by Sly and the Family Stone, followed by i by Kendrick Lamar. I mean. I feel like this says something about me. Midnight Train To Georgia was last year’s number one song, so I wasn’t surprised to see it – I do love that song – but who knew I listened to You Can Call Me Al so much? I did not! Rounding out the list is the Marshall Tucker Band, which probably tells you a lot about the eclectic nature of my playlists.
My son is very put out that Spotify Wrapped only goes until October 31; that’s two MONTHS of data that is missing in a year. To be honest, it’s probably good because once November 12 hits, I play nothing but my Nicole Christmas playlist, which has 97 songs on it but many are just different versions of the same song. For example, I have five versions each of Baby, It’s Cold Outside (no, not the modern one, I prefer the weird hey what’s in this drink version) and Last Christmas (naturally). There are three versions each of Driving Home For Christmas, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, River, This Christmas, and Santa Baby. I have four Little Drummer Boys, as well, and several other duplicates. This doesn’t even take into account the Jazzy Christmas, Mellow Piano Christmas, Michael Buble Christmas, and Charlie Brown Christmas that are in constant rotation. In other words, should November and December be included, my data would be very skewed.
I Got Mugged. The lovely and kind Elisabeth (HI ELISABETH) sent me a beautiful package for the #SecretSantaMugSwap2022, hosted as always by the wonderful community builder San (HI SAN). Just look at these wonderful treats! What a joy to delve into. Thank you so much, Elisabeth! I am especially intrigued by Hot Honey, and in fact I may start calling my husband Hot Honey. Or insist that he call me that. We shall see! I was thrilled with each and every item in this very fun package! December is Fun Mail Month, and I feel like Elisabeth has started things off with a bang.
Speaking of my wonderful, supportive, and inclusive blog community, so many of you participated in NaBloPoMo, where bloggers post every day in the month of November, and many of you did Ask Me Anything posts. To be honest, I had a little bit of FOMO; I wanted to do one of my own, but I thought it would be better for me to wait until December, when the flood of posts faded to a mere stream. So do you have questions for me? Fill out this form! I will answer them to the best of my ability! I have no shame! Literally anything!
Congratulations to all of you NaBloPoMo participants! What an accomplishment by you all! I know one of you in particular is quite sad it’s over – HI ENGIE – and I thought of you as I wrote this, on December 1. I thought you may never speak to me again if I didn’t include a few fuzzy photos, so don’t worry, I will not disappoint my readership. Happy December, everyone. Baby, it’s cold outside here, so I hope wherever you are you are cozy and warm. xo
Rex will not share his doughnut with you, so don’t even ask.
Rex loves to lie in the corner where the tree is currently residing. His second choice is to wedge himself between the table and the wall. Maybe he thinks he’s a gift under the tree? If so, he’s right. Best gift ever.
We went through a phase of buying Advent calendars, the chocolate kind, for several years, but we haven’t done it recently. I’m glad you found just the right one for you.
I’m so excited to open my first puzzle!
Not surprisingly – after spending FOREVER in the car with kids – during our trip to Toronto and NYC and listening almost exclusively to our RoadTrip Beats playlist that whole time, our number #1 song of the year was Waiting for Love by Avicii. One of the lyrics talks about how “guess I won’t be going to church on Sunday” which we always belted out “guess we’ll be going to church on Sunday”…so Waiting for Love but with a slight twist.
#2 was Believer (Imagine Dragons) as one child is obsessed with this song. I’m very “over” it at this point. And then back to Avicii for #3 with Hey Brother.
I’m so glad your parcel arrived. Hot Honey is the best affectionate significant other name EVER. I really hope this sticks! I will often call my husband Babe and my kids are at the age where they are NOT fans. “He’s not a baby, Mom” – complete with eye roll. Maybe Hot Honey would go over better with the kiddos in my house?
Also, a huge thanks to you, Nicole for being commenter extraordinaire during NaBloPoMo!!!
I bought the kids nice Kinder calendars this year and then at the last minute (I don’t usually get a calendar) I cheaped out and bought myself one of those cheap waxy chocolate ones for myself. #Regret. Next year I’m getting Lindor. Or, I’m starting to lean toward admitting my failure and try to snag a good one this weekend (on sale, now?!). Life is too short for waxy chocolate…
Life IS too short for waxy chocolate! They have so many yummy kinds now. I saw an After Eight one, and the bonus for you would be that no one else in your house would try to steal any!
I like Imagine Dragons, but not enough to make my top five, I guess.
OMG, that puzzle advent calendar is right up my alley. I LOVE puzzles and am thrilled that my 4yo does, too! We got some “family puzzles” that we can do together – there are bigger pieces for him and small ones for me. Whoever came up with that concept is a genius.
We only had the advent calendar like you see on Christmas vacation. I was confused by the concept of opening a door to something, like a piece of chocolate. This was unheard of when i was growing up. Now we have a very cute advent calendar with drawers that I got from pottery barn years ago. Each day, the boys get 3 m&m’s each and then every 1-3 days there is a piece of paper that says “pick a present.” The last 2 years, I’ve bought some holiday-themed books. Paul is out of his mind excited to open a drawer tonight. It definitely adds some extra fun and cheer to the season. We are super minimalistic about Christmas presents, but I will gladly splurge on books for the advent calendar. This year I bought 14!
You are inspiring me to do an AMA series, too! Maybe in early 2023!
Wow, what a fun idea, Lisa! We had lots of Christmas books when the boys were little. Well, we probably STILL have them!
You did the form!!! Yay! Now I need to figure out some questions to ask.
I love your advent calendars (and your description of the EXACT advent calendars of my use, waxy square of chocolate indeed) and of course the Rex pictures. And I do hope you convince your husband to call you Hot Honey.
The Secret Santa gifts are so cute! Elisabeth is an excellent gifter.
I did figure out the form! Although I accidentally uploaded the wrong photo and couldn’t figure out how to delete it.
First up, thank you so much for making sure I would have something meaty to read in my reader today since so many people are taking the day off with a huge sigh of relief after NaBloPoMo. I also LOVE how suave Rex looks in those photos – he’s just too cool for school. You’re a true gem.
I am so very jealous of your puzzle advent calendar. I’ve never heard of such a thing and now I know it’s of DOGS WEARING HATS and I can barely contain how green I am. I shall be scouring Costco next year in October. The only advent calendars I saw there were beer, wine, jam, and chocolate.
You inspired me to check out my own Spotify wrapped page and will now go write a post about it for tomorrow.
If you see a calendar, whatever month it may be, get it because it may never appear again! The cashier even said “Christmas already?” to me, but I knew. I KNEW.
It’s always so fun to read about what you’re up to! I’ve never done any of the food or chocolate advent calendars. I can just see myself lasting a few days, then opening up all the treats at once!
The puzzle one sounds like fun!
I gave my husband a craft beer advent calendar once, and then after about ten beers he realized that he really didn’t like craft beer all that much! Lol!
Like you, I remember we had an advent calendar or two, and they just opened to pictures. I have never bought my daughter one. I have also never done gingerbread houses with her. We have never strung popcorn and cranberries for the tree. Clearly, I suck. For the last few years, I have kept my eyes open for a cheese advent calendar, but I never see them. https://sowrongitsnom.com/shop/cheese-advent-calendar/
Lolololol that cracked me up. CLEARLY ALL IS LOST, NO CRANBERRIES OR POPCORN.
Lidl has a cheese advent calendar!
Thanks Erin!
I agree with your son on the Spotify debacle. I had a musical group show up that I had never heard of before. So, I believe the algorithm is a mess over there. I like that Apple Music chose to join the bandwagon and start making one this year as well.
Now I’m craving chocolate…ā¤ļø
Hmmm isn’t that strange! Although years ago my home Sonos was paired with my HUSBAND’S Spotify and so his “wrapped” was like all soul music and 70s ballads. It was pretty funny.
My Apple Music is shared with my youngest daughter, so I got an interesting result with that one too!
Hahaha I can imagine!
I may need to recommend but because I got so excited I needed to pause and comment:
Last weekend Noah surprised me with a date night to Cirque de la Symphonie by our local symphony orchestra and it was FANTASTIC but my FAVORITE performance was an INCREDIBLE and MESMERIZING arrangement of Little Drummer Boy PAIRED with two male acrobats doing slow her mind blowing feats of strength and balance. Let me tell you: the one man at one point was upside down ATOP the other man, who was standing, and the upside down man was starfish shaped, and was balancing by ONE HAND on the standing manās HEAD. Aside from Coffee from Arabia in a performance of the Nutcracker I saw in downtown Chicago, this was my favorite Christmas performance ever. I literally, audibly gasped āNo!!! No WAY!!!!ā It was involuntary.
Wow wow wow wow!!! That sounds really incredible!!!
Ok Iāve done a little research and the piece was called Little Bolero Boy or Little Drummer Boyās Bolero or Christmas Bolero. But this performance was slightly slower and quieter, and the drum part was played on a block rather than a snare drum so it was very kind of earthy sounding. Remarkable.
I am going to be very excited to hear a report on that puzzle advent calendar, because I TOO got a puzzle advent calendar this year (Through the Window, in which you build a little apartment window scene each day and then they all fit together into an apartment building), and I was pleased with my choice until I saw the CAT version of that same Eurographics calendar you got—and I already know I tend to like the Eurographics brand. So then I had a little bit of puzzle regret, but soothed myself by thinking maybe I can get that one NEXT year.
Wait wait wait, each day is a little window and then you fit them all together in an apartment? I am happy with my Santa dogs BUT IF I HAD HEARD OF THIS CHARMING LITTLE APARTMENT…well, I probably still would have gotten dogs. But I could have both!
I had one of the cardboard cheap ones with the wax like chocolate figure inside EVERY single year when I was a kid. I now buy them for my boys!
I have this clear memory of doing something wrong as a kid one evening (what exactly, I don’t remember) and my mom told me “that’s it, no advent calendar chocolate for you tomorrow!” And I was sooo disappointed. Except my mom didn’t actually remove the chocolate from the next day in my room, so the next morning I got out of bed and “accidentally forgot” and ate the chocolate anyway. hahaha. And then, being the dumb (?) 8 year old (or thereabouts) that I was, I proceeded to exit my room and walk down the hall, chomping on my chocolate piece, where I ran into… you got it… my mother, with my mouth full of the chocolate I wasn’t supposed to be eating that day. Hahaha! Oh, the things we remember. š
Hahahaha! Accidentally forgetting! I love it.
We’ve never done an Advent calendar. Your puzzle one does sound very well suited to you. I enjoyed your take on how the cosmetics calendar wouldn’t be right for you.
I love the song You Can Call Me Al. Love it. I haven’t heard it in a long time.
Rex is a gift. He looks SO big and soft. He’s a very good looking dog.
Off to figure out if I have any questions for you. Hmm.
You Can Call Me Al is so fun to sing! I also think it makes no sense, lyric-wise, so it’s even more fun!
Whoa, I am way behind the times on the advent calendars. No one told me that puzzles were an option. I know what I’m looking for the next time I’m at Costco!
I did not know they were an option either, but HOW FUN!
You know, oddly enough, I’ve never had a chocolate candy Advent calendar. Mine have been all about the small thrill of just opening the flap. I kind of feel like I’m out of it, well more than I usually am. Good luck answering the questions you receive, I’m all out of curiosity today. It’s December… Christmastime… and the holidays have started in earnest…
Well, opening the flap is pretty fun too! We have a Santa that has numbered pockets, and I always like moving the little tree into the appropriate date pocket!
It’s so funny that you had to share that crappy Advent calendar with your brothers. My 4 kids got their own but I think I bought them a few days into December so they’d be 50 cents not 99!
Bargain shopping! I love it!
Oh yes! We opened the first door of our cat advent yesterday, much to Muffin and Charlotte’s delight. There were three little cat treats in there- I’m still not sure how my daughter split them up. It’s funny that growing up, we had the advent calendar where you opened the door and there was a little picture- and that was exciting!!! I guess everything in December is exciting when you’re a kid.
I LOVE that mug!!! Elisabeth really sent you a nice package. The gift for my person is whizzing through the mail right now. December is definitely Fun Mail Month.
I keep hearing that I should have bought Rex a calendar, but I kind of feel like his whole life is an Advent calendar with so many treats! That said, it might have been pretty fun.
Rex is the Best Gift and I don’t blame him for being stingy with his doughnut.
Nicole, I don’t think I’ve ever had an advent calendar. How sad is that? I really want the puzzle one because who doesn’t want to start their day with a puzzle?
I don’t use Spotify, but this is the time of year I wish I did.
Hey, when you get on that Midnight Train To Georgia, let me know and I’ll pick you up at the station.
I mean, who really wants to share a doughnut???
All your advent calendars sound so fun, Nicole! I don’t believe we’ve ever done an advent calendar in our house. I just checked with the 15-year-old, and they said they didn’t want one… Perhaps this is why? LOL
Rex looks so soft and fluffy, he’s just the best šš
We have a wooden calendar – spoiler alert for upcoming post – in which we each put a slip of paper on which we have written a good thing that happened that day. Then on New Year’s we take them all out and randomly read them. It’s really fun and special.
Oh that puzzle advent calendar is such a cute idea! I’ve never actually done an advent calendar for myself. I’ve never found one that I really want or feel like spending money on. Last year, I bought an advent calendar for the cats, though!
I am enjoying the puzzles so much!
I am so happy you participated in the Secret Santa Mug Swap and got such a lovely package from Elisabeth. I swear, holiday mail is the BEST mail š
And I love that puzzle advent calendar. How clever and fun for the holiday season. Have you been doing it every day so far?
I remember the advent calendars with the Christmas-themed pictures and with the chocolate squares of course, but they’ve come a long way with all kinds of fun themes.
I have been doing it every day and it is SO much fun. I am going to keep it and do it again next year. It’s just such a fun little break in the day, and I love puzzles to begin with!