Advent of the Sun Calendar - my first 12 twinchies!

Hi Soul Journalists:

Happy Holidays !

Since my hands are too sore these days to do much cutting (other than wrapping presents and tying ribbon,) here are my twinchies done digitally.

I am doing an Advent of the Sun Calendar with a surprise foldout heading towards the Winter Solstice on December 21. Since this is my first attempt at doing this, I hope it works out and I can show you the ahem result ..

First I have a confession to make: I am NOT a Crafty Person! There I said it; I was known to one and all at Girl Guide Trainings as 'the one who would glue her left elbow to her ear with the glue gun'!

I followed Kathryn's suggestions for Day Themes for the most part and added a few things here and there of my own.

So here are my first set of 12 twinchies:

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Day 1 -This took us 25 years to find - a home with land.

So yes..it's the best present and Number One on the list.The key holds a tag with 07-07-07 on it as Quail Hill 'found' us on July 7, 2007.

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Day 2 - 32 years of Marriage to this wonderful man

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Day 3 - Sense of touch (due to my limited eyesight) has always been important.

Besides it's universal, you can say so much with touch.

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Day 4 - A Gift to Pass On- in our area, we have Garry Oak Groves, very rare and precious and endangered.

Recently a developer CUT DOWN 20 of them to make way for a condo!

They are found ONLY in our area and a limited bit in northern Washington and take twice as long to grow as the regular english oak.

Yes they are 'listed' but only on Public land, private land owners can still cut them down.

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Day 5 - A Gift to Share - this year I made Oregon Grape Jelly from berries picked from our neighbourhood.

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Day 6 - The Best Gift you can give....

This polar bear came every day for a week to play with this husky sled dog.

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Day 7 - Gift from Other Artists: THANK YOU SOUL JOURNALISTS!

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Day 8 - Gift of Childhood - Bringing home the tree with the (to a 4 year old) BIG RED Tractor.

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Day 9 - Gifting myself - THE BIG SOAK with a GOOD BOOK

My fantasy Roman bath filled with hot water and rose petals, a good selection of steamy novels on the edge and floating candles.

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Day 10 - Gifts I brought into this life: My passion for Music Art and Writing.

Surprise gift from my subconscious... I didn't realize until I posted this twinchie that it 'sort of ' spells 'Joy' Can you see it?

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Day 11- Gifts of Nature - O my there are so many around here, I was hard pressed to find a photo that expressed it all, but here is what I came up with- The Gateway to the Hidden Garry Oak Grove at the top of the hill.

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Day 12- Gift of Time - I was playing with the idea of the 'Sands of Time' and the wonderful hidden city of Petra which is slowly returning to sand, came to mind.

Looking for more 'sifting sand' pictures, I found this photo of a young woman with sand running through her fingers, but to where ?

Then I remembered the Buddhist Medicine Sand Wheels which take 2 days to build out of coloured sand and then are destroyed in a very beautiful but sad ceremony.

So...here She is: the Goddess of Time, giving the monks sand to build their mandala with, but knowing like the ancient city of Petra in the background, that it too, will one day become sand and slip through Her fingers.

"Make the most of your Time", She says, "I can't hold on to it forever".

Blessings to all who view this.

LN