Advent and Christmas 2021

On 1 December a few of the doll family started opening their tiny Advent Calendar which was sent to them by my elder daughter who lives in York. I didn't succeed in photographing the opening of the calendar every day as there were a multitude of other things happening during December this year. The windows on this little card are absolutely tiny and I enlisted the help of my younger daughter to open them.

What is in the golden envelope?

An Advent Calendar for the dolls!

To all the doll family,
Have an exciting Advent
and wonderful Christmas!
Enjoy opening this German calendar bought in York.

Close up of the Sasha doll sized Advent Calendar

The next time I managed to photograph them was on 18 December when they set up their Christmas tree.

Admiring the Christmas tree and doing their Advent calendar

With the pandemic still causing huge disruption, and a bout of tonsillitis (I tested regularly with negative every time and the symptoms were not the same as Covid19) in mid December, I wasn't at all sure we would be able to have the Christmas we had planned, however on 23 December, with negative lateral flow test results all round and me a lot better, we were able to make the journey north to York to visit our elder daughter. I took eight of the little Kruseling dolls with me but in the event, though two of them were carried around in my camera bag on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, they didn't make a public appearance at all.

I got my much dreamed of Christmas gift, which was to be able to attend the Nine Lessons & Carols on Christmas Eve in York Minster with our elder daughter singing in the choir and (in my case at least), three Christmas services on Christmas Day in the Minster (Matins, Eucharist and Evensong). We all enjoyed the services and the music so much. The Minster staff handled all the covid19 safety precautions very well. 

The York Minster Advent Wreath on Christmas Eve,
with the newly restored pipe organ

The York Minster Advent Wreath on Christmas Day
(the central candle is lit)

The York Minster Nativity scene

My elder daughter's Christmas tree which my younger daughter helped her decorate on Christmas Eve using all the Advent 2020 decorations we made for her including the knitted chorister for 15 December and the angel doll I made for 24 December.

A belated Merry Christmas to all my doll and craft friends.

Advent Calendar Day 10

The pocket for Day 10 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained lots of love. The pocket didn't give a clue, though my daughter likes candles and was lighting her Advent candle before taking the gift out of the pocket.

Day 10 pocket

Fabric heart decoration (one side)

Fabric heart decoration (other side)

Fabric heart decoration, hand made by me

She was delighted with the heart and noted the little metal label 'made with love' hanging at the bottom of the heart. It came with added significance, because York Minster where she is currently a choral scholar, has a famous window called the Heart of Yorkshire window and she sees it from her singing position in the nave. About 30 years ago her father and I visited York Minster and stood in the nave, we will have seen that window but could never have dreamed that one day our then future elder daughter would be singing her heart out in the choir there for Advent and Christmas. Our Advent window at home is currently decorated with our version of that famous window.

Our Advent Calendar window
featuring the Heart of Yorkshire window,
representing our elder daughter at home and in York.

Chloe and Max discover York

 After 6 months of no outings or nights away from home due to the pandemic, it was strange to venture out and travel to another city. However some items needed to be delivered to my elder daughter who had just moved from one singing job to another, now that choral singing is permitted again (under strict health and safety conditions), so I braved the motorway and took a pair of Kruselings for the journey.

It was a cool, grey Sunday morning in late September when Chloe and Max found York Minster and the heart of the city.

York Minster and the heart shape in the West window

Max and Chloe found York Minster on the map

The real York Minster towered above them as they stood on the bronze map

On the south side of York Minster, the Christian Roman emperor Constantine the Great (274-337) languished on his seat of power, the sign nearby explained that he had been proclaimed Roman Emperor nearby, in 306.

Max and Chloe stood at the base of the ancient Roman column which was found inside the south transept of the Minster in 1969 during excavations.

Max and Chloe were impressed by the ancient Roman column

The Roman column towered above Max and Chloe

Inside York Minster the rows of chairs for the congregation had all been spaced well apart and faced the temporary altar at the West end, so the congregation would sit with their backs to the choir.

The York Minster choristers, songmen (lay clerks) and choral scholars have to sing in a much larger space than they normally take up, 2 metres apart, with their own music stands and currently without the pipe organ which is undergoing restoration. However at least they are allowed to sing again after 6 months of no choral singing in churches and they made a wonderful sound.

Max and Chloe were impressed with a beautiful illuminated map of York Minster in an ornate carved frame.

The illuminated map of York Minster with Max and Chloe 

The York city wall provided some wonderful views of the city and York Minster

Max and Chloe admired the view of York Minster from the city wall.

At Monk Bar (a large gate in the wall) was a model shop with some wonderful displays

The Tour of Porkshire (Yorkshire) featured pigs riding motorcycles!

York has Christmas all year round because it has a branch of the famous Kathe Wohlfahrt shop, housed in an ancient Tudor building (1434)

The window display of the Christmas shop was stunning

Max and Chloe particularly liked this miniature Children of the World music box

Some of the wooden Christmas decorations were truly astonishing

They could not resist visiting The Shambles, a very old Tudor street in York

 

Chloe and Max discovered a miniature Mongolian Ger (Yurt) in the room where they were staying overnight. It was a bit too small for them to creep inside.

The miniature Mongolian Ger even had the samovar for making tea to welcome guests

The two Kruselings enjoyed their visit to York and its famous Cathedral to hear live choral singing once more.