In our family, we love Advent Calendars. We exchange them in late November and starting on December 1, we open of the little cardboard doors revealing a surprise leading to December 25 and Christmas.

The first Advent Calendar was handmade in 1851 by Protestants in Germany. Before this, families had marked the front door with chalk, or lit a candle on a table one for each day in December leading to the big festival. Some put up small pictures on the wall depicting scenes of the Cresh.

A bookstore in Hamburg published a Christmas Clock in 1902. In 1904 the newspaper Neues Tagblatt Stuttgart inserted an Advent Calendar as a gift to its readers. By 1922 a large printing firm in St. Johannis turned out thousands to be sold throughout Germany. They were popular until World War II, when paper shortages curtailed their distribution.

After the war, Richard Selmer began producing them in 1946. He credits President Eisenhower with introducing the tradition in the United States. A newspaper at the time showed the President’s grandchildren with The Little Town Advent Calendar.

From that time to today, more and more of these pleasant ways of counting down the days are found in American homes. Some are quite elaborate, with compartments that hold candy or small toys, or play songs when the doors are opened.

The Advent Calendar shows that the season has begun. Be of good cheer.

On Saturday, December 3, 2011, there will be an early holiday special at the Veterans Memorial Library in Mt. Pleasant for the whole family. The Polar Express is an afternoon of fun and great entertainment.

It starts at noon, with Dickens Christmas stories being told until 12:30. Then Everett Wiltse, as the train conductor, will explain and operate the Mountain Town Hobby’s Polar Express model train and introduce the movie, Polar Express, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as the voice of half a dozen characters. The model train is currently on display at the library and you will see it in operation. Free popcorn and hot chocolate will be available.

If you have not seen this excellent movie and have Christmas in your heart you will truly enjoy it. It is Christmas Eve and a young boy has his doubts about how the toys appear beneath the tree on Christmas Morning. By magic, a passenger train pulled by a steam locomotive stops by his front door, and he is taken on an exciting adventure to the North Pole. Children of all ages will enjoy this witty and quite beautiful experience.

Two sixth grade classes at Mary McGuire Elementary School, taught by Mrs. Carroll and Mrs. Walter, were given an assignment by an Art Reach docent in the Picture Program. The students were told to look at clouds in the sky at recess and jot down what images they saw.

Eryana saw “a fish eating a smaller fish. The big fish had teeth and two big eyes, and the little fish looked like it was swimming away.” Ty was shooting hoops at home and “I saw a cloud that actually like a basketball. It had all the details that a basketball would have like the lines on it and the logo by who made the ball.” Lenge saw “a huge blue cloud with really poufy white on top. I thought it looked like a bubble bath.”

Shailyn said, “One day it was sunny out so I went outside and described the first cloud I saw. It was a blob but then I saw something else — a bunny with long ears. Another cloud looked like a worm.” Baily saw a rabbit and a face. Another student (who didn’t include a name) saw “a dragon with wings, fire coming out of his mouth. It was a fat dragon fighting a knight on a horse.”

Caleb saw a cloud ‘that looked like a UFO and it had a disk in the middle and two half spheres on the top and bottom.” Erica saw “a cloud that looked like a cat sitting in a tree.” AJ insisted a cloud was “a big cylinder with a bubble on top. You can ride on one and it has a circle of light. A beam can pick you up. The person who rides in it has a head that is like a cylinder.” Two other nameless students discovered a shark with teeth and a lumpy warship.

Austin said a cloud “looked like a house with a weird looking top and a sidewalk.” Dakota insisted on “a Chinese dragon with a long body and a feathery tail.” Danny saw one that ‘looked like a pirate ship and pirates on it. Then I saw a cloud that looked like a dog.” Hailey saw “a gummy bear! I’m guessing it was coconut flavored. It was huge in the sky. It stood out so much that’s why it caught my eye.” Zeek saw one “that looked like a straight line that seemed to go on forever. It was wide and fluffy.”

Children are able to use their imaginations. Encourage them to tell you what they see in clouds, in random autumn leaves on the lawn, in snow drifts, in the smears at the bottom of the unwashed gravy pan at Thanksgiving. Every place can be a source of amazing images to the nonjudgmental eyes of youth.

Art can be enjoyed by anyone willing to participate in a game with the artist: what is that squiggle in the corner? Why is that sky green? What are those little people in the background really doing? Learn to be amazed; very amazed.

On Saturday, November 5 and Sunday, November 6 the Doherty Hotel in Clare hosted a Bridge Tournament with 42 tables of bridge. There were 168 players from all over Michigan. The Central Michigan Area was well represented.

Many homes don't have much personality. Often they exist in repetitious clusters, all variations of a common floor plan. Here are the last three images of homes in and around Mt. Pleasant, that I find charming.I hope you have enjoyed the series.






For earlier photos click HERE.