
Picture from my knitting group's Christmas lunch outing last year. I was touched that one of our members had taken the time to knit the little red and green hearts and lace them onto garlands to decorate our Christmas table. Everyone was wearing their finery or a Christmas jumper. The food was delicious and plentiful.
I received a lovely gift yesterday from @macchiata who tagged me as next in the Hive Advent Calendar, a fabulous idea started by @bozz in this post: Hive Advent Calendar. I love the fun behind the idea and I'm enjoying watching the Advent Calendar makes its way through Hive and across the globe.
Here are the Rules from @bozz:
- Religion doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if you celebrate Christmas, this is just something fun I wanted to do.
- Don't keep all the HIVE for yourself. The idea is for you to keep one HIVE and then pass the rest on. Be sure you can trust the person you send this to before you send the HIVE.
- Try to wait a day before you send along the remaining HIVE. The idea is that by the time we reach Christmas we are at 1 HIVE left and the last person keeps that. If we blow through all the HIVE before we get to December 5th, that is going to be kind of lame. I mean, if it happens it happens, but let's try to keep it from happening.
- When you send the HIVE please put #hiveadvent in the memo field.
- I don't want to mess up anyone's posting schedule, but try to write a post about when you send the HIVE. Please use the tag #hiveadvent and try to include these rules in the post so the next person knows what to do.
So far, the Hive have passed from @bozz to @silversaver888.
Now @bozz has been enticing me with the new Grilling and Smoking community, especially now I know the secret of the charcoal chimney. In fairness, he didn't know about my obsession with Jamie Oliver's wood fired oven in his garden, or the plans I've had for a long time to create an outdoor kitchen, well, more of a living room.

Source Jamie Oliver making hot chocolate and waffles over an open fire in his garden in mid-winter. I'm full of fantasies like this!
@silverstacker888 and I shared an exciting journey when a pair of keshi pearl earrings travelled over 5,000 miles from her house to mine in April 2023. From there, the Advent Calendar travelled to @elizabethbit who cheers me on whenever I manage to do my steps and post them to Actifit.
From @elizabethbit to lovely @jayna, who I was pleased to work with in The Ink Well community and continue to enjoy discussing writers and writing and Christmas jumpers. @jayna's post had a story that I often experience and feel myself, a reminder of the fragility of our lives and how "[i]t makes me ache to think about it".
From @jayna, the HIVE flew over the border to Canada to @litguru - one of the many advantages of Hive, no customs declarations, no fees ...

Source Illustration from The Secret by @litguru in The Ink Well.
The Secret was the first story I read from @litguru, certainly the first one I remember, and it's stayed with me all this time. Buzzing with noir-ish energy and dead-pan humour, lurid and slightly worrying as sci-fi can be.
And then from Canada to @macchiata in the Pacific (still no fees). I love dipping into @macchiata's writing. Like the place where the HIVE is going next, she often inspires me, reminding me that I like painting with water colours, too, or showing me a new way of establishing habits.
Thank you for sending me the HIVE @macchiata 😍
I'm sending them, less 1 HIVE, on to @akipponn over in continental Europe.
Season's greetings to everyone, may you be safe and well in uncertain times.

I think @bozz was wondering a little what would happen today. A lot of my time goes into the Saturday Savers Club over on the @eddie-earner account and I enjoy reading and commenting on other people's posts, so I hadn't posted for a while.
But then I had a growing problem ... my SBI values were growing larger and larger and had got to the point where I didn't think I could write a post that would live up to the value of the vote. As I prevaricated and days continued to pass, it got worse.
But here comes the antidote: a handy Advent Calendar post where I can use commentrewarder and everyone can enjoy the bounty!
Saturday Savers Club 2025 launches on Saturday 4 January. You can see the 2024 FAQs to give you an idea how it works and join in the comments on the weekly post if you'd like to know more about us. Everyone welcome!


