We’ve got a late night tonight. So we’re going to spend the tail end of it having… A Late Night Tailgate Party Get out the red and green tortilla chips, the coloured salsas, fancy cheese and guac! We’re going to watch the recorded highlights of Thursday Night Football with our late night meal! Starting Lineup? […]
Mail the Christmas Cards! With our best wishes to the hard-working folks at Canada Post! RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Checkered Tablecloth, The Works! Tonight, we’re fixing on an old fashioned steakhouse dinner with steaks & burgers, frites & baked potatoes, beer & whisky + dessert! RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Christmas Concert at Roy Thomson Hall Today’s the first of the two Saint Michael’s Choir School Holiday Concerts at Roy Thomson Hall. This season marks a shift from the event’s taking place at the choir school’s usual Christmas venue, Massey Hall, which is undergoing extensive renovations. For tickets: https://www.roythomsonhall.com/tickets/st-michaels-choir-school-annual-christmas-concert/ RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS […]
CHRISTMAS CANNING Today, we’re making some extra special holiday gifts. Alongside my famous Whisky Fig Cranberry Sauce, we’ll be tackling either Lillie O’Brien’s Persimmon, Saffron & Vanilla Jam or her Cranberry & Sherry Vinegar Jam (or both!) from the miraculous cookbook I discovered on our summer vacation, Five Seasons of Jam. To speed the process […]
SKETCH THE TREE AND SPONSOR A LIVE ONE Today, we’ll spend some time sketching our Christmas tree. We’re fishing out all of the old boxes of oil pastels and charcoal pencils and sharpies and watercolours, and we’ll get to work memorializing the first fresh tree we’ve had in the house in over a decade! Then, […]
Pyjama Day + Building the Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich Each year, during Advent, we grab a pair of crazy holiday pyjamas for at least one person in the family (usually Bea) and we celebrate with Dinner for Breakfast. Today, we’re going to have Breakfast for EVERY SINGLE MEAL! And, we’re going to attempt to build the […]
Feast of Santa Lucia Family Book Exchange is ON B & T are swapping titles again this year. They’re hunting gently used books for each other (and an extra for their local book depository) This year’s key words are “Mystery” and “Light.” RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Holiday Game Night with Cocktails for Mom and Dad Tonight, we’re going to play holiday versions of all of our favourite games. We’ll haul out the game of “Christmas Clue” we made with the kids ages ago to see if the Christmas Villain, once again, wasn’t Rudolph with the Sleigh Bells in the Toy-Makers’ Room! […]
Photograph the City Today, we’ll visit the Art Gallery of Ontario (for Anthropocene) and Allen Gardens (for the Winter Flower Show). Then, we’ll go outside and photograph the city with an eye for the elements from these exhibits which inspired us the most! RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Hallmark-Style Christmas Movie Spoof Tonight, we’re going to write, produce, and film our own spoof trailer, meet-cute, or pivotal scene from a Hallmark-style Christmas Movie. Bonus points for “modernizing” Shakespeare, Jane Austen or one of the Brontës! RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Today, we’re going to make Soft Salted Caramels for the family and for gifting! Here’s a copy of my recipe! Soft Salted Caramels 1 c heavy cream5 tbs unsalted butter (cubed)1.5 tsp+* fleur de sel, Maldon flake, or pink Himalayan salt 1.5 c white sugar.25 c light corn syrup.25 c water1 tbs vanilla1 tbs cognac […]
Topping Up the Food Bank Box Today, we’re going to pile canned goods into the Daily Bread Food Bank box at our local grocery store. The most needed donation box items are those high in nutritional value, including: Baby food and formula Peanut butter Canned fish and meat Canned fruits and vegetables Rice, grains, lentils, […]
SEE ALL THE LIGHTS! Our annual tradition lives on! After a holiday event downtown, we’ll cruise the giant inflatable Santas on Inglewood Drive and SEE ALL THE LIGHTS! RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Toronto Christmas Market It’s our annual tradition! Today, B and I will go have a lunch in the Distillery District and Ride the Ferris Wheel at the Toronto Christmas Market. RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Holiday Beatnik Coffeehouse As you may have noticed, I took suggestions from the teenagers as to what they’d like to do on various days in Advent. In addition to the Fried Chicken Tour, we’ve had a request to basically relive the scene in the movie Funny Face, where Audrey Hepburn goes to find her philosopher […]
St. Lawrence Market Cheese Board This morning, we’ll get up before dawn and travel to the amazing stalls at St. Lawrence Market, gathering the ingredients for our Christmas Dinner and Building one heck of a mad cheese board / charcuterie plate! RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Today, we’re making the Bûche de Noël for our Christmas Dinner! We’ll either be making this amazing Chocolate Mint Buche de Noël or my all-time favourite Lemon Bûche de Noël with Lemon Mascarpone …. or both? RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
Here it is! The annual Christmas Eve Checklist! □ Go for a Brisk walk with our mini-schnauzer, Elvis! □ Make tons of Christmas cookies. □ Live stream Jon Solomon’s 30-Hour Christmas Radio Show. □ LATE-AFTERNOON FEAST OF THE SEVEN FISHES IN TWO to THREE DISHES. Dish One Possibility: A Massive Cold Fish Plate with Shrimp Cocktail, Scallops […]
Merry Christmas! RETURN TO THE ADVENT 2018 EVENTS PAGE
TRAIN FILMS!!! This year’s New Year’s Eve film fest will consist of movies that take place on a train or which feature a train scene as a main plot-point. Since we’ve already done a few Hitchcock-heavy marathons, and since we’re not interested in tackling nuclear disasters, epidemics, or bloody westerns, our New Year’s fare will […]
SSJ’s Advent Love-to-Do List 2019 is now live! Check out the full post, here! And don’t forget: SSJ’S 2019 Advent Calendar begins to populate on December 1, 2019! Follow along daily by checking the 2019 ADVENT CALENDAR MONTHLY VIEW.
MY 2019 ADVENT CALENDAR WILL BEGIN TO POPULATE RIGHT HERE ON DECEMBER 1, 2019! FOLLOW ALONG DAILY BY CHECKING THE 2019 ADVENT CALENDAR MONTHLY VIEW OR HEADING HOME TO SMELLINGSALTSJOURNAL.COM ! IN THE MEANTIME, TAKE A LOOK BACK AT MY SSJ ADVENT CALENDARS FROM 2018 AND 2017.
It’sthe firstday of Advent!Time to trim the tree! First, we’ll have to choose one!This afternoon, we’ll trek over tothe local Scouts lot for a tall, slim fir. Then, we’ll turn on some music, make someof my Santa Baby Cookies, and choose picturesfor the 2019 version of our Favourite Photo Ornaments. Sometimes, we throw on a […]
Design your own Bookplate! Today’s Advent TBD is a MAJOR THROWBACK to our very first online Advent Calendar in 2011 ! The kids were too young to get involved, and we wanted the bookplates to be surprises. So, Blaise sketched bookplates. I scanned them, added text with photo-editing software, and printed them on sticky-backed paper […]
Provide Baby Blankets via Plan Canada Gifts of Hope Today, we’re providing three baby blankets to children in need via Plan International Canada’s Gifts of Hope. How will you be volunteering your time or supporting your community this year?
Make Clementine’s Famous Crullers Today, we’re going to be conquering our “fear of frying” by making Clementine Paddleford’s famous crullers. Clementine is the lady with the pencil, above! Her Cruller Recipe comes from Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris’ fantastic book about the American tastemaker: Hometown Appetites. And Write a Holiday Haiku! As we prepare […]
Family Book Exchange 2019 This year’s Advent Family Book Exchange shall henceforth be known as “The Hardcover Edition.” Go big or go home. Everyone’s going to pick a name from a hat and buy that person a real “traysure” in the form of a hardcover book, new or used. We’ll also grab a book for […]
Festive Streaming-Service Binge It’s Friday. We’re going to chill on the couch with some Fish and Chips from our local and have a proper binge of a new-to-us series of shows or films. A few years ago, we watched The Crown. Will we go for Season 3? Should we revisit Derry Girls Seasons 1&2 back […]
Carols, Cocktails, and Cookies a.k.a. Winterize the Song of the Summer Last year, our carol-off consisted of a day of writing punk-rock Christmas songs. This year, we’re back on a family classic: winterize the Song of the Summer. And by “Winterize,” I mean, “Chrismassify.” This year’s Song of the Summer is insanely easy to identify: […]
Concert & Pinochle Today’s the Saint Michael’s Choir School Christmas Concert at Roy Thomson Hall. It’s going to be an afternoon of rehearsals, dress up, performances, and dress-down. After the concert is over, we’ll set up by the fire for a 4-person Pinochle tournament.
Make Block-Printed Tea Towels Anyone who knows me knows my obsession with tea-towels, especially calendar tea towels. If we’re going to have a good time this afternoon, DIY calendars may be beyond us. However, we can easily get in on the magic by creating a few simple block-printed tea towels. How are we going to […]
Donate to Forests Ontario Let’s flight climate change, dozens of trees at at time!Today, we’re making a contribution to Forests Ontario. How will you make a difference today?
Make Fried Chicken Last year’s Advent Calendar started us off on a Fried Chicken tour of the city. This week in conquering our “Fear of Frying,” we’ll be frying chicken at home. We’ll do this by following Bon Appetit’s Skillet-Fried Chicken Recipe. I’ve provided a reprint below.
Mail Christmas Cards Gone are the family photo cards. We’ll be handwriting a select few Christmas cards this year and sending them out as we go. Formerly broken hands need rest. So, yes, this does take time…. But, good news! The first batch sails today! I can’t wait to hear the slam of our local […]
Spooky Santa Lucia Hold onto your stockings and ignite your candle crowns! It’s the Feast of Santa Lucia AND Friday the 13th! Jinx! You can darn well bet we’re going to have a scary movie situation tonight. I freaked myself out just looking for movie recommendations! Should we try Krampus? Revisit Gremlins? Black Christmas? The […]
It’s Christmas Canning Day And, last minute UPDATE, we’ve got a friend coming over who’s never made jam before! So, grab your cross-back aprons, folks. It’s going to be a banner day! Rather than run a marathon, however, we’ll keep it simple by making one or both of these recipes: Date Chestnut Spread with Orange Flower […]
Perform and Record a Classic Radio Play We did it in 2017, and we’ll do it again….Tonight, we’re going to perform and record a classic radio play. We’ll choose a script, take a few minutes to divvy up the parts and rehearse our characters’ voices, and then we’ll hit record on all of our devices. […]
Glam Cans 2019 Back when the kids were young, we took part in Well Preserved’s Pimp Your Preserves Holiday Contests! We designed our own canning labels and really dolled up our jars with ribbons, bells, and even colourful rulers for the kids’ teachers. Well, Glam Cans are back, baby. Today, we’re going to do some […]
Food is a human right, yet 1 in 7 people struggle to find adequate sustenance in our own city. Today, the family will be putting food in the Daily Bread Food Bank box at our local grocery. And we’ll be donating funds directly at https://www.dailybread.ca/.