Sunday, December 5, 2010

Necessity is the mother of invention...

{yup...we can actually *eat* our Advent 'wreath' this year}

...or so they say. I'm not sure who 'they' are, but 'they' always seem to have things figured out when my own feeble brain fails.

What do cupcake liners, toilet paper holders, construction paper, tape, tea lights and jelly bellies have in common? Read on to find out...

My pursuit for new Advent candles began earlier this week. First I lacked the motivation, then when I found some {yesterday} I couldn't find any purple candles at Hobby Lobby. To tell you how bad it was, I couldn't even find *enough* 'purplish' or 'pinkish' scented candles to use as a makeshift for our wreath. This year we have incorporated the Advent candles into our dinnertime routine. I heard someone say how neat it was to add it at dinnertime because the first week, the light is scant. With each progressive week, the light gets stronger and brighter - symbolic as we prepare the way for the birth of the Christ Child. So our old candles weren't going to last this season lest we torch the wreath as the candle burned down. The hunt began for replacement candles.

Today after church, I took the girls with me to Gardenridge for what I was absolutely 100% convinced was a quick, run in and grab some candles and go, experience.

Big fat negatory on that one, little buddy.

They had ZERO colored taper candles, let alone the ones we needed. We scratched our heads and found scented small candles to buy, head to the checkout lane to discover that only one cashier was checking people out...and there were about fifteen people in front of us - honest to goodness! I weighed our options and we left the store, figuring we'd stop at the grocery store in one last attempt to get what we need.

We walk in and discover they have purple tea lights, no pink - basically nothing we can use. We talked about melting down our purple crayons {of which we don't even have enough to cover three candles to begin with-AAARRRGH!} when I get some kind of crazy wild idea to buy purple and pink jelly bellies and find a way to make it work.

When we got home, I got to work to find what we had around the house to make this work - after all, jelly bellies cost a fortune, especially when faced with the idea of having to restock the candles every day. ;)

Considering the difficulty of locating the right candles, I'd say we did ok and even earned an 'A' for effort. And maybe an 'E' for eating pleasure. :)

{you can see how 'makeshift' it really was - desperation or ingenuity - I'll let you decide}
{jelly belly brand jelly beans - when no other jelly beans will make your Advent wreath perfect}

2 comments:

Unknown said...

ooo I LOVE it!!! I've been stuggling with what to use for the advent candles this year (and already missed the first 2 weeks eek!) but this is great encouragement :)

melody said...

So cool! We squeaked by with red candles this year. I felt like a total Advent flop until my MIL told me that the Holy Father uses all red candles! And I said, "Of course, that's what I was doing, too." I'm THAT kind of really good Catholic...lol. But I did not tell her that I only had 3 red candles...not four. :)

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