Advent Calendar Contents

The Advent Calendars were great fun this year. You'll recall that I had a Gummibear one and a Kinder Egg one, and Herr J had a Handyman's Advent Calendar and a homemade Beer Advent Calendar.

Now that there are no surprises to ruin...here's what we found in them!

The Handyman's Advent Calendar ("Heimwerker-Adventskalender"): 

This one suprised us, because it actually contained small-sized useful tools and supplies. Herr J's favorites were the multi-tool, the wall anchors (" 'Cause those are always useful"), the keychain LED-flashlight, and the padlock caribiner.

My favorite - purely for its humor factor - was Day 22...Bandaids. A must-have for every handyman!

Contents: 

Mini-Box Cutter, 2 sizes wall anchors and screws, nails, mini screwdriver with 6 interchangeable heads, Phillips screwdriver, Standard screwdriver, 2 rolls electrical tape, mini line level, surfact 2-D level, keychain LED flashlight, picture wire, mini swiss army knife, bandaids, tape measure caribiner, multi-tool, small padlock, combination lock caribiner, santa keychain, bungee cord, and magnifying glass. Wow!

   
The Kinder Surprise Egg Calendar:

The Kinder Egg one was incredibly fun...not only do you get chocolate, you get toys...and the challenge of some assembly required.  This calendar included everything from several Christmas ornaments (cute animals, strangely all wearing backpacks...guess they were carrying gifts??) to an inflatable paper cat (atop the capsules that contained the toys)...along with a ring that stamped "Hello" in Russian, a spinning top, and a cute brontosaurus.

For those of you not familiar with this wonderful German treat, the Kinder Suprise Egg ("Kinder Überraschung") is a life-sized chocolate eggshell (in a milky chocolate, healthy for children) which contains a toy stuffed into a yolk-looking yellow capsule inside. Toys range from preassembled small cars or animals to larger toys requiring some thought in how to follow the instructions. The designers who create these things and figure out how to efficiently stuff a huge toy into an egg rival Apple's packaging designers!

Here's a great example of the design genius - a plastic glider wrapped up inside the egg:

Lego Architecture

LEGO is now selling these cool architecture models, including a Frank Lloyd Wright Collection and other well-known buildings and monuments.

Very cool!

via WANKEN

Guggenheim Museum

 John Hancock Center 

Fallingwater House