She sent me the link and — voila — it arrived a fortnight later. Best buy of 2020.
It has 24 bottles of wine in it, ranging in size from 187ml to 250ml and I'm pretty sure that the December 24 one will be full of celebratory bubbles.
I opened my first one yesterday morning. It's the first time I have had an advent calendar. They weren't a thing when I was a child, well they might have been but not in our house.
The only trouble is that, of course, unlike chocolate and there are a lot of cheese ones around this year as well, I can't drink it upon opening the window.
No, I have to wait until much later in the day but I reckon that means I get twice as much anticipation.
We had a visitor on the weekend and the "calendar" was at that stage sitting on the hearth.
The 3-year-old eyed it up, looked at me and said "is that a doll's house". No I replied.
"Can I play with it cause it's really pretty."
I've added some lights and tinsel to my Christmas wine advent calendar.
Um, no, sorry honey you can't play with this, it's only for big people. But when it's all empty I'll save it for you and you can put dolls in it.
That went down well. A bit later she was sitting on the floor in front of it. "It looks like a doll's house, Can I open it."
You could tell that she was absolutely busting to open one of the little doors. I knew exactly how she felt.
This year has thrown many curve balls at us and as I said a few weeks ago this Christmas seems kind of special.
I know for many people Christmas means nothing but stress but this year we have seen our community and our country come together to support and care for each other and to keep each other safe in ways we would never have dreamed of just last year.
I'm hoping that kindness and caring will stretch into Christmas and beyond to the new year.
There is one thing we don't need in this country at the moment though and that's arrogant people who think they have the right to break our quarantine rules.
You know who I am talking about and I am still gobsmacked by the statement from former Pakistani test bowler Shoaib Akhtar. In fact, I think everyone in New Zealand would have something to say about the utter conceit of the man.
Does he really think that overseas cricket players have more rights than the citizens of New Zealand.
Tell you what, if I was in charge right now those rule breakers would be boarding a plane back to what Akhtar described as "the greatest country on the planet" and leaving us to get on with defending ourselves from a deadly virus.
Right now I think everyone would agree that we are living in the best and safest country in the world. Let's save our quarantine spots for RSE workers who can't wait to come here and help with our harvest — we need them — we don't need rule breakers.
* Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.
