A Stitch in Time Saves... A Lot of Searching

Seeing as Christmas is coming, I once again started my own annual crusade to find the impossible. I have been conducting this search for a few years now and so far... nothing. You see, we have an advent calendar at home that my parents made when I was very, very young. It's made entirely of felt and it's essentially a wall-hanging. It features a big Chrsitmas tree with two kids, a boy and a girl, hanging decorations on the tree. There are also a few animals hanging out around the bottom of the tree, too. There are 25 little velcro pieces on the tree and for each day in December you put up a decoration; again, made of felt and painstakingly handcrafted by Mom and Dad. Anyway, I put this calendar up every year and it's been our little tradition for as long as I can remeber. My brother always lets me put up the snowman ornament and he always puts up the gingerbread man. On Christmas morning, one of us will put the star on the top of the tree. Amazingly, my brother and I would remember from year to year who had put the star up and we would take turns. Essentially, this calendar is an integral part of our Christmas tradiations. I love that calendar. Unfortunately, so does my brother. Now that we're getting older, the debate has been who will get the calendar when we move out of the parental digs? My argument is that obviously, I got it first, I'm older, so it's mine! Probably not a totally valid argument, but it's all of got! In all honesty, I think I'm more attached to the thing than he is... I am just way too sentimental!

Okay, I've sidetracked a lot. Back to the point: I've been searching for the pattern for this thing. Mom said that she would happily make a second advent calendar, if only she had the pattern. She knows it was made by Vogue. I've searched e-Bay year after year and I've never found it there. This year, I was smart enough to go to Vogue's homepage and I sent an e-mail to their discontinued patterns department. But... to no avail. They e-mailed me back today to tell me they don't have it. If the Vogue people don't have it, who does? I'm disappointed. I really wanted to find that pattern. Maybe next year?