Congratulations, Ann! It’s a beautiful photo. And, I’m very glad that you seem to be safe from the fires, at least for now? (I’m in the SF Bay Area, so have gotten the smoke but not the actual fire.)

What I thought was a novelty gift is old hat it seems. I emailed the advertisement to a friend and she said she’d seen them in 2018. I knew I had been out of the loop for quite awhile but didn’t realize how far back this period stretched. If anyone has bought one of these, is the wine drinkable or would it be more of a gag type gift? adding.... I love the idea of a dog advent calendar!

...maybe open it in the morning, chill and drink in the evening... That is indeed what I do. I think you're being a bit unkind to the wine, btw. You can, of course, get rubbish little bottles - but judging by the reviews, the half-bottles in the Costco advent calendar are actually pretty good. Certainly, here in the UK, you can get half-bottles of good wine, albeit a bit pricey compared to the same wine by the bottle. I'd fill my advent calendar with those with no concerns, if my wife and I drank a bit more wine. As for woodworking skills - it's actually not at all hard to build, and there are full instructions on the website - but the right tools do help. Do you have a friend who might do the basic building, if you pay for the timber? They might even build one for themselves as well :) The finishing off is within anyone's grasp, and that's the bit that makes it uniquely yours.

One good thing about my Dalí calendar is that the only place the year show is on the cover of the calendar - it is not repeated on the month displays. It does show the names of the month and days of the week in English, French, and German (which is not necessary for me), and I'm okay with that, even though it takes up extra space. I've been reusing calendars since 1990, and I started doing it because I had collected a few that I especially liked. I never wrote anything on the art or photo calendars. It did save me a bit of money during some lean years as well. In 1990, spending $20 on a calendar seemed like a significant investment to me for some reason. Anyway, I'm glad I've kept the calendars that I did, and they really take up very little space when stored on a bookshelf, as I have them now.