This looks like a lot of fun! I’m going to be doing three calendars: the kanji one, the music one, and then one of my own. I have a book I’ve been meaning to read that has exactly 24 short stories in it (not counting the 2-page prologue), so I thought now would be the perfect time to try going through it (while ignoring the several books I’m in the middle of reading 
). For those interested, it’s part of the ラストで君は「まさか！」と言う series, subtitled 冬の物語.
Days 1 and 2
Kanji Calendar
Ascending Stroke Order Kanji Advent Calendar
Like pretty much everyone else, I chose 乙 for Day 1. I practiced that a few times, then wrote out a word containing the kanji. My choice was 乙女座, or Virgo.
For Day 2, I chose 了. This character always catches my eye for some reason. Maybe because it feels incomplete somehow? Ironic, considering the meaning. 
I struggled with this one more than the first one; I just couldn’t get the balance right. The word I wrote out for this entry was 了見, idea or intention.
Song Calendar
Winter Song Calendar - Day 1
Winter Song Calendar - Day 2
While both songs were lovely, I’m biased toward Day 1 because I quite like Kenshi Yonezu’s music. The second one probably sounded more winter-y to me, but I was happy either way. 
Short Story Calendar
冬の物語 - Day 1 (Prologue, 消えないで雪だるま)
冬の物語 - Day 2 (鍋神)
The prologue is short, but it has a fun vibe. Its playfulness honestly got me in the mood to continue reading, which I suppose makes it the perfect prologue. The 雪だるま story is cute. It was a nice, cozy story to read as I sipped on some tea. The premise is that the narrator’s friend gives her a small snowman before he transfers schools, and she tries to keep it from melting. Spoilers: as it turns out, there was a paper hidden inside of the snowman with an illegible message on it. The narrator later learns what it said: 「好きです」 
The illustration on the last page spoils the ending, but it’s a cute drawing. I’m not really upset by the spoiler, maybe because it wasn’t an on-the-edge-of-my-seat kind of story.
「鍋神」is written like an old tale, and it was harder for me to understand without a dictionary (whereas the Day 1 stories I could easily read without one). A man who’s really into cooking decides to make his own donabe, but his life ends before he gets to use it. A god puts his soul into the donabe, and it falls into the hands of a young man named 清兵衛(せいべえ). I’m not sure I fully get the ending: 清兵衛 eventually dies, and the donabe-god (as he was referred to) sleeps for many years and eventually ends up with another young man, who says that he doesn’t have money. The donabe-god gets annoyed that he’s not cooking to the god’s standards, and I think he thinks the young man’s lying about being poor? So the pot ends up splitting in to, filling up with grass and broth, but no meat. It’s kind of an odd story, and it didn’t really have the same winter vibes as the other two stories I read. 
Kanji writing
Will post Day 3 and hopefully Day 4 tomorrow.
Advent of Ascending Kanji - Day 03 
