Advent

For the last several years my girlfriend has invited me to her church for a special Christmas tea. "Advent by Candlelight," each hostess decorates their tables with fine linen and china; while candles and lights adorn the whole room. This year I was pleasantly surprised to see Sooze there. Even though we rarely see each other, we both feel like we saw each other that week because of our blogs. Together we walked past the beautiful tables. Neither of us our girly girls, but we both have daughters that are. It was nice to have a moment to be a lady. Tea amongst women. What I really enjoyed was the devotion on ornaments. Are we ugly, broken, fragile or beautiful on the outside? The event an opportunity to put our focus on Christ, rather than the hustle and bustle of preparing for Christmas.

On December first, we started a new advent tradition in our home. I picked up this book, Advent Storybook, that has 24 stories leading to Christmas. It is about a little bear as he follows the star and the adventures he has along the way.



My kids look forward to each night as we tear off a link on our chain and then settle down to read the days adventure.


The chain has helped the kids grasp, how many days until Christmas. Which my daughter had been asking endlessly. Now she just looks at the chain and knows...21 days until Christmas.