Advent in our Home

Advent started with "Advent by Candlelight" hosted by the lovely ladies at St.Paul downtown. An evening for ladies only, it's an opportunity to fellowship and worship Jesus in service and song.  Each table is beautifully decorated by a hostess and dessert and small treats are served along with coffee and tea. We are reminded of the true meaning of Christmas - Christ born among us, come to earth to save mankind. 

Here's the lovely table I sat at! It was a much needed evening for me as I was already caught up in the shopping, baking, packing lists. Tis the season for list making and sure failure - either to put it on the list in the first place, forgetting to look at the list or running out of time to do what's on the list. Thankfully, I was reminded that the lists don't really matter. I forget. I admit it! I get soooo distracted! Why do I think Christmas can be bought, baked or packed? Christmas is given in grace. Christmas comes to remind me (because I get distracted) that God saved me - out of his love for me, despite me! That's the gift - unwrap that!

I have several Advent wreaths I rotate yearly depending on my mood. Here's one given and made by my friend and fellow pastor's wife Karen. It's a lovely wreath with 4 votives glued on and a plaid bow. I pop Rowe pottery with the angel cutouts (given to me by another dear friend) in the middle. We have our Advent devotion every night after supper as that's what works for us usually. We're doing a Jesse tree again from here. I like that it goes back to all the familiar Bible stories like Jonah, Noah, Rahab, etc and answers the question - what does this have to do with Christmas? But we've also done "Celebrate Jesus at Christmas", "Countdown to Christmas" and "Family Countdown to Christmas". And a friend recently mentioned to me that Thriving Family  from Focus on the Family has a free one to download on their website. Maybe we'll try it next year! 
I've been personally enjoying "Martin Luther's Christmas Book" for the second year in a row. It's a lovely read on the different aspects of the nativity with profound insight. It has enhanced my appreciation for the ordinary people God chose to involve in the sending of his son to earth. 

Of course, the children have their favourite books too! Some are "relics" from my childhood and others have been added over the years. I was reading "The Miracle of Jonathan Toomey"to Zanna yesterday and started weeping when ...... well, I won't ruin it for you. And good golly, when I read "The Fir Tree" I better have a kleenex box nearby. 
Advent seems to have been taken over by the secular as the season for getting ready for Santa coming. We try our best to stay focused on getting ready for Jesus' birthday!
On a completely unrelated note, our new IKEA store (the biggest in the country) is totally awesome and we also went to see the new Muppet movie and it's hilarious! I loved 80's robot and the 80's music played throughout the movie:)