First Week of Advent

Our favorite Advent coloring pages are by Mandy Groce at Ministry-to-children.com. 

Here we are, a week into Advent already!  Where have we been?  What have we done?  

How can it be that we have no Christmas tree up yet??

I assure you, we have not been slouching around.  

In Advent, there is no time to waste, only time to prepare and celebrate.  

December 1st-2nd

First Sunday of Advent

Last weekend, we welcomed Advent in a truly special way: we joined four dear Princeton friends in Michigan!  We celebrated with an afternoon children's play, enjoyed an adults-only night of dinner and dancing, and finished with Advent Sunday at our friends' Coptic Orthodox Church service.  

December 3rd-4th

 Time to decorate! Our wreaths are hung, indoor lights glistening, mangers out, lanterns lit, guest room bed assembled and cozy, Advent wreaths and Advent Jesse Tree up!  Somehow, even without touching the thermostat, the house feels warmer.

December 5th

E-Bear and Buddy Bear had a final morning with our graduate student friend Miss Lauren, who has babysat several mornings this fall for us as we became acclimated.  We will miss her so much as she leaves to write her thesis!  The boys spent the morning in style, making a cardboard box sleigh, playing trains, coloring advent pictures and eating lunch.  Meanwhile, I shopped for shovels and guest room trimmings during my last morning free time!

December 6th

Feast of Saint Nicholas

We woke up early to leave for a trip to Georgia for Johnson Family Christmas.  What did we find in the kids' room, but a new snowglobe and gingerbread cookie treats to enjoy on the plane.  Usually we celebrate the Feast of Saint Nicholas by doing Giving Tree shopping, which had to be postponed this year due to our trip. Once in Georgia, we celebrated with Chick-fil-a nuggets and peppermint chocolate chip milkshakes with Nana.  Quite a feast day celebration, if you ask me.   

December 7-8th
Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Thanks to Uncle L's generous invitation, we joined all the Johnson siblings and grandkids in Blue Ridge, GA for Johnson Family Christmas!  E-Bear and G-Bear went ice skating for the first time and loved it.  It was the highlight of the weekend, according to both Bears, followed closely behind by "the Robin Hood movie" (G-rated Disney version, I assure you) that they got to watch while the parents enjoyed a Christmas-quality dinner together on Saturday night.  The kids slept in the bunk room and did endless crafts and projects thanks to Aunt K and Aunt H.  We rode the Blue Ridge Mountain Railroad, singing Christmas carols and ringing jingle bells all the way.  And thanks to Aunt A and Uncle B, we all donned pink and light blue to find out the gender of their soon-to-be-first-born babe via a surprise, color coded baby cake!  We can't wait to meet our new *niece* this spring!  As Aunt K said, 'I have never been to a gender-revealing party before, but man, was that fun.'  I agree.  

December 9th

Second Sunday of Advent

After a wonderful weekend of family time, cabin relaxation and seventy-degree mountain weather, we returned home today to a snow storm!  Boy, were we glad that I bought those shovels last week!  The kids couldn't wait to put on their new snow weather gear, complete with new snowpants, snow boots and long-sleeved, waterproof mittens ordered by T.  After being horribly underprepared for our Thanksgiving snow, we were ready today.  We armed ourselves with our shovels and headed outside into a winter wonderland, nine snowy inches deep.  Buddy Bear could barely walk until T shoveled him a path.   He tickled me by pointing to the ground, yelling "no! no!", so proud that he could identify the new white stuff all around us.  The kids couldn't stop eating fistfuls of the fluffy white snow.  We barely shoveled our walkway in time to head to church, soaking wet and exhausted but so happy.    

So, as I attach a second paper flame to our paper Advent wreaths, I am thanking God for our first week of Advent and two fabulous weekends with dear family and friends.  This week we're preparing for a birthday (E-Bear!), a baptism (Buddy Bear!) and a Christmas visit from Nana (hooray!).   In keeping with my previous Advent resolution, the blog will be quiet this week, but you can believe we'll be trying to make the most of the extra time in quiet preparation for the Christ-child.

Happy Advent!