Maybe the trick is to get up at 5:00 a.m.
That's what time I got up today and now I find myself with a few extra quiet minutes alone so I can blog.
If that's actually the trick to blogging then you can forget it! I won't be able to do it! LOL!!
I have a huge issue sleeping soundly when I know I have to get up at a certain time. I just get super worried that I am going to sleep in and sleep through my alarm, which really is so illogical. There are 3 alarms that go off every morning in my house and then I have my phone set to go off at a 7:19 in case we all push snooze or off and sleep in. I have to deal with this issue, because really there is actually very little possibility of sleeping in for me!
So I decided I am going to try to share my advent celebrations on my blog. Eeek!
This should give me something to blog about every day for the month of December and should hold me accountable to be a fun mom and it should be good!
I am a little nervous about it to tell the truth...I do anticipate there may be days where I am posting two days in one, but I am truly hoping to post daily!
So today I am going to tell you a little about how we started to observe advent as a family!
Four score and seven years ago....okay, not really, but probably about 7 or 8 years ago, when Ballerina was about 7 and Tapper was about 3 and the little Princess was almost here, I had a really profound time at Christmas being pregnant. That pregnancy was really a time where I just felt like I understood something new about the birth of Jesus. I had already been a Christian for a few years, so our Christmas celebration had already become focussed on Christ, but I felt something kindred with Mary while being so pregnant at Christmas (Princess was born in January). I found myself that year not able to travel home to the praries from the foothills because I was just too pregnant, and then felt like I could imagine the daunting task Mary and Joeseph undertook to get that young woman to Bethlehem to be counted and pay their taxes. I grieved for her as I imagined the way people would have talked about them. I myself having a pregnancy while not married, I felt like I could relate to the shame - only hers was truly a righteous life, but no one would have believed it. They would have been ostracized in many ways. Then I thought about the things they would have said about Jesus. Oh my...how my heart broke as I imagined the self righteous, pious, busybodies who would have had no grace or mercy for a child born out of wedlock. Ugh! My heart truly broke.
I found myself hoping that they would have stayed in Bethlehem for a while (as some believe they did) finding for themselves a new life. And being grateful to God that when they fled to Egypt, there too they would have been able to start anew....and so much like we were, able to live our lives together - struggling through the first years of marriage, HAVING to figure out how to live with each other, because there was no family around to complain or gripe to...but having to figure out how to be a family ourselves. Although our first years of living in the foothills were hard for me, NOW, on the other side of them...I am grateful for them. I remember feeling like Mary and Joeseph would have had that too. An opportunity to start their family on their own terms, without the gossip and intrusion that would have come from being "at home".
That year Christmas meant so much more to me. Now, I know that we don't know exactly when Jesus was born...and I know that lots of scholars believe he would have been born in the springtime, as usually that was the time that the shepherds spent time in the fields with their sheep, when there were baby sheep in the flock...and I know that they didn't have snow or tinsel or the rest, but I still feel like it is good to have a time where the world recognizes the birth of Christ. Even if that is not the focus of their celebrations, even if it is Santa or presents or what-have-you, it is still a time of year where we, as Christians can celebrate right along, only keep the real thing the real thing...so, that being said, rather than forget Christmas (which if that is your personal conviction, that is okay), we choose to celebrate.
Someone asked me recently if we do Christmas...to which I responded, "Yes! We are big on celebration and small on presents". Which is only kind of true! We are big on celebration, big on presents, just small on spending money! And this is one of the ways we do it...
So, advent! We began observing advent about that same time, maybe even that same year and we started by reading a book called
Bartholomew's Passage
which was an awesome book that takes place in the time of Jesus, and is broken into one section every night starting on the 4th Sunday before Christmas and almost every night the chapter ends in a cliffhanger. The book is designed to be read aloud and it is good for both girls and boys. Very exciting, very full of adventure and danger and serioulsy was an amazing time for us as a family to really focus on preparing for Christmas. Each chapter is followed by a devotional thought, Scripture and a prayer starter as well. Very cool!
So
this was the start, there are also two other books in the series...
So the next two years we read those as well.
Now, we still read one of these books each year, and even though we have heard them each twice already, going on the third reading, no one cares...we love them just the same as the first year. But then last year I heard of something else that I love.
I am all about building the anticipation. I mean, when I think of how the first century people were LONGING and anticipating for their Messiah, I want to recreate that longing in my kids!
So when I heard this idea (and I don't know where from, so I can't give credit) I jumped on it! The person said to really increase anticipation for Christmas and the fun and excitement of it, without increasing cost and unneccessary clutter...use what you have. So you take all the Christmas movies, CDs, craft books, favorite Christmas baking recipes, everything and wrap them up individually. Then each day of advent your kids get to open one present! If it is a CD, you put it in and listen to it...Boney M anyone? If it is a storybook, you sit down and read it. If it is a Christmas movie you watch it. If it is a craft book, you make something. And it makes it fun and exciting, but doesn't require any purchases. Just some planning.
Last year when I heard of it, I didn't have time to get it all arranged the way I wanted, so we only could really participate well for a few days, but this year I am hoping for a full on 23 days of advent fun!
So, I hope this will be fun, and do-able, I will try my best to capture and blog each day with it, just a short post...and we'll see how it goes!
See you tomorrow!
