The second light of Advent...

The second light of Advent is the light of plants--
Plants that reach up to the sun, and in breezes dance.




Today we added to our Advent calendar. After church the we went out side with scissors to gather greenery for our spiral. Holly, fir, pine, and red tip leaves now adorn our spiral as well as sage, lavender, santolina and Fidget's favorite, wood sorrel.

We also continued our St. Nicholas celebration. The girls woke this morning to find the boot they had left out the night before filled with goodies. Mom printed out some coloring pages and a matching game for the girls. This evening I shared a few more stories of St. Nick's life, and we sang "Jolly Old St. Nicholas". This was the first time we celebrated St. Nicholas' day. I have enjoyed it.

Oh the craziness...

...of the season. It's beginning. I really shouldn't be taking the time to sit and blog, but I find the process to be therapeutic. I checked and Pandora has a folk Christmas music channel. Repeatedly hearing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" is also therapeutic.

Today we began our St. Nick's celebration. My intentions were to make snow dough and have that for the girls to play with while I read them stories of the life of St. Nick. But the snow dough didn't work out. It never formed a ball, and was super sticky, no matter how much flour I added. So I chucked the snow dough and pulled out the modeling beeswax. Fidget made an angel and Bookie made a candle while I read some stories I found at this site. Both were added to our tree as decoration.

The most therapeutic moment of the evening came during the lighting of our Advent spiral. We cut the lights off, lit the candle and the Christmas tree. Bookie chose the booklet of the day from the Advent calendar my mom gave us and read to us. Fidget moved Mary and Joseph forward. On the radio played "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". And for a moment I found peace. Deep peace. Powerful peace. It washed over me, and then it passed.

I am thankful for moments like that.

Today I leave you with our Advent prayer. We sing this every day after we light our spiral, and we sing it every week with our church family.

Oh, hear us, we pray, God, for dark is the night.
And still we are waiting in hope for the light.
Oh, teach us to trust you, preparing the way,
Until with rejoicing we enter the day.

I got our Advent calendar ready just in time for the first Sunday of Advent. Here are some pics. Sorry for the poor photo quality. The only camera I have is on my cellphone.








I used the top to a wooden cheese box. I painted the spiral with some metallic blue acrylic paint I got for the papier mache prayer bowls we made last year. Along the spiral are upturned acorn caps, one for each day leading up to Christmas. Inspired by the poem shared here, this week we added gems, stones and shells. Each week we will add a new element to the spiral. Each day we add a new wool "flame" to the next acorn cap. Not pictured are Mary and Joseph, borrowed from the girls' wooden toys. They will proceed around the spiral, making their way towards the candle in the middle.

There ya go!

Advent

Advent is almost here! I love advent. We didn't celebrate growing up, and from the moment I heard that there was such a celebration I wanted to know more. When it was just Dan and I, we didn't do much. Some candles and the little devotional booklet we got at the Christian bookstore. When the kids came along, I wanted something visual to go along with the scripture. Two years ago, All Year Round in hand, I set up a beautiful scene. Each day the girls would move Mary and Joseph closer to the stable along a path of stars. Each day a star would be added to the sky. It was special,beautiful and reverent. Last year, I was pregnant and overwhelmed with my new roles as director of the church's Christmas play AND coordinator of the children's Christmas party. We got a cardboard Advent calender from the local drug store. It was cute and fun, but just not the same.

This year, I've been inspired. Seasons of Joy has released a new e-book, Advent: Lighting a Path to Christmas. It's described as "a four week Advent journey through the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, ending with a celebration of humanity and family." I love the idea of incorporating all of creation. Doesn't the Word tell us that "all creation waits" (Romans 8:19)?

I'm not sure what our Advent calendar will look like this year. I've got some ideas running around in my head, some of them strange (a compostable Advent calendar?!) Whatever I choose, I'm hoping it will be beautiful and reverent and memorable. If you'd like to be inspired check out the Seasons of Joy blog and enter for a chance to win your Advent e-book.