Advent

The waiting in anticipation begins.

The scent of pine wafts through the house.  We do have a real tree standing tall in our living room without adornment, but the smell does not come from the tree.  My much loved wax burners push that scent through the house.

The manger sits empty awaiting the little family chosen by God to fulfill His will in a way much different than our human minds would have thought.  Mary and Joseph are starting their journey through our home today.

We are behind on decorating.  Frankly, I have not been in the mood for it, and the house is such a mess, so I work to clear the mess and prepare for Christmas.

Four days into December and thus far we have been faithful to family devotional time with The Greatest Gift.  Our house is not ready, but hopefully, our hearts are being prepared one family devotion at a time.

We have a long way to go to be ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior.  We are supposed to always be ready for His return, but there is much to be done before that as well.

Taking it one day at a time.

Saturday, 12/7/2013 update

A snow day allowed for some extra sleep and some more decorating.  The mantle is always the easiest to decorate.  The gold fabric and red candle holders are there all year round.  The poinsettia is new this year.  I don't usually decorate with poinsettias, but Zach's class sold them as a fund raiser, so I did my mom duty and bought a couple.  I think he has to participate in every fund raiser in order to get any of the funds for his senior trip.  He really needs the money as he is also going on a mission trip this year.  However, I don't think I will do the poinsettia fund raiser for Savannah when she is a senior, and I guess that means she won't benefit from any of the fund raisers whether she participates or not.  We are short three poinsettias at this point that were supposed to be delivered this weekend to out of town friends and family.  I will either be out the money as I reimburse them or have the hassle of trying to deliver them on a weekend that is not convenient.  One of the poinsettias fell over and broke beyond repair. My friend Kathy was super gracious about that.  If only one of mine had broken instead of hers.  Supposedly that will be replaced and the others will come in, but for the little amount of money Zach made for his trip, I think this is one fund raiser that is not worth it.  However, the poinsettias are definitely gorgeous.  That is a small one sitting on my mantle.  The three we are awaiting are large ones.  If that is a small, I am anxious to see the large ones.

We forgot the bead garland on the tree.  Usually, my OCD would win, and I would remove every ornament to add the beads.  I cannot guarantee that will not still happen, but I am pretty happy with the tree and content to keep this Christmas pretty low key.  Our topper won't light up, so we will replace her.  I never liked the idea of an angel topper as I prefer a star. Andy won for the first 20 years of our marriage, so I think it is my turn, right?