Achy Joints and Anticipation

As I'm sure many of you experienced, we had our first real snow of the season today. I'd say two inches have stuck, and it's still falling lightly even at this late hour. The irony in all this: Today was the last day Stephen could legally ride his scooter (we take off the insurance in the winter), and so he had planned on using it to attend the Orthodox service and then meet up with us at our home church. Imagine his chagrin when he looked out the window at all the white! According to him, it was bound to happen, since he has been so eagerly anticipating the snow, yet was hoping it would hold off until December. I told him he couldn't have his cake and eat it, too.

We still enjoyed the snow, even without the last scooter ride of the year.

In other news, I woke up with a raging case of pink eye this morning, and I'm pretty certain Baylor and Charlotte are right behind me. I prayed the most desperate, open prayer to God today that I think I have ever prayed, and it was all about healing. We need it, folks. We can't keep getting sick. We are all worn down, physically and emotionally, and I feel satan nipping at my heels every time I lose my temper with the boys' whining and nonstop coughing. If you think of us, please pray that we would find fast, lasting healing. I would especially love healing during this season of Advent. Who wants to anticipate Christmas with runny eyes and a stuffy nose?

Despite said eyes and noses, Stephen and I are working hard to make our family's anticipation of Christmas a deliberate, worshipful, and meaningful experience. We talked at length a while back at how, far too often, we focus solely on Christmas Day itself, and by that I mean Christmas We Get to Unwrap Lots of Presents Hurrah for Commercialism Doing Its Part! Day. Yuck. As Christians we are always called to a higher purpose, and Christmas is no different--if anything, it is the best time of year to set ourselves and our families apart.

No, we haven't sworn off gift-giving, although believe me, our kids will have to learn early on to be very happy with very little. Instead, we are stretching out the celebration of Christmas into a deliberate, month-long holiday... called Advent! (nothing new here, folks) Advent is about the anticipation of Christ's coming. How then can we give our children a way to anticipate and anxiously crave that arrival of God's greatest gift? Starting tomorrow, we will read a special prayer and do a special activity as a family each day leading up to Christmas. Stephen did quite a bit of research to come up with prayers that follow the liturgy, as well as old Christmas carols that we can read and talk about together. I have organized different fun activities for each day, such as crafts, playing in the snow, snuggling together with hot chocolate and snacks, making popcorn chains, singing carols at Gamma and Gampa's house, making cards for people we love, piling in the car to see Christmas lights, and having fun at Christmas parties.

Sure, Jack and Baylor might not understand any of it. At all. Most likely it will go over their heads, and they will whine and fidget when they have to sit still to read prayers with us. Plus they'll probably not even appreciate my efforts at fun, creative activities and instead they will fight and get craft supplies all over the house. And let's not even start on Charlotte--she'll just want to eat all the time, although she is often mesmerized by the pretty lights on the tree. But who cares if my kids don't get it? We're their parents, and we are making these decisions and these steps for them. Remember how we had them baptized as infants, even though they didn't know what in the world was going on? Same concept there: We understood the gravity of that decision, and we made it for them, deliberately thrusting them into the open arms of the family of God. So as members of the family of God, they will do their little baby best to anticipate and celebrate the coming of Christmas, even if they can't remember a blessed thing from this particular Christmas this particular year.

(Dismounting soapbox...)

Now, all of this could be done quite simply, without the aid of a fancy conduit. But this is me we're talking about! I'm all about presentation. Ever since last Christmas season I have had my eye on this particular Advent calendar. Oh, no, no simple homemade felt creation or bought-at-the-store cardboard calendar for me. I wanted something permanent, beautiful, and shiny. And I got it! I think I have talked about it 97 times in the past two weeks, dropping the most unsubtle, Cadillac-sized hints ever, and imagine my delight and surprise (really!) on Thanksgiving morning when I wandered into the dining room to find it sitting on the table, pleased to be mirroring back my hedgehog hair and my ecstatic face. Its accompanying note identified it as being an early Christmas present from my three babies, who evidently just couldn't wait to shower me with gifts.

I was the happiest hedgehog you have ever seen.

So over the weekend Stephen and I worked on our respective Advent activity responsibilities, and the calendar is now stuffed to the brim with prayers, readings, and fun to-dos. We hope that by doing this we can instill more than the normal excitement over gifts. We have always hoped to give our children experiences instead of things, and in doing simple fun activities together each in anticipation of Christmas, we hope to give them a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves and their desires.

We anxiously await and anticipate Christ's coming, and in the meantime, we'll eat popcorn and sing some carols to pass the time.