Advent 2015

It's the Tuesday after the 2nd Sunday of Advent! Which means, it's about time I wrote about how awesome Advent is going this year! I'm permentally one week behind in life right now. I'm fine with it at this point. Anyway... Advent 2015!

But first, a little walk down memory lane...

2014: We did Advent, a little bit sloppily, but we tried. We nailed Christmas Eve, but by Christmas Day we kind of all fell apart again. Read Advent thoughts from last year  here

2013: We didn't do Advent, and also Christmas sucked because we had a construction site/house and the flu. You can read that fun journey here 

2012: First time celebrating Advent! I was ON THE BALL! Oh, man it was planned out. However, I think we may have missed one or two Sundays... We did still have a toddler living in our house. Everything from 2012 is kind of a blur...

            Advent Parts 1 -4 here, here, here and here

So here we are, four years in. And, I've figured out a couple of things. 

1. Children older than 4 are much, much easier to sit down and have a spiritual conversation with. Or really, do anything with.

2. Advent+ Ice cream = Success! Everyone is too busy sucking down their sundaes to realize you are trying to TEACH them something! By the time their bowls are empty, Ha! You've done it! MAGIC.

So this year we have twice so far, with the help of ice cream, successfully taught our children a little bit of the mythology and history of Christmas, and tried to reinforce the magic that we are hoping will happen... not the magic of getting everything you want from your Christmas list, but the magic of the world stopping, for just one night, to reflect on the birth of a child in a manger. And perhaps, perhaps, marveling at the humanity and miracle that is in each of us.