It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The Christmas season is in full swing here!
We got our tree last weekend, and decorated it and the house.
It looks very "Christmas-y"
It feels very "Christmas-y".
I absolutely love it.
The boys all helped with the decorating.
Isaac was helping his little brothers get their ornaments "higher up" on the tree. I got a little misty at that.
Daniel was dancing all around, putting ornaments wherever his little heart desired. The sparkle in his eyes twinkled brighter than any five-and-dime string of Christmas lights I have ever seen!
Here are some before and after pictures of our tree this year.
Joe, being the awesome man that he is, made his own switch box for the tree lights, so we don't have to keep crawling under all the scratch-ity branches to keep plugging it in. What can I say? He's amazing *sigh*. He had a little help from Small Fry.
Last Sunday, Advent began.
We had some very special guests who helped us commence this year's advent season. Thanks for being a part of our evening, Emily, Donovan and Christian!!
My family has decided to "keep" Advent this year.
What is Advent, you may ask?
Advent is the season leading up to Christmas, beginning four Sundays before Christmas Day. There is a very good, short article written by Noel Piper (John Piper's wife) about the Advent season here.
Basically, it is a time set aside to remind us of the time when God's people were awaiting the promise of his son, who would be born a babe, who would grow to a man, who would save them from their sins. It prepares our hearts for the real message of Christmas. It reminds us that it is not about gifts (although they are nice, and there is nothing wrong with them), but about The Gift. And it fills us with hope and anticipation for the next appearing of Jesus.
We have chosen to celebrate Advent in our family because it sets aside time to reflect on, to think about and to learn the true reason we, as Christians, should celebrate this season with hope and peace and joy and anticipation. I want to remember. To teach my sons. To wait with hope.
Taking time to observe Advent just kinda helps us to focus. There are a lot of distractions out there, especially at this time of the year.
Our Advent devotions consist of lighting the Advent candles, reading scriptures that highlight the theme for the week, talking about what it means for us individually and as Christians, and praying together. We do it in place of our regular devotional time.
It's pretty simple, really.
But there is profound meaning in it.
Monday night, our school participated in our town's annual Christmas parade with a float titled "The Knight Before Christmas." It featured our grade school boys, equipped with swords and shields, and donned in their new Knights sweatshirts, kneeling before a manger scene (one of our teacher thought that one up!). We also had Rachel, dressed in full armor and astride the noble steed Avalon, riding in front of the float.
Daniel participated too, throwing candy to all the kids in the crowd and yelling "Merry Chismiss!!"This weekend, we will celebrate Joe's 40th Birthday! Oh, my! This week, most of my time and efforts are going into planning and (hopefully) pulling off a killer party to honor him and celebrate his life! (Actually, my mom has done most of the planning and pulling this one off, but I am at her disposal and will think of nothing else until we are on the other side of it. Thanks, mom, for faithfully working on Joe's birthday bash, for the hours, the preparation and endless lists and . . . and . . . and.) But really, nothing I do will ever be able to express enough how much I love him, how much I am grateful for him, or how crazy-off-the-charts my heart still races when he walks into the room!
So, here's the scoop: we have several holiday parties and outings yet to attend, I have several dozen cookies that need to be baked, and I am nowhere near done with Christmas shopping.
I have so much to do.
I have so much fun doing all of it.
Really, I do.
But, this year, remembering everyday the why we are to celebrate this season with such extravagant joy and such lavish generosity, will make the how I do it so much more worthwhile.