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Today is the first Sunday in Advent. We don’t have an Advent wreath around here, but I am (still!) making some ornaments for our family’s Jesse Tree. The Jesse Tree uses ornaments (often made by children) as a way to help a family talk about how the Old Testament stories point us to the coming of Jesus. I’m excited to start a new family tradition and one that helps center our anticipation of Christmas on Jesus rather than on the gifts. I also like focusing on Advent as one of the season’s of the Church’s calendar as it brings us out of ourselves and the near-sightedness of our own lives and helps us focus on the Church universal.

For our Jesse Tree, I’ve bought a lot of little wooden shapes and decals at Michael’s and am making homemade ornaments from them; it’s been fun. I just need to make sure that 1) I get that day’s ornament done in time, and 2) I remember to do the devotional every day (we’re using this book), especially when we’re still waiting on getting our tree! (We pick it up next weekend.)

For those interested in celebrating the Advent season, and you have little ones, this activity might be a good one:

First Sunday of Advent: Away in a Manger, Isaiah 9:2-6 ( The people in darkness have seen a great light..), family activity is for everyone to have a “can” of darkness, and a source of light eg torch, candle, lamp. All the household lights get turned off and everyone trys to walk in darkness for a bit. Stop when someone is uncomfortable or after a bit. One by one, each person turns on their light. Reread Isaiah 9, verses 2 and 6, emphasising the words darkness, light and the names of Jesus. Talk about the problem of darkness, and what help the “can” was, and what help the light was, and how much darkness it takes to overcome light, and how much light it takes to overcome darkness….Talk about light as a symbol of Jesus and darkness as a metaphor of living without him.

Happy Advent season. O Come thou long-expected Jesus.

Today I’m thankful for:
* A house that smells delicious due to turkey roasting
* Lots of good food to enjoy with our neighbors later today
* A husband who brought me an Eggnog Latte this morning
* Anticipating a visit from good friends tomorrow
* The rain

So what is everyone making for Thanksgiving? Are you doing the whole meal by yourself or bringing dishes to a party? Do you make the same recipe each year for each item or mix it up? And, what is your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal?

We’re having Thanksgiving dinner with 2 neighbor families and should have quite a spread. We’ll have 2 smaller turkeys and a ham, various sides and at least 2 pies. Which is way more food than needed, but does ensure we all have leftovers! We’re bringing a turkey (roasted; the other family is bringing theirs fried), green beans and stuffing. I’m not sure if we’re also bringing a pumpkin pie. I bought ingredients as well to make these amazing brussel sprouts and I know most people don’t like them but if you cook them with lots of butter and cream you really can’t go wrong! I might just steam the green beans and add fresh minced garlic and lemon juice or I might use this recipe from Pioneer Woman. For the stuffing, I’m planning to follow a variation of PW’s stuffing recipe, but also add macadamia nuts like Bryce’s mom makes and he loves.

What are you making this year?

Today I’m thankful for:
* Getting to see Coldplay in concert last night
* A relatively good night’s sleep, especially considering how late we got home
* Lots of rain
* The Advent season
* A happy toddler

Oops, I forgot yesterday…

Today I’m thankful for:
* Getting to see old friends yesterday
* Getting to see good friends tonight (sans children!)
* Parents willing to babysit
* A sleeping toddler
* A moment alone

Today I’m thankful for:
* Getting to sit through the whole of the Sunday service at church
* Getting to watch my husband preach
* Tea for a getting-sore throat
* A boy that signs for “help” and doesn’t try to do everything on his own
* 24 movie tonight

Today I’m thankful for:
* Getting to listen to and think about “how your faith is a community project” at a Paul Tripp conference this weekend
* Free childcare at said conference
* Good friends
* That God takes us where we don’t want to go and this is love not abandonment
* Caffeine

Today I’m thankful for:
* A long, uninterrupted nap that makes me feel myself again
* The time and means to make presents
* baby signs
* ‘cooler’ weather
* getting to see Bryce throughout the day

Being tight on money means that most of our presents this holiday season are homemade. Today I repurposed an old tablecloth into a half apron! I had seen a few cute vintage style ones at Anthropologie, so I did my best to make my tablecloth into a cute apron. I didn’t quite have enough blue fabric of the portion of the tablecloth that I cut, but did have some yellow fabric lying around that were made into the waist strap and pocket. It was really fun! I even added a few pleats, a pocket and scalloped the bottom edge. Perhaps I’ll make more.