Liturgical Journal: Advent Week 1

As I work my way through the liturgical calendar this year, I plan to chronicle as much as I can about how I’m celebrating each season. 

Saturday (pre-Advent)

A tradition around our house every Saturday (when we’re home) is movie night with popcorn and smoothies for dinner. Thanks to our local library and Netflix, we’ve worked our way through some Disney classics (Robin Hood, Beauty and the Beast), live-action family movies (Air Bud, Honey I Shrunk the Kids) and even book adaptations, after reading the book of course 🙂 (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Matilda).

While scrolling Netflix on this particular Saturday night, the day before Advent truly began, we came across the 2017 animated movie The Star. It looked cute, and I remembered hearing friends enjoy it when it came out last year right before Christmas.

Overall, it was a fun movie. The girls for sure enjoyed it. The writers seemed to follow the nativity storyline pretty closely, obviously adding some things to make it into a full-length film. It was a fun way to usher in the season of Advent.

Sunday

I’ve been familiar with the season of Advent for many years, as I’m part of the worship planning team for our church and we actually follow most of the liturgical seasons (Advent, Lent, Ordinary Time). For as long as I can remember, we’ve used an Advent wreath during our service, lighting the appropriate candle(s) and reciting some responsive reading or listening to a Scripture passage related to the theme of the week.

This year was no exception, and our morning service was threaded with themes of hope and expectation. We sang songs like “O Come O Come Emmanuel”, “Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus”, “Here I am to Worship” (light of the world, you stepped down into darkness…), and “Great Are You Lord” (you give hope, you restore…). Our pastor gave a brief children’s message and lit the first candle in the wreath.

In the afternoon I took my big girls to get our Christmas tree (read that crazy story here). And after supper and putting my youngest to bed for the night, I pulled out a brand-new, simple Advent wreath to end our night.

The girls have been asking when and where we can set up our Willow Tree nativity. I’ve been hesitant this year, because of my desire to separate Advent and Christmas. After looking through the rest of my Willow Tree collection, I thought it might be fun to feature a different part of the Christmas story each week. So here we have Mary being visited by Gabriel (interestingly, the name of the WT angel is actually the “Angel of Hope”).

I asked my girls if they remembered from the children’s message that morning what the “name” of the first candle in the Advent wreath was called. (“HOPE!!”) And I asked if they had any guesses about who these people were in my wreath. Then I pulled up Day 1 from Tsh Oxenreider’s Simple Advent Guide (no longer available, but she’s now published it as a different hardcover book!), we lit the first candle, read a few verses from Psalm 146, and asked “Where did you see God today?” I asked one of them to pray for us, and we blew out the candle and headed to bed.

Monday

I was hoping to read my own, separate Advent devotional this year, but I haven’t found one I’m really interested in. And if I’m honest, lately I’ve been using my mornings to write, or to plan for my day (or yes, scroll social media), and I haven’t come across anything compelling enough to change that routine… (do you have any recommendations for me? even to look into for next year?)

Tuesday

My big girls had their annual elementary school Christmas concert at night. My husband and I sat up in the balcony, since Penny was up and down and up and down and crying and complaining and talking… The kids did a great job as always (from the parts I was able to watch 🙂 ).

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

We’ve continued the Simple Advent Guide and lighting the candle of hope each night right before bed (well, except Tuesday, since we didn’t get home until 9:30). I’ve asked both big girls to read some of the Scripture, and I’ve asked each of them to pray. Sometimes we’d sing a song. It’s been a fun little routine, I hope they’re actually getting something out of it.

I’m crossing my fingers that our Christmas tree is actually drinking water and will survive until January. The plan is to put lights up on it on Sunday.

Final HOPE thoughts

I realized this year the length of Advent is the second-shortest it could ever be, because of when Christmas Day falls on the calendar. The “fourth week” of Advent will only be two days long (December 23-24). It makes the anticipation seem stronger already. Not only is our family counting down to Christmas, but we also have a big extended-family vacation coming very soon. So not only are we preparing for Christmas, we’re also preparing for that trip.

One of the best things I think I’ve done to plan ahead for Advent was to finish 95% of my Christmas shopping before December 1. I bought the last of my immediate-family gifts on Cyber Monday, and finished wrapping everything earlier this week. Now all of the gifts are piled in a corner in my bedroom, waiting patiently for Christmas Eve.

Because I love to give gifts to people, and because I know everything my family is receiving, it’s SO HARD for me to contain the surprises. I want to let my family enjoy their gifts RIGHT NOW. But the waiting is as good for me as it is for them.

The waiting… anticipation… expectation… HOPE that the day will eventually arrive, will make that day so much sweeter. Don’t rush it girl…